Compare And Contrast Ruth And Tateh

“Education is more important than color! Who cares if your white or black, we’re all the same in God’s eyes!” There’s a definitely adversity between the lifestyles of Ruth and Tateh as adults and as children. Ruth’s parenting styles, treatment to her children, and how she handles money and love are entirely different from the ways Tateh would treat his own.
Tateh doesn’t care about how his children are taken care of or how their emotions feel. He cares about the money he reels in from his business, and if anything stands in his way he finds a way to get them out of his way. Tateh wasn’t just mean to the family either. He mistreated the black customers that came into his store, and would make them pay almost double the price he’d make whites …show more content…
Tateh would do what he had to to get them through school, but after school was out he’d make them work like chickens with their heads cut off. The only time they’d have to do their homework was between customers which wasn’t much time because of the amount of business the store received. He cared about bringing in the bucks any way he could, but Ruth on the other hand focused entirely on education and religion. Her goal was to raise phenomenal children, and I’d say overall she achieved her goal. After coming home from school Tateh would force Ruth to chop up meat, pick the ice in the ice box, or serve goods to all the customers. These jobs would be tiring for an adult, imagine Ruth having to do these chores day after day in rain, sun, or snow. Ruth, on the other hand, would take care of her children the best she could, and she would give everything she had to them so they could graduate college. When they were in college and needed money or support she was always giving them all of her money, which was usually about $10, and if they faced a tragic crisis, she was there for support. The way she ran her house was much different than the way Tateh ran it. Simply the older you were the more privileges and power you had over the other siblings. She ran the King & Queen system. The oldest sibling ruled the roost whenever mother wasn’t home whether it be at work or the store. It didn’t matter if you were male or female you told the younger children what to do and when to do it. In Tateh’s household he was always in charge and using his children as hard-working slaves like the African-American