The question ‘Who am I’ and ‘Where do I come from’ plagues everyone’s mind from time to time. In James McBride’s novel The Color of Water’, readers get to join McBride's journey to self-discovery and finding his own answer to those questions. McBride as the son of an African-American father and a white former jewish mother born in 1957 had deal with many problem growing up such the rise of black power in the 1960’s and white and black folk who were simply disgusted by McBride’s background as a biracial boy. Ruth’s cold and closed attitude regarding her past,roots, and heritage did not help. The Color of Water is James Mcbride’s story to self enlightenment and understanding. James from the start knew that he did not fit in the mold the rest
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Naturally James wanted to know more but what he did not understand was that Ruth had multiple reasons to close the door to her past: “We had no family life. The store was our life. We worked in there from morning till night, except for school and Tateh had us timed for that...homework was done between customers” (McBride 41). The norms of Ruth’s life did not include happiness and laughter like the norms of James’s life did. Ruth did not to talk about her life before James’s father ,Dennis, because just thinking about that life brought her great pain. When Ruth meet Dennis it was like a whole new door opened for Ruth, he showed her a life she never laid eyes on till Dennis: “I’d kiss Dennis in the morning when he left for work, and when he came home in the evening I’d stand by the window and watch him turn the corner and walk down the center mall...The kids would run down to meet him and wrap around his legs like puppies… I loved that man. I never missed home or my family after I got married. My soul was full” (McBride 240). Dennis led Ruth to her American Dream, her happily ever after. Nothing could go wrong in Ruth’s life because she had Dennis. Ruth tellings her story is the answers James seeked his whole life. Ruth finally told him about her past and how she became the proud mother of twelve
Naturally James wanted to know more but what he did not understand was that Ruth had multiple reasons to close the door to her past: “We had no family life. The store was our life. We worked in there from morning till night, except for school and Tateh had us timed for that...homework was done between customers” (McBride 41). The norms of Ruth’s life did not include happiness and laughter like the norms of James’s life did. Ruth did not to talk about her life before James’s father ,Dennis, because just thinking about that life brought her great pain. When Ruth meet Dennis it was like a whole new door opened for Ruth, he showed her a life she never laid eyes on till Dennis: “I’d kiss Dennis in the morning when he left for work, and when he came home in the evening I’d stand by the window and watch him turn the corner and walk down the center mall...The kids would run down to meet him and wrap around his legs like puppies… I loved that man. I never missed home or my family after I got married. My soul was full” (McBride 240). Dennis led Ruth to her American Dream, her happily ever after. Nothing could go wrong in Ruth’s life because she had Dennis. Ruth tellings her story is the answers James seeked his whole life. Ruth finally told him about her past and how she became the proud mother of twelve