In life, we face and overcome many challenges and struggles that help to define and build who we are. According to Orrison Swett Mardon, "Most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through them." Ruth, Jade, and Marie do exactly that. Ruth McBride-Jordan in The Color of Water is a Jewish immigrant in America who desperately struggles to search for her identity in a time of great prejudices. Breaking free from her abusive father and religious intolerance, Ruth undergoes trials and changes that create the extraordinary life she leads. Love Medicine's Marie-Lazarre-Kashpaw experience's a difficult life full of responsibilities, but despite the destruction around her, she manages to keep her head up high. In The Fifth Chinese Daughter, Jade Snow Wong is a young woman trapped between her traditional Chinese teachings and the American beliefs. Jade's longing for independence and knowledge pushes her to defy the odds against her. These spectacular women from different backgrounds, despite their many differences, share similar struggles. Ruth McBride-Jordan, Jade Snow Wong and Marie Lazarre-Kashpaw each come to a crossroad of difficult decisions as they face troubles with their family, and lose a loved one, in order to grow into the strong, independent women they are.
Each of the characters comes across a point of darkness in their lives, forcing them to make a difficult decision. After leaving her home in the South, Ruth tries to make it on her own by working in Harlem and meets Rocky, who, unbeknownst to her, is a pimp. When she finally does realize this, she gets lost in the night life in an attempt to forget her past, and almost ruins her future. Ruth even says, "...a prostitute, which I almost did become." (McBride, Pg.172) She gets past this when she fesses up to Dennis McBride, and realizes her error when she sees how disappointed he is. Ruth then returns home to Bubeh, her grandmother living in New York, and gets a decent job at a diner. Jade Snow comes across a similar, yet different problem when she is unable to acquire the scholarship for a university. She starts to consider not going to college at all if she can't go to a university until her friend, Joe, says to her, "
makes you so sure that junior college won't teach you anything.
First, Roberta finds her purpose of life with the help of Roxanne. In the beginning, Roberta did not want to cover a tall azalea bush planted by her husband’s mother because she “[runs] out of energy for unwinnable battles against nature” (4). When Roxanne encounters a life issue, she asks for Roberta’s advice of whether she should leave the town. Roberta did not know how to answer and points out that she has been staying in town “chasing [her] tail doing nothing” (21) in the past. Her response reveals her sentiment of feeling trapped in the town and not pursuing her goals or contributing to anything. Roxanne, however, disagrees as she explains that Roberta’s job is not “like the jobs [other] people have … but it’s something to [her] “(39). Roxanne in fact appreciates Roberta’s effort of raising her in the past years and the azalea plant symbolizes Roberta’s work. Although the plant will still
While she might think that her plans are working, they only lead her down a path of destruction. She lands in a boarding house, when child services find her, she goes to jail, becomes pregnant by a man who she believed was rich. Also she becomes sentenced to 15 years in prison, over a street fight with a former friend she double crossed. In the end, she is still serving time and was freed by the warden to go to her mother’s funeral. To only discover that her two sisters were adopted by the man she once loved, her sister is with the man who impregnated her, and the younger sister has become just like her. She wants to warn her sister, but she realizes if she is just like her there is no use in giving her advice. She just decides that her sister must figure it out by
She takes a job in a white lady named Ms. Cullinan’s home as a maid, who calls her Mary for her own convenience and lack of respect. This enrages Maya and in order to get away she smashes the finest china to get her fired. At her eighth-grade graduation, a white man comes to speak in front of everyone and he states that black students can only become athletes or servants which makes Maya furious. Later, when Maya develops a nasty toothache, Momma decides to take her to a white dentist who refuses to work on her. Momma claims that she lent him money during the Great Depression so he owes her a favor but he says he’d rather stick his hands in a dogs’ mouth. Lastly, one day while Bailey is walking home he sees a dead black man rotting in a river and a white man present at the scene says he will put both the dead man and Bailey in his truck. This terrifies Bailey and Momma wants to get them out of Staples so she sends them to Vivian’s again in San Francisco. There they live with Vivian and her husband Daddy Clidell who is a nice man to Maya, and has a lot of money from his businesses. One summer Maya goes to live with her father Big Bailey and his girlfriend Dolores, who are poor and live in a trailer. Maya and Dolores do not get along and constantly fight, so Maya runs away and lives with a group of homeless teens
Grace know that she doesn't belong to this family. “A yellow face in a white family where freckles were the norm” (Ye 129). She feels lots of love from her adoptive family. When she being to know about “person of color”, the only thing that she know is she doesn’t fit it and she not belong to this family. Grace decides go to China to finds out her birth mother and who she is. “China is where I came from. This is what I am” (Ye 137). She accepts that the fact she is adopted, but she is questioning who she is and the way she starts imagining going to China and also determined to get answer about her background. Finally, Grace found out her birth mother. “I have met one hero in my life. Her name is Chun-mei, and she is my mother” (Ye 295). She meets her birth mother, discovers by many new things from her birth mother and she finds out the truth about her past also she understand her birth mother why she gave up her.
