What Is The Loss Of Identity In James Mcbride's The Color Of Water

The book “The Color of Water” written by James Mcbride, tells a story of a lifelong learning experience through the findings of racial identity, tolerance, and pride. James finds himself with nothing other than the curiosity of being a young black kid with a quirky, stern, and determined white mother named Ruth. “Her oddness, her complete nonawareness of what the world thought of her, a nonchalance in the face of what I perceived to be imminent danger from blacks and whites who disliked her for being a white person in a black world” (Mcbride, 8). James and Ruth lived in very drastic and influential times. Their emotions rose to the exterior of their consciousness to help mold an identity. Gebser’s conscience structure plays a roll on their identities especially in regards to myth, magic and perspective consciousness. Magic is a transition from an indistinguishable identity to something more basic. In Ruth’s and James’ case, it was them breaking from …show more content…
I believe her move to New York fully required her to compromise with her Jewish and white-skinned identity, displaying the chameleon experience effect. The chameleon experience is when an individual complies with one of their racial norms in order to blend into their surrounding racial group. In doing so, the individual does not appear to be different from those around them. Similar to how a chameleon will change their skin pattern and color to match their current surroundings (Miville, 6). Though Ruth was not black, she felt the burdens of being an outcast and knew the hardships her black children would and did face. She embraced this identity change and sought herself as being a strong-willed mother of black children in an outcast society, never really ever giving herself a racial title. She was fearless and had high standards for all of her children. They attended higher populated white schools to get the best and fair education she knew they