James McBride, Essay Example

The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride represents lots of images: the whole McBride family, the Shilsky family, Ruth’s relatives. Most of them are a significant part of Ruth’s life; we estimate them primarily for their deeds. In this biographical narration, the images of narrators, Ruth McBride-Jordan and her son James McBride, stand out. Nevertheless, characteristics of Ruth McBride and her mother Hudis Shilsky images force themselves for comparative analysis. The traits they represent or symbolize intensify the message each heroine employs in the text.

The genre of memoir implies the realistic interpretation of characters. Moreover, the prototypes for the named characters were real people. The story provides different methods of characteristics. Readers perceive Ruth McBride through her own narration and her son’s story. The character of Ruth’s mother reveals in the memories of Ruth.

Ruth McBride is represented like an unusually strong woman. She experienced the hard work as a child, early abortion, her father’s abuse, disappointment in love, death of her two husbands, poverty. Despite the poverty, she managed to educate her twelve children.  Despite the rupture, with her family she bore no grudge against her family who refused to help her in hard times. She did not blame Aunt Betsy for slamming the door in her face. Moreover, Ruth tried to justify her actions that she was “trying hard to be American… not knowing what to keep and what to leave behind” (McBride 135).

The image of Hudis Shilsky provides a perfect background for contrasting with the image of daughter. Ruth’s gentle and meek mother or Mameh was the opposite of her “hard as rock” father or Tateh. The description of Mameh which Ruth gave was full of tenderness she felt: “She was pretty about the face. Dark hair, high cheekbones…She was a quiet woman, my sweet Mameh” (McBride 3). Ruth told about Mameh’s poor health; she had polio which left paralyzed her left side; she walked with a limp. Probably, because of her disease she was not a pushy woman, but quiet and watchful. Despite this, Fishel’s   attitude to her was extremely rude. When Ruth lived in New York, he had an affair with a woman living nearby. He repeatedly forced her to sign the divorce papers; finally, he had his own way.  Mameh was weak physically and morally to resist Tateh’s awful treatment of her.  Therefore, the image of Mameh symbolizes hopelessness, despair, submissiveness to misfortunes. Ruth, on the contrary, moves on like “a bird who flies” discarding hard moments. Thus, the episode when her mother plays with birds and sings to them is symbolic.

When James McBride began to think over racial identity in his multicultural family, he gradually arrived at the idea of his mother’s difference and eccentricity. It did not concern only her skin color or secrets about her adolescent years. She was not afraid to do something non-conformist. It is proven by the events of her life. She was a white mother of twelve black children, who lived in Harlem. Ruth called herself “light-skinned”, denying the problem of racial identity. Ruth ignored the problems of race and treated her black neighbors the same way she treated other people. Ruth chose her husbands and ignored their race; she was ready to stand up for her beloved. She preferred to live with the man she had chosen. This caused the rupture of relations with family. Her father as a harsh racist banned to marry an African American. Mameh’s did not make decisions regarding her family life. Her marriage was arranged; she never loved her husband. Symbolically, the difference of Ruth McBride is in also her habit of riding the bicycle. When she lost her husband, she often rode the bicycle around the neighborhood. This habit embarrassed James.

Though the two women had intimate relationships, the difference between these heroines is noticeable. Mameh’s physical problems associate with her helpless moral condition.  Her daughter was an opposite example of “do it yourself” principle. Ruth did not lose heart and coped with miseries; she built a good family; she tried to educate her children.

Works Cited

McBride, James. The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother. New York: Riverhead Books, 1996. Print.