... was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi. Her parents got rid of that name when they moved to America. They changed her name to Rachel Deborah Shilsky opposite. There are many symbols McBride uses in "The Color of Water" to indicate his mother, his life, and the life around him in Brooklyn and Queens. One of the first symbols in the book is the "ancient bicycle" his mother rides after his stepfather ... dies. His mother never learned to drive, and the bicycle, and her constant riding of it up and down the streets symbolizes her distance from her neighbors and ... admit she is white. McBride always...

• Word Count: 364
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... did not have good friends to help him form racial opinions and thus a self-identity. This may have contributed to his perception that race is ignorable. The Color of Water is a memoir based on James McBride's life and the hardships he encountered due to his bi-racial family. Overall, McBride experienced immense confusion about his own identity and he found himself unable to know who ... he truly was. A text to text connection to The Color of Water is Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements. "That's how it was. You had a problem, I had a problem. I could even help youI can't see us. I can see...

• Word Count: 1711
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

The Color of Water by James McBride is a book about the author finding his own identity through discovering who is mother, Ruth really is. Throughout his whole life he has felt that there is something ... and did not see herself as different from her children. I came from a small town where everyone was white. I have not had a great deal of experience with people of different races. It was a shame the way that Ruth's father treated her mother. "I am a citizen and you"re not. I can send you back to Europe anytime I want."(McBride,10 ... an abortion, so her father would not find out. That is a...

• Word Count: 693
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... what someone pleases by someone? Being molested or being forced to work by someone does not mean to give up to this enemy, but to surpass the enemy and make your dreams become true. In The Color of Water written by James McBride, main characters Ruth and James went through harsh points, but were able throw away their past and start over to make dreams ... come true. Ruth McBride was known as Rachel Deborah Shilsky until she got rid of it because of her past. She had a racist father named Fishel Shilsky, a lovely mother ... to steal cars and purses from citizens in New York. " My friend...

• Word Count: 619
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... a strong devotion, lust for another, or love of God, instead, it is the inborn feeling that all people hold for their family members. The degree of love is the one and only measuring point of the strength of a family. There is no better example of this than the McBride/Jordan family in James McBride's memoir The Color of Water. Every one of the children had a different skin color, half of them had a different father, and they were all ... he knew her past she was no longer white or black. She was the color of water; she was his mother. Through the stories of these two families in The Co...

• Word Count: 998
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... often agreed with his peers" racist remarks against whites, while at the same time feeling ashamed, yet guilty, of his mother's race. I really can't blame him for doing this, because I would probably do the same if I wasn't sure of my family's race or background. I was inspired by Ruth's statement that "God is the color of water." It showed her son that God loves all races equally and when ... it really comes down to it, one's actual work determines their worth in this world. She passed on the emphasis on work and education to her ... children, each of whom ended up successful in their...

• Word Count: 704
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The Color of Water tells the remarkable story of Ruth McBride Jordan, the two good men she married, and the 12 good children she raised. Ruth, born Rachel Shilsky, a Polish Jew, immigrated to America soon after birth; as an adult she moved to New York City, leaving her family and faith behind in Virginia. Jordan met and married a black man, making her isolation even more profound. The two stories told ... very special to her because he helped her out when she was going through some bad times. He treated her like no one had ever treated her before. Even though the conflict of blacks and whites...

• Word Count: 1012
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... you know that she will always be there for you but you better stay in line. This is a healthy balance of love and discipline and I will use this parenting strategy when I grow up. In the book The Color of Water, James's mother Ruth uses a blend of authoritarian and uninvolved parenting styles to raise her children. Unlike my mother, Ruth didn't have a healthy balance between love and discipline ... towards her children. Ruth made what seemed to be a bold stand in her life when she chose to marry. As a white Jewish woman, it was expected of her to marry a white ... is, and that's exactl...

• Word Count: 941
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... some assistance or intercession when you needed it. In the autobiography The Color of Water, by Mr. James McBride, Mr. McBride tells of how his life was changed for the better at a time in his life when he was headed down the wrong path through the assistance of several people whom he encountered. I also experienced a ... time when other people influenced me, and helped me become the person I am ... She also helped me prepare myself for her death. Even though I didn't understand, the shock of her not coming back was lessened by the memory of the day in the park. I will never forget that...

