Color of Water
The Color of Water by James McBride was a good choice for a campus reading for incoming freshmen. This book was really a great book, it dealt with diversity, religion, racism, acceptance, self-sacrifice, and hardships, the majority of these are issues for freshman. One way it dealt with diversity is how Ruth's parents owned a store on the black side of town. Ruth was young when she first experienced this and confused about why her dad did not accept black people. James's family experienced racism all through their lives. One time James's brother, David, was arrested by a white officer just because he was a black kid with a lot of money. In order to survive they lived their lives struggling for acceptance. Ruth also had to sacrifice about everything she owned and lived for. Throughout all this James McBride was able to capture your attention and take your mind back to the time this book took place. The first reason deals with diversity; how there are so many people in the book, which all come from different backgrounds, races, and religions. The book ties into our college experience how everyone we meet is somewhat different in terms of their living style. It deals with their backgrounds like where they grew up, as in a
Another reason why this is such an excellent book for incoming freshmen is that the book ties in with acceptance because everyone wants to be accepted in every way they can. It was very hard for Ruth and her twelve children to be accepted, just because they were different. Ruth was a white Jewish girl and her husbands and children were African Americans which ultimately led people not giving them respect, except for some people who were willing to take a chance. It is the same way when you get to college, you have no one, until you are accepted by someone or a group of people and everyone wants to be accepted. I was lucky enough to have a friend that I went to high school with so at least when I first came here I had someone to hang out with, talk to, and someone to help me out in tough situations. However, now that I am adventuring out into the world of college I am finding new people and new friends and hopefully I will continue on with this process. After college, we all will have to redo this process, wherever we may end up. Acceptance is a part of nature; to be accepted and to learn from situations will better oneself. Race is also a big factor; so many people can't see past the color of a person and that is terrible. It should not matter what color skin one has, but what is found in ones heart is what truly counts. I would never judge someone by their color and hopefully through James McBride's book, people will learn not to judge people by their color as well. In this family, Ruth, James's mother, is a white Jew who raises twelve children including James. The one thing is that all her children are African American looking because Ruth married an African American man as her husband. When James's mother Ruth was growing up she began to date an African American guy, but to do this she had to hide it from everyone since it wasn't accepted in her culture. Even her father w
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Approximate Word count = 1280
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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