Ultimately separating the sisters by race. Birdie’s mother Sandy becomes focused on her mysterious project in the basement, and her father begins dating another woman. Birdie begins to see the world as separately white and black. For this reason, Sandy, Biride’s mother and her family are the mold for whites and conversely, her father Deck Lee and his family is her mold for blacks. To Birdie, Sandy and the road are intertwined, it is because of her mother that she is separated from her sister and father. Leaving her with only a box of “negrobilia” to remember them by. This in turn causes Birdie to romanticize her father and her African ancestry, but as the years pass, her father, sister and ethnicity begin to fade from her memory and the box that her father gave her before they split up becomes more random and scattered as the years go on. In order to appease her mother and remain ‘safe’ from the feds, Birdie becomes Jesse, a fictitious identity she takes in New Hampshire. And despite the fact that she always remembered her father and sister fondly, she felt neglected by them and therefore she began to neglect part of her race. While in New Hampshire Birdie begins to fully emerge into her Jewish girl Jesse persona, and is preoccupied with impressing a popular white girl at school, and even goes as far as to mock a biracial girl who she attends school with. Yet, even under
Indicating between the middle and end as the story progresses towards its climax conflict regarding Ruth’s marital situation and the very subtle discrimination prevalent in the American South. As shown in part to Ruth’s unfortunate predicament within the story her husband being a continuous danger to her as he is on more than one occasion proves such. While at one point as Ruth is gathering her belongings and packing to leave with Idgie due to how her husband had been treating her he arrives confronting her angrily grabbing and pulling her as Idgie is left futily struggling to help to no avail. Eventually although able to leave after this confrontation in part to the aid of their friend Big George later on after the birth of Ruth’s child shortly following was the unpleasant reappearance of her husband Frank. As this time although he did so only to frighten her this reappearance of his however led harm to fall upon Big George at the hands of fellow unsavory discriminatory individuals. The next and last time as he is seen in the story is when on his own he sets out to take Ruth’s child only to be killed at the hands of Big George’s mother in self
Before the murder, Ruth had concerns about her son Frank’s relationship with the killer’s estranged wife and fears the worst for her ...
She connects stories of different multicultural relationships between a man and a woman, and then continues on to compare the women and men from each story to each other. Social class is also mentioned in the story of Ruth and Boaz. Boaz was very wealthy and Ruth was found in his fields taking food for Naomi and herself. Traditionally, an individual that is born into a family of wealthiness is able to take care of their loved one- which is what Boaz does for Ruth after
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.
Using the murder of Dee Ann’s mother as a means to intertwine the lives of the characters together, Steve Yarbrough examines the nature of relationships in “The Rest of Her Life.” The relationships in the story take a turn after Dee Ann’s mother is killed, with characters seeking to act more on their own, creating distance between many relationships throughout the story. Independent lifestyles prevent emotional bonds that hold relationships together from forming, thus preventing the characters from maintaining healthy relationships. The dysfunctional relationship present between Dee Ann and Chuckie in “The Rest of Her Life” is the result of the characters ' desire for self-gratification.
Nora’s and her hypocrisy, confusion about religion, and his Gran unbalancing the family lead to Jackie’s trap. Nora’s hypocrisy is shown throughout the story. Nora would show her devilish tormenting side to just Jackie because she could use her advantage in knowledge of everything especially religion and confession to torment Jackie. When nobody is around watching her and Jackie walk to the chapel for confession “Nora suddenly changed her tone, she became the raging malicious devil she really was”(178). Then when Nora is in public she shows her angelic side “she walked up the aisle to the side altar looking like a saint”(178). Even though everyone else sees the angelic part of Nora, Jackie “remember[s] the devilish malice with which she had
On March 13, 1933, Joan Ruth Bader was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Celia Amster and Nathan Bader (Salokar & Volcansek, 1996). Ruth had an older sister, Marilyn, but she passed away at the age of six from meningitis; Ruth was one year old at the time. Cecilia, Ruth’s mother, stayed home and took care of Ruth while she grew up. Cecilia made sure that Ruth worked diligently in school and taught her the value of hard work. Cecilia was diagnosed with cancer while Ruth was in high school and the day before her daughter’s graduation she passed away (Salokar & Volcansek, 1996). One of the greatest influences on Ruth’s life was her mother and the values she instilled in her from a young age. Two of the greatest lessons that Ruth learned from her mother was to be independent and to be a lady, and by that she meant not to respond in anger but to remain calm in si...
Ruth has an intriguing personality. She is very loving towards her family. She will do all in her power to improve the lifestyle of her family. When it appears that the deal for the house in Clybourne Park will fall through, she promises to dedicate all of her time to make the investment work. “Lena-I’ll work… I’ll work 20 hours a day in all the kitchens in Chicago…I’ll strap my baby on my back if I have to and scrub all the floors and wash all the sheets in America if I have to-but we have to MOVE!” she pleads to her mother-in-law (Hansberry140). Her plan is unrealistic and idealistic, but the well being of her family is more important to her than anything. Ruth is also witty and sarcastic at times. She cracks jokes to lighten the mood of her family when they’re worried. “Well that’s the way the cracker crumbles. Joke. (121)” When Beneatha and Mama are stressing over the neighborhood they are moving into, Ruth makes a witty joke to improve the mood. Ruth supervises the daily routine and well being of her family. She makes sure that everyone does what they are supposed to and stays on track. ...
Ruth, whose dreams are the same as Mama’s, get deferred when the family are forced into there small apartment and there lack of money. Since she has no money she can not help her family as much as she would like to.
Jeannette Walls was born into a poor family who often had to live homeless and without food. The environment in which she grew up in is what gave her the characteristics she possesses. One trait that describes Jeannette is that she is very adventurous. Since she was constantly exposed to new surroundings, she became curious of them. While she was homeless in the desert, she would play a game with her father called Monster Hunting. She grew to not be afraid of anything, since she could fight off these so called “monsters.” Also, Jeannette is very decisive. To get away from Welch, a poor town in West Virginia, she made sure that she would get enough money to move to New York. She did this by getting a job to save up money for a bus ticket and for college. Along with this, Jeannette is very ambitious. She worked very hard to get accepted into college by working for the school newspaper, since she wanted to become a journalist. On the other hand, Melba Patillo was born into a middle class family who lived in Lit...