• Word Count: 1071
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... 's death, Michael was raised an only child in a loving household by "two grandmothers, three aunts, and a mother, all of whom were very strong women- (Chavkin 217). Perhaps these women's strength inspired the novel A Yellow Raft in Blue Water. Though the family was destitute, hard work allowed him to go to college after obtaining a scholarship from Georgetown University. "For me, going to ... work on all literary products that either produced. His many awards in Native American Studies helped him to become strong in his ethnicity and later write the work A Yellow Raft in Blue Water in 198...

• Word Count: 1903
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

Chapter 20 In this chapter it was 1982 James has grown up and is out of collage. He badgered his mother into telling him about his family roots. When she did he left and set out to find out more about his mothers side of the family. James landed in Suffolk, Virginia. This was the place where his mother grew up. When he went into a McDonalds he found out that this place use to be where his mother lived. After hunting around he found a man named Eddie Thompson. Eddie in turn told him all he knew about the Shilsky family. It turned out that his grandfather was a extreme racist. He would cheat on ...

• Word Count: 959
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... a family can be dysfunctional in several ways there are some characteristics that occur more often than others. Drugs, alcoholism, death, abandonment, starvation and anxiety are some examples of dysfunctional characteristics that can be found in both Angela's Ashes and The Color of Water. Just because a family is dysfunctional does not mean it's members do not love each other. Dysfunction usually results from a large amount ... those feelings. they can't value their needs realistically because their needs have always come second to the needs of the family, which were to stop anything fro...

• Word Count: 1273
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... wooden table I could see where my Grandma was standing; slaving over the stove, with a big pot of spaghetti. I could hear the sizzling of the hamburger meat cooking and the water boiling over the tall pot. The sauce was so yummy, with bell peppers, onions, garlic, tomatoes, hamburger meat, salt pepper, noodles. The sauce was a bright red color, the same color as a ripe cherry tomato and the smell was intoxicating. It is making my mouth ... water just thinking about it. After I looked at the stove and over, to the right was the humungous ... ...

• Word Count: 1108
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... tradition, red is the color of happiness, dragon pattern represents the male, and phoenix represents the female. So the red-colored Cheongsam with the phoenix embroidery is normally the garment for the bride. In mid-20th century, new China was going through large-scale reconstruction. Simplicity is the fashion code of the day. The bride preferred clean and ordinary wear at the wedding, and the glamorous wedding garments became unpopular. In the 60s, the whole society worshiped ... today, this customs still exists in some places. Splashing a Basin of Water In the past, as soon as the sed...

• Word Count: 9974
• Approx Pages: 40
• Grade Level: High School

... , thickly wooded canyons, rugged wilderness, and blistered soil and everything looks ocher color painted, there, exists the warmth of rich cultured people. Where the water descends from the clustered mountain range and flows through their harvest fields, there can be seen the industrious people of my home, welcoming and convivial. As I travel through the long forgotten road towards my ancestral home, there lies an elegant scenery like ... those words. For without warning, I began to feel out of place, unconnected, with people that resembled the kind hearted menonitas back home; clear co...

• Word Count: 1282
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... mother and father worked in my grandfather's business. I spent lots of time in my early years at the family business while my parents worked. I would sit and talk with my grandfather or go help my father color water closets on the job blueprints. Helping my father color toilets was my first real and direct experience in the plumbing industry. Nor-Well Company Inc. was started by my ... grandfather, the late Sandy Greenwell, and my great uncle, Earl Norris. In 1950 they purchased a small plumbing company ... . My grandfather would tell me stories of how they started the company with only...

• Word Count: 636
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... dreams. Also in this scene, the juxtaposition of the bright and almost artificial colors of the Bernham's home with the Fitts' very bland and regimented house became apparent to the viewer. The bright red front door of the Bernham's seems to serve as an entrance into the peculiarity that lurks inside. The bright light above the door seems to put a spotlight on the color red which can represent life or the color of blood. It also can serve ... that they are creating for their young and impressionable daughter. I first moved into the house that I currently live in, in August of 1999. When...

