The Color Of Water Essay

To begin with, the dual narratives of the text here present a unique mixture of chronology and perspective.Moreover, noteworthy is also Mc Bride’s usage of the rhetorical strategy of alternate chapters and parallelism.

To begin with, the dual narratives of the text here present a unique mixture of chronology and perspective.Moreover, noteworthy is also Mc Bride’s usage of the rhetorical strategy of alternate chapters and parallelism.

The novel, The Color of Water follows the author and narrator James Mc Bride, and his mother Ruth’s life.

It explores their childhood—when they were both embarrassed by their mothers—through the part of their lives where they began to accept themselves for who they are.

During this time period Jewish people were looked down upon and ostracized; on top of that, Ruth also had a handicapped mother that attracted more attention, causing more mortification for her.

Consequently, these parallelisms here act as a kind of foreshadowing device as well as help Mc Bride acknowledge more about his mother’s life and learn the fact that even though they come from divergent cultures, they both encountered situations where they had to overcome similar obstacles.

The Color of Water has a theme that is similar to many.

It has the perspective that all races are equal Philosopher George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Whether individuals are silly or wise, studying incidents from their history provides them valuable lessons.Throughout the novel, Mc Bride searches for identity and a sense of belonging that derives from his multiracial family.By using two different narrations, Mc Bride gradually establishes his identity and by integrating both narratives at the end, Mc Bride also shows that although both narrators at the beginning had different upbringings, in the end they came together, and understood each other’s perspective.For example, Mc Bride places the chapters “Shul” and “School” next to each other.Here, both Ruth and James are struggling and are trying to fit in but are rejected due to racial and social conflicts.This can be seen when Mc Bride remarkably places related chapters together to juxtapose the life of his mother and that of himself.This allows one to observe the parallelism in the two lives; and perhaps more importantly, understand the significance Ruth’s life has had on Mc Bride.It reminded him of the field slaves he saw in books. James Mc Bride, the author of The Color of Water never played it for her.The burden of his past fell upon him and he felt the pain his grandmother Hudis must have endured in Suffolk.There is no better example of this than the Mc Bride/Jordan family in James Mc Bride'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 interested in completely different things, yet their family had a love that was beyond compare.