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By: James McBride

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She quotes 'There were too many rules to follow, too many forbiddens and 'you ... She fell in love and married a black man, he showed her affection and emotions ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: By: James McBride


1
By James McBride
The Color of Water
  • A Black Mans Tribute to His White Mother

2
Interesting Facts
  • James was working as a tenor sax sideman with
    jazz legend Jimmy Scott when he penned this book,
    which was written in hotel rooms, vans, airports
    and on New York City buses. He had been a
    journalist for eight years when at age 30, he
    quit his job as a Washington Post feature writer
    and moved to New York to pursue music. He slept
    on mattresses, played in blues bands, taught ESL
    to Polish refugees, and played weddings on Long
    Island. While struggling through self-described
    "unsettled angst" he came to realize that the key
    to his search lay behind the story of the most
    interesting person he'd ever known in his life --
    and the person he loved the most -- his own
    mother. He set about interviewing Ruth McBride
    Jordan and searching out her mysterious past, a
    process that took 14 years and resulted in a book
    that is regarded as a landmark work and an
    American classic. Says McBride of The Color of
    Water "If I had known so many people were going
    to read that book, I would've written a better
    book." The Color of Water is also available in
    12 other language editions.

3
Chapters 1Dead 2 The Bicycle 3 Kosher 4 Black
Power 5 The Old Testament 6 The New Testament 7
Sam 8 Brothers and Sisters 9Shul 10School 11 Boys
12Daddy 13New York 14 Chicken Mar 15Graduation
16Driving 17Lost in Harlem 18Lost in Delaware 19
The Promise 20 Old Man Shilskv 21A Bird Who Flies
22 A Jew Discovered 23 Dennis 24 New Brown 25
Finding Ruthie
  • Dead
  • I'm dead.
  • You want to talk about my family and here I been
    dead to them for fifty years. Leave me alone.
    Don't bother me. They want no parts of me and me
    I don't want no parts of them. Hurry up and get
    this interview over with. I want to watch Dallas.
    See, my family, if you had a been part of them,
    you wouldn't have time for this foolishness, your
    roots, so to speak. You'd be better off watching
    the Three Stooges than to interview them, like to
    go interview my father, forget it. He'd have a
    heart attack if he saw you, He's dead now anyway,
    or if not he's 150 years old.

4
Main Characters
  • Father Fishel Shilsky an Orthodox rabbi escaped
    from the Russian army and snuck over the Polish
    border and married Hudis in an arranged
    marriage. He was hard as a rock. Cold hearted and
    very strict and fierce less.
  • Mother Hudis Shilsky was the exact opposite of
    him, gentle and meek. She is from Poland and she
    had Polio. It paralyzed her left side. She would
    struggle taking care of family. She was nearly
    blind in her left eye and walked with a severe
    limp
  • Ruchel Dwajra Zylska was Ruths Polish name
    daughter of Hudis and Fishel. they came to
    America and grew up in the Southern United
    States, ran away to and changed it to Rachel
    Deborah Shilsky. After running away to Harlem and
    falling in love with a black man she married and
    is known to be called. Ruth McBride Jordan., and
    is now founded in a Baptist church, The Jewish
    religion and Ruths cold blooded family led Ruth
    to run away. She quotes There were too many
    rules to follow, too many forbiddens and "you
    can'ts" and "you mustn'ts," but does anybody say
    they love you?
  • Ruths 12 Children who all grew up in all-black
    projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn.

5
Plot Summary
  • Ruth McBride Jordan struggles with her first
    pregnancy and lead her to run away and became
    disowned by her family. She fell in love and
    married a black man, he showed her affection and
    emotions that she never felt while living with
    her own family. He opened possibilities for her
    to come to know a different religion where
    acceptance was a virtue Baptism. Ruth knew she
    didnt fit in with her cold rigid family but she
    did love her mother. Mammeth was the only one
    she really looked up too. She wanted to be the
    same idol for her children but just stronger and
    headstrong. She raises her 12 children in Harlem,
    facing criticism from both races. All the
    children faced hard times while in school, shared
    clothes, had tough times with splitting meals.
    Ruth she was a hard worker and the strong love
    for her children lead her to set paths to sent
    them all through college. She would not accept no
    failure, she became as well ironhanded type where
    she would make all her children study study
    study. She felt it was for a good cause, even
    though she was mean like hard sturdy type of
    woman she expressed her love in a different way.
    All her children now, see the true warrior their
    mother is and are all successful careers.

6
Overall Critique
  • I enjoyed the book, It grabbed my attention
    from the beginning. Its overall a sad story how
    a young woman loses her family her family is so
    close-minded but couldnt even come to accept
    their own family as a whole. Ruth just easily
    became open-minded so fast and knew she didnt
    belong and yearned for more. Her life just
    changes, when She came to know what love is from
    a man who is the total opposite from her. It is
    admiring how she accepts a colored man and
    accepts, and comes to term to know how people are
    and what to accept in life. It is just touching,
    how James McBride, feels the same way in his
    younger years yearning for soul searching and
    comes to terms with himself and praises his
    mother for all her hard work and resistance.
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