Life In James Mcbride's The Color Of Water

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Many people have things that change over time in their life, people go through experience that get left behind in the past but as they move forward it gets replaced with something else. In The color of water by James McBride, Ruth is a mother of 12 children. Through her journey of her childhood to adulthood she faces many ups and downs and goes through negative and positive experiences. The coming of her age process she loses her family and gains more confidence. In the coming of Ruth's age process she loses her family. Ruth ran away because she felt like she had no life and she didn't belong in suffolk. Her father made it clear that she was not allowed back home. “If you marry a nigger, dont ever come home again. Don't come back.” (McBride,215)…show more content…
Ruth was the only white lady on block.Even Though there was racism going on she just felt as a normal person who didn't care for others thoughts on the block. “... I didn't want my friends seeing my white mother out there riding a bicycle. She was already white, that was bad enough,...”(McBride,8) James was embarrassed about having a white mother but Ruth didn't seem to care about being white/a different color then others. When Ruth rides her bike she ignores all the negativity that people will say about her.To Ruth her being white was nothing but her confidence seemed to concern and make james be embarrassed because he thought she was different than everyone including him.Just because Ruth was white didient mean she couldn't do things like an average person in a all neighbrohood. She didn't care. Growing up Ruth was always bullied for being a jew and now she can careless about people judging her because she is white(jew). Growing up in their neighborhood was nothing to worry about for Ruth. Her and her children were surrounded by Black power and that didn't seem to worry Ruth as a white lady. “I thought to myself, These people will kill mommy. Mommy, on the other hand seemed unconcerned.”(McBride, 27) James seems to be worried about something happening to Ruth, but Ruth doesn't even seem too worried. Ruth doesn't feel threatened that Black power can end her and Black power is surrounded all around her. As a

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