The Color of Water A Black Man`s Tribute to His White Mother ------James McBride.

The Color of Water

A Black Man`s Tribute to His White Mother

------James McBride

The Color of Water

1. Summary2. Main charters 2 people3. Setting4. What interesting about the book??5. What could we learn for the book??

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The Color of Water (Summary 1)

While growing up, James McBride never knew where his mother had come from. When he asked her if she was white , she simply replied that she was “light skinned”, which caused a long-standing confusion about his own racial identity. As an adult, James McBride offers the reader his story by alternating between his mother’s voice and his own.

-----James McBride

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The Color of Water (Summary 2) Ruth McBride Jordan was born in Poland to an

Orthodox Jewish family that immigrated to the United States when she was two. Her name then was Rachel Deborah Shilsky, and her father was a traveling rabbi who abused his family and forced them to settle in the small town of Suffolk, Virginia.

After graduating from high school, Ruth moved to New York City and began working in her aunt’s leather-goods factory. She returned to Suffolk when she learned that her mother was sick, but in the end refused to stay. Upon resuming her life in New York, she fell in love and married a black man named Andrew McBride.

By the time Ruth learned that her mother had died, she had been disowned, considered to be “dead” by her family. She became a Christian to deal with all of the problems and found a new life. She and her husband raised eight children after moving from Harlem to Brooklyn. James McBride was born after his father had died. Ruth remarried a man named Hunter Jordan, and gave Ruth more children.

-----James` mother: Ruth McBride Jordan

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The Color of Water (Summary 3) The importance of school and the church was instilled in

each of the children. Ruth insisted that they go to Jewish public school and perform well, as they were the “token” black students in the classrooms. Later in his life, James McBride wrote his autobiography and his mother’s biography. Which is known as the Color of Water.

-----James McBride and His mother Ruth McBride

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The Color of Water (Main Character: James McBride)

James McBride: The author and narrator of his life growing

up in a Brooklyn hosing project with a Jewish mother. He describes his personal confusion experiences about race and identity, and initial impulse to discover his mother’s history, and his evolution into music and writing, and his ultimate endeavor to tell his mother’s story.

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The Color of Water (Main Character: Ruth McBride)

Ruth McBride:

She was born Rachel Deborah Shilsky in Poland. Ruth, is the twelve children, was born into an orthodox Jewish family and raised in a violent Southern town. At nineteen, She moved into a new life in New York City, Where she fell in love with a black Baptist minister named Andrew McBride. When She married McBride, She was pronounced dead by her Jewish relation. She insisted on absolute privacy, excellent school grades and no outsiders of either race.

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The Color of Water (Setting)

Three settings in the book:1.In 1920s to 1930s (Ruth arrived in the U.S and lived with her parents)2.In 1940s to 1950s (Ruth moved to N.Y and married with her first husband)3.In 1960s to 1970s (The black power happened in Harlem)

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The Color of Water (In 1920s to 1930s ) The author`s mother name Ruth

McBride, she bored in Poland in 1921, and she arrived in U.S at the age of two. In this time of the U.S, the American stock market crashed in October, 1929, the U.S fell into a depression. People were laid off, bank collapsed, and people lost their home. Farmers in America were hurt by the dust bowl, and were forced out of their farms. In 1933s, U.S happened a huge famine, the famine killed nearly 7million people, it occupies about 7% in American people, and Ruth lived with her parents in this time.

------In 1929 American stock market crashed, one man sold his car for 100 dollars

-----In 1933 a huge famine, many people died in the famineBack

The Color of Water (In 1940s to 1950s) In 1940s and 1950s, Ruth

moved to New York, and marry with her first husband Andrew McBride. They lived in Harlem. At that time, the Civil Rights happened in Harlem. Many violence and declarations made conflicts between Ruth and her children, because her children can`t solve the problem for their own identities as biracial members of society. When her children finally confronted these issues, they understand Ruth why she didn`t talk to them in their childhood

-----In 1950s the Civil Rights, a long Civil Rights Movement in the street

-----In the Civil Rights Movement, a black man was beaten by police

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The Color of Water (Black Power Movements) Except Civil right, Black Power

Movement is also an important sign on that time. For Black Power Movement. We need to know “Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee” .The committee developed in the 1960s, many member of SNCC, among them Stokely Carmichael, Martin Luther King. Jr, they are important figures in that movement. Although the concept remained imprecise and contested the people who used the slogan ranged from business people who used it to push black capitalism to revolutionaries who sought an end to capitalism, the idea of black power exerted a significant influence.

-----In 1960s, many Black Power Movements happened in U.S

------Martin Luther King. Jr spoke his speech “I have a dream”Back

The Color of Water (What `s interesting about it)

Four interesting points in the book:1.The Title2.The author Living3.The race Problem in the author`s family4.Two distinct told the author`s family

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The Color of Water (The title)

I think the best place is the title: “The Color of Water”. It can’t be thought that it detail about bi-race in a family when people look at the title first. However the author uses a appropriate material, water instead of this condition. All of us know that water has no color, as the same to author’s family that has no race in their lives.

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The Color of Water (The author Living)

The age that the author lived is a serious racial discrimination society. But his mother was a white and his father was a black. And this book states that how they live in a black neighborhoods with their white mother. It displays a series true image to readers about life in that time.

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The Color of Water (The race Problem in the author`s family)

This book talks about the race in the author’s family, but it is also a very personal story. It expresses a encouraging attitude in life. Although the author ‘s family was so poor, his independent mother always stressed education. Consequently, all twelve eventually went to college and did her proud.

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The Color of Water (Two distinct told the author`s family)

When I first read this book that I was confused about the statement. Then I know that this story of this unique family is told from two distinct, parallel perspectives: that of the author and that of his mother. You must read it clearly.

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The Color of Water (What could we learn for the book)

We learn two things for the book:1. Discrimination couldn’t solve any problems.2. Education is a very important key to everybody.

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The Color of Water (Discrimination)

The book The color of water says that We shouldn’t hate someone just because they are different color We all should have right to do what other people do. Just like Ruth McBride, the author’s mother, she sent all of her 12 black children to white school because she didn’t think that school should divide by color. Her children should go to school like other white children.

Discrimination couldn’t solve any problems, it just creates hate and violence in our heart and our lives. We shouldn’t have racism in our lives and our world, because we are all the same. In the book The color of water, black and white were hating each other, discriminating each other and fighting each other. However, it couldn’t stop anything.Back

The Color of Water (Education)

Education is a very important key to everybody, a key to open the door of success. The way James’s mother Ruth McBride sent her children to school was want them to become success in the further. Eventually she was right about that, all of her kids were successful after they graduated from school. Moreover, education can change people’s life. High education people would be more better than uneducated people, because they learned how to respect each other and don’t discriminate other people from school. Also those educated people would reduce the discrimination percentage in this country.

It doesn’t matter what our skin color is. What matter is our beliefs and how we are raised, and what we achieve in life.Back

Thank you for your reading~~

By:Ryusuke KodamaJina SaintShihao WuQuankun YanChen Yang