The Color of Water
Black lives matter. In a world that has seemingly always been filled with racial tension and division, from the post WWII Civil Rights Movements to current day movements such as, Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, and All Lives Matter, one son knew unequivocally, that, regardless of his racial ethnicity, his life mattered, especially to his white mother. From growing up in a time period where the only thing his mother was taught was to avoid people of a different color, Rachel Deborah Shilsky deeply loved them despite what she was taught about their color. In this memoir, The Color of Water, James McBride uses descriptive and narrative modes to tell his mother’s story and how she adores her mixed race family and always
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pushed for them to have the best and be the best, knowing that their lives mattered regardless of what society thought of them. These modes work very effectively, giving a personal account of historical happenings, evoking many emotions, and immersing the reader inside the story, making it a whole new experience. McBride begins his story using both descriptive and narrative modes to set the historical scene. For instance, “I was born an Orthodox Jew on April 1, 1921, April Fool’s Day, in Poland. I don’t remember the name of the town where I was born, but I do remember my Jewish name: Ruchel Dwajra Zylska. My parents got rid of that name when we came to America and changed it to Rachel Deborah Shilsky, and I got rid of that name when I was nineteen and never used it again after I left Virginia for good in 1941. Rachel Shilsky is dead as far as I’m concerned. She had to die in order for me, the rest of me, to live,” (McBride 1). In this first quote, McBride uses narrative mode to tell the story from his mother’s point of view. Writing from his mother’s point of view was an unusual road to take when writing a memoir because usually memoirs are first-hand accounts from the author. This gives the reader a quick insight on how his mother lived and how she felt about her Jewish family, setting it up for the rest of the memoir. Without this mode in the beginning, the reader cannot comprehend the historical references that are talked about throughout the book, so it is crucial that this part was added. Continuing, McBride uses interviews with his mother to give the readers a taste of what being a Jewish person was like back in the early 1900s. For example, “The way we did it, you had different table settings for every meal, different table cloths, different dishes, forks spoons, knives everything. And you couldn’t mix your meals. Like you had your dairy and your meat meals. So you can eat all dairy one meal and all meat the next. No mixing it up,” (McBride 17). McBride uses descriptive mode here to describe what his mother went through when growing up as a Jew. With this kind of insight, the readers can get a better grasp of why his mother did not like being Jewish. The Jewish faith consists of many strict customs and back in his mother’s time, they had limited things they were allowed to do when growing up. McBride’s mother did not feel comfortable in that religion because it did not represent what she believed in, which is ultimately why she switched to Christianity. The descriptive and narrative modes are extremely effective for this memoir by showing the historical happenings that his mother faced growing up and allowing the readers to take a step into history and feel like they are Rachel Shilsky growing up and experiencing the adversities she faced. Furthermore, McBride uses the descriptive and narrative modes to evoke emotions in the reader while they are reading, giving them a sense of what it felt like growing up when Black Power came about and what it was like growing up dark-skinned with a white mother. For instance, “She was leaning on the wall beneath the train trestle, head bowed, one hand squeezing her eyes, as if the tears that flowed out of them could be squeezed into oblivion,” (McBride 190). This part is descriptive mode and it evokes pity and sadness in the readers, making it easy to relate to McBride and the other children because it is always hard for children to see their parents cry. Evoking the emotions of the readers is extremely effective because it gives a reader something to relate to in the novel. With something to relate to, the entire story is brought to life and the reader can feel everything the characters feel. Also, McBride uses stories from his mother to evoke deeper and even more depressing emotions in the readers. His grandmother was handicapped during her days and was treated poorly by his grandfather and everyone around her. His grandmother was a caring woman who was always there for Rachel. For example, “She was in her early forties then, and there was nobody to look out for her. She was handicapped. She was sick. She had no other home. She was not giving him a divorce. Never. I don’t think she had one friend down in Suffolk at that time either, not that I remember. Except for her mother, she had nobody to turn to, because her sisters never cared for her that much. She was just a crippled thing to them, and they rarely wrote to her and never gave her any credit for the good things that she had done,” (McBride 199). McBride uses the narrative mode here to tell the story of how his grandmother was mistreated poorly, which evokes a sense of pity for her. It works very effectively evoking a strong sense of depressing emotions in the reader, which helps in turn make the reader more attached to the characters in the memoir making for a better read. Finally, McBride uses descriptive and narrative mode to immerse the reader inside of the memoir, making it feel more personal, as if they are there.
