People suffer in today’s society, and some suffer more than others – not just the momentary misery many people experience, the unhappiness that quickly comes and goes – but the constant torment some feel day in and

The saying, "Big boys don't cry," which many males hear from early childhood on,

makes it hard for men to express themselves fully. They usually feel threatened expressing themselves since they have often been accustomed to repress their emotions. They are trained to be more instructional, to take charge, to make decisions and to think without being sidetracked by emotions. But, the reader sees past the surface in Toph and Dave’s relationship, and their inherent love is what keeps Dave sane amidst his tough duties as a parent.

racism and alienation of Suffolk. After high school, she leaves her home in North Carolina, in hopes of starting a new life of her own in New York. She felt disconnected and unaccepted by her family and town. Ruth found comfort, religious fulfillment, love and acceptance in New York City's black population, at a time when it took great courage to do so. She was drawn to the black race because they were a close-knit group of people with family-oriented ideals and values, that didn’t feel superior to anyone. “Kindness was a way of life” (McBride 237). She also abandoned her religious faith to “accept Jesus Christ into her life and join the church” (McBride 235) and they were willing to take her in with welcoming arms. As she pushes away from her original identity and starts a new life within black society, her family rejects her and considers her dead. “…we sat Shiva for you…” (McBride 216). In the Jewish religion, when someone passes away, we sit Shiva to acknowledge the fact they have moved on to the next world. Hence, Ruth’s family deserts her completely and she moves on to a better, more accepting environment.

In James McBride’s Color of Water, Ruth McBride Jordan had a childhood without love. Her tyrannical father, a wandering rabbi who became a shopkeeper in Suffolk, North Carolina, sexually molested her and eventually abandoned her ailing mother. She never had a “great family life to turn to” (108). She falls in love with her first boyfriend, Peter, a black young man who lived behind her family’s store. Because of the heated racial segregation of the times, Peter and Ruth had to see one another secretly. In today’s society, interracial dating and marrying are becoming more and more common. People of various communities are turning to an integrated way of life and accepting the idea, while some, stuck in the past, see it as immoral. As Ruth grows up, in the heart of the South, the idea of mixed dating was way beyond the times. The Ku Klux Klan still had close ties within the society, and blacks were NOT worthy of respect or recognition. Ruth’s strong hunger for love takes over her and she rebels against the standards of her family and society and gets pregnant by a black man during her adolescence. But, she loved him and she didn’t care that he was black or that he would have been killed had someone (other than her mother) discovered the truth. “You know, my whole life changed after I fell in love. It was like the sun started shining on me for the first time, and for the first time in my life, I began to smile. I was loved, I was loved, and I didn’t care what anyone thought” (McBride 112). Naturally, the reader questions the nature of Peter and Ruth’s relationship. Did Ruth fall in love and have sex with Peter just to feel loved or did she really have genuine feelings for him as a person? Regardless of her motives, she went against the grain and did what people of her time thought was unthinkable. It all goes back to the idea that people do crazy things for love.

Some topics in this essay:
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