The Story About Ruth McBride, Essay Example

The story about Ruth McBride provides multiple reasons to suppose Ruth McBride an admirable, extraordinary woman. The following statements reveal some of them.

First, Ruth McBride managed to overcome the painful memories of her adolescent years, associated with her father’s indecent behavior, early abortion, disappointment in love, rupture of relations with the family, poverty. These events of her life did not embitter her. When Aunt Betsy refused to help, Ruth tried to find an excuse for her actions. She told that Aunt Betsy was “trying hard to be American… not knowing what to keep and what to leave behind” (McBride 135).

Then, Ruth was never afraid to behave against public opinion. All her life proves that fact. She always found her own path, even if her family condemned her. Tateh, Ruth’s father, was a convinced racist; he “hated black people”; he who overcharged African Americans in his store and made fun of them (McBride 61). Obviously, he would ban Ruth to marry “on the black side” (McBride 99). It did not stop Ruth from getting married to the men she loved.  The first marriage caused the rupture with the Shilskys family. In Harlem, Ruth did not distinguish people according to their race. She treated her black neighbors the same way she treated other people. The eccentricity of Ruth McBride is symbolically represented through her habit of riding the bicycle. The way how “she would ride in slow motion across … street” embarrassed James (McBride 7).

Finally, Ruth McBride did not fold her hands under pressure of circumstances. She made proper conclusions about her past. She managed to educate her twelve children, despite their poor living. “Educate yourself or you’ll be a nobody!” she told James, when he asked her about his skin color (McBride 92). Ruth McBride tried to cultivate in the children proper value system based on trust in God which “kept her going through all her life battles” (McBride 33).

Works Cited

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