For example, during a church scene inside the novel McBride states, “He’d begin in a slow drawl, then get warmed up and jerk back and forth over the subject matter like a stutterer gone wild: ‘We…[silence]…know…today …arrhh…um…I said WEEEE…know…THAT [silence] ahhh…JESUS [church: Amen!”]” (McBride 47). McBride uses descriptive mode here making the reader truly feel like they are immersed in the church and are there listening to the Reverend preach. It provides a better understanding of the novel and makes the reader enjoy the book, thereby making it a very effective approach. Continuing, McBride uses a narrative approach to immerse the reader inside the story. For example, “Four of us played the same clarinet, handing it off to one another in the hallway at school like halfbacks on the football field. Same with coats, hats, sneakers, clean socks, and gym uniforms. One wash cloth was used by all. A solitary toothbrush would cover five sets of teeth and gums. We all swore it belonged to us personally. Our furniture consisted of two beautiful rocking chairs that Ma bought from Macy’s because on television she saw her hero President John F. Kennedy use one to rock his kids, a living room couch, and an assortment of chairs, tables, dressers, and beds,” (McBride 68). While telling the story of how they all grew up and functioned, McBride used narrative mode to tell the readers what it was really like inside their home, giving the readers a chance to feel what it was like growing up with a lot of other siblings. This method is very effective making the readers better able to connect to the story and enjoy
it. Overall, McBride’s use of descriptive and narrative modes was very effective in the novel because they allowed for the reader to see a personal historical reference along with evoking emotions of sadness and pity for the characters and making the reader feel like they are right there next to McBride experiencing his life with him. He praises his mother who always stood up for her colored children, despite other people’s rude comments. She was ahead of her time and always pushed for the best for her children. To his mother, all of their lives mattered. To her, they all will be eternally grateful for her constant display of love and support throughout their lives, a level of support and love that, as a child, she was not as fortunate to receive.
In the article, “A Letter My Son,” Ta-Nehisi Coates utilizes both ethical and pathetic appeal to address his audience in a personable manner. The purpose of this article is to enlighten the audience, and in particular his son, on what it looks like, feels like, and means to be encompassed in his black body through a series of personal anecdotes and self-reflection on what it means to be black. In comparison, Coates goes a step further and analyzes how a black body moves and is perceived in a world that is centered on whiteness. This is established in the first half of the text when the author states that,“white America’s progress, or rather the progress of those Americans who believe that they are white, was built on looting and violence,”
She reports that the lives of black people in the disaster were of no cost to the white administration and they delayed the help. She expresses this by writing, “I don’t know what the water wants. It wanted to show you no one would come” (Rankine 94)(11). In addition to this, Rankine addresses the issues of regular ‘Stop and Frisk’ of the black people by the police. She mentions that because of their color, they always remain the prime suspect in the eyes of law agencies.
There are four main modes of discourse: expository, narrative, descriptive, and persuasive. In Mary Rowlandson’s A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, it is apparent in the title that it is a narrative. Like Mrs. Rowlandson’s literature, Olaudah Equiano’s From Africa to America is a narrative. A narrative form of literature is a story, account of events, or experiences, whether it is true or fictitious. In this case their stories were their real experiences and they gave the reader actual facts and information, also making it expository. "The closeness of the place and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us." (73) This is a perfect example showing that Olaudah Equiano’s narrative is also descriptive, giving the reader vivid images in his mind, whereas Rowlandson’s narrative rarely has descriptive content. These works of literature may also be portrayed as persuasive by the quote of, "..Overwhelmed with the thoughts of my condition.." (7) Mary Rowlandson was overwhelmed with her emotions. This quote may persuade the reader ...
The transition of being a black man in a time just after slavery was a hard one. A black man had to prove himself at the same time had to come to terms with the fact that he would never amount to much in a white dominated country. Some young black men did actually make it but it was a long and bitter road. Most young men fell into the same trappings as the narrator’s brother. Times were hard and most young boys growing up in Harlem were swept off their feet by the onslaught of change. For American blacks in the middle of the twentieth century, racism is another of the dark forces of destruction and meaninglessness which must be endured. Beauty, joy, triumph, security, suffering, and sorrow are all creations of community, especially of family and family-like groups. They are temporary havens from the world''s trouble, and they are also the meanings of human life.