• Word Count: 1375
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... , and slowing promoting and sometimes supporting other poets that were part of the Imagist movement. Her favorite images were of water, bathing, and an fountains; flowers and gardens; nature and natural phenomena. She often addresses them to her "beloved" Ada Russell. We see the reflection of the imagist movement in her poem "The Taxi". This free verse poem could be interpreted as an small ... the in the poem "In the Garden" that you see the lesbianism hidden under her writing. You see this in the last stanza of the poem. And I wished for night and you. I wanted to see you in the swimming...

• Word Count: 2046
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... stove. Every two weeks, my parents and I would polish it to keep its shine. Around its edges, the chrome sparkled and the white porcelain circle in the center of the door displayed the stove's manufacture: "Hartland." At the left end stood a reservoir filled with water from the cistern. This reservoir held warm water for simple meals that my grandmother cooked. Beside this beautiful stove, sat an old cherry wood square ... food. Grandma's food was seasoned to perfection. My grandmother's food was a little taste of heaven. A kitchen filled with marble tiled floors and jars of honey that ...

• Word Count: 618
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

When my dad and I arrived at Home Depot, with no idea of what kind of flooring we wanted for our kitchen, we thought about my mother's favorite colors, which happen to be her sorority colors. My dad and I saw a nice color that would fit my mother's needs. My mother wanted a new kitchen floor; the stick tile is what it is called. She wanted a new look ... for the kitchen. My father, of course, did not want to pay any professional to do the job for us; he is cheap and likes to handle things himself ... sometime). Because this was my first time doing this type of work with my father, he had to ...

• Word Count: 616
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... spine. I make my way to the frost covered back door, illuminated near the green and red Christmas lights. As I open the door and step into a house full of cheek pinches and hugs, an array of Christmas odor engulfs me, and makes my mouth water. As I yell "HELLO" I hear voices laughing, talking, and asking who's at the door? In the next second "Millions" of relatives are giving me there greetings ... and gladly inviting us into the house. As my family and I are ... is here!" A uncontrollable excitement overcomes my cousins as then they fly into the room containing the heavenly Christmas...

• Word Count: 553
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

THE COLOR OF WATER "I felt like a Tinkertoy kid building my own self out of one of those toy building sets; for as she laid her life before me, I reassembled the tableau of her words like a picture puzzle, and as I did, so my own life was rebuilt." Reviewing your life is not simply about assembling the details of your past. It's about finding meaning there. It can help you see clearly what ... me this secret, to possibly reveal more to me about this character. I was assigned a project in class that required us to research our medical history of our immediate family. The purpose was to show us...

• Word Count: 1211
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... solid tile floor. I tried waking up her up but she would not budge. So I ran from the room to the kitchen for my mom's help. My mom went running over to Rosa's bathroom. She had splashed Rosa with a cup of water to see if she would wake up. Rosa then woke up confused and afraid for her life. My mom asked, "Honey are ... balloons for everyone to let go after Rosa's casket was lowered down into the hole. Purple was her favorite color; we released the balloons into the sky once Rosa was buried. Every birthday and anniversary the whole family wears purple in honor of Rosa. Since I am now th...

• Word Count: 1330
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... my family to be born in the United States, I could somewhat relate to the traditions, the stories of the family interactions, and the "growing pains" of maturing. The little I know about Mexican culture, I learned from my maternal grandmother. She taught me "dichos", herbal cures, and holiday customs. She reminded me of the "viejitas" in Santos" book. I was constantly being reminded to drink a glass of sugar water for "susto" and being prayed over ... things than I did. I simply existed to exist. I did not feel any type of discrimination even when I went to a private school which was at...

• Word Count: 1328
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... Italian-Americans are devout Catholics. In the Catholic religion, much emphasis is placed on the saints and on the Virgin Mary. The Catholic religion is very strict in its beliefs as well as in its structure of the mass, or church service. Unlike many other religions, Catholics receive communion every week, bless themselves with holy water and before and after they pray, ... kneel while praying, have confession, and sometimes pray to the Virgin Mary or a particular saint. The Italian immigrants came to influence American society, especially in when it came to religion. The Catholic fait...

• Word Count: 1690
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School