McBride, James. The Color of Water: a Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother. New York: Riverhead, 1996. Print.
Everybody on earth faces some type of hardship at some point in their life. Regardless of religious preference most people seek guidance and find comfort through practicing their faith. This is exactly the case for Ruth McBride-Jordan, James McBride’s mother. In the novel The Color of Water, James sends the messages that a strong faith in God can overcome any obstacle and is the foundation for a happy, prosperous life through the story of his mother’s life.
In The Color of Water, author James McBride writes both his autobiography and a tribute to the life of his mother, Ruth McBride. In the memoirs of the author’s mother and of himself, they constantly face discrimination from their race in certain neighborhoods and of their religious beliefs. The trials and tribulations faced by these two characters have taught readers universally that everyone faces difficulties in life, but they can all be surmounted.
The novel, The Color of Water follows the author and narrator James McBride and his mother Ruth’s life, through their childhood—when they were both embarrassed about their mother—through the part of their lives where they began to accept themself for who they are and became proud of it. Moreover, this memoir is quite distinctive as McBride cleverly parallels his story to his mother, Ruth’s story by using dual narration which further helps to contribute to the theme of self-identity. Throughout the novel, McBride searches for identity and a sense of self that derives from his multiracial family and through the use of two different narrations, McBride slowly establishes his identity. Plus by integrating both narratives at the end, McBride also shows that although both narrators at the beginning had different upbringing, in the end they come together and understand each other’s perspective.
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Dubois is a influential work in African American literature and is an American classic. In this book Dubois proposes that "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." His concepts of life behind the veil of race and the resulting "double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others," have become touchstones for thinking about race in America. In addition to these lasting concepts, Souls offers an evaluation of the progress of the races and the possibilities for future progress as the nation entered the twentieth century.
The vivid sensory detail of a text is the perfect way to wrap the reader’s senses around the story. A descriptive narrative allows the audience to connect with the story through its visuals and narration. Therefore,
We remember Mrs. Lithebe's words, "For what else are we born?" and we see that there are some white men who do care. We also learn of James Jarvis's suffering and fear.
throughout the novel allows the audience to gain a better understanding and personal compassion for both the character and the author. 	The novel is written in a short, choppy sentence structure using simple word choice, or diction, in a stream of consciousness to enable the reader to perceive the novel in the rationale of an eleven-year-old girl. One short, simple sentence is followed by another, relating each in an easy flow of thoughts. Gibbons allows this stream of thoughts to again emphasize the childish perception of life’s greatest tragedies. For example, Gibbons uses the simple diction and stream of consciousness as Ellen searches herself for the true person she is.
A successful descriptive narrative displays the necessary information for a reader to explain or develop speculations within the material. Narrating the text of a story, told through one or more narrators, allows the audience to connect with the feelings of the narrator. A description includes imagery for the audience’s recognition. Furthermore, descriptive narratives have a purpose and are there for a reason. “Shooting an Elephant” and “The Lottery” are both descriptive narratives. Descriptive narratives show a clearer understanding of the passage; therefore, the stronger text is “Shooting an Elephant” because of its detail and the plot’s conflict.
A main theme in this novel is the influence of family relationships in the quest for individual identity. Our family or lack thereof, as children, ultimately influences the way we feel as adults, about ourselves and about others. The effects on us mold our personalities and as a result influence our identities. This story shows us the efforts of struggling black families who transmit patterns and problems that have a negative impact on their family relationships. These patterns continue to go unresolved and are eventually inherited by their children who will also accept this way of life as this vicious circle continues.
The poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” symbolically connects the fate of the speaker of the poem and his African American community to the indestructible and powerful force on Earth- the river. The river embodies both power and dominance but also a sense of comfort. The poem is a prime example of the message of hope and perseverance to anyone who has suffered or is currently suffering oppression and inequality in their lives and in society. The speaker in the poem pledges to the reader that with hard-work, determination, and willpower to succeed, he will get where he is going regardless of the obstacles and challenges he may face on his path of reaching his goals in life.