TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. Tateh answers and tells her Mameh is sick and he needs help with the store. Hes a spirit. Does he like black or white people better?He loves all people. My folks are making me. Did you get her pregnant?Yeah.Oh, that messed me up. I went through this entire ordeal and here he was getting busy with somebody else. Later that day I was standing on the street with a group of black students and one of them said, Forget these whiteys. As I walked along the wharf and looked over the Nansemond River, which was colored an odd purple by the light of the moon, I said to myself, What am I doing here? Youre making a mistake. That stopped me cold, because I didnt know how he learned it. Nowadays these mixed couples get on TV every other day complaining, Oh, its hard for us. They have cars and television and homes and theyre complaining. Ruth states: "a wife wants love." Tateh refused to allow Ruth to attend her graduation ceremony, which was held inside a Protestant church. Discount, Discount Code She had eight children with Dennis, who died while Ruth was pregnant with her son James. Explore books by genre, topic, reading level, or series to find your next read. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. And good! A poignant line in the book, and the most referenced. Purchasing Mommys children are extraordinary people, most of them leaders in their own right. Her oddness, her complete nonawareness of what the world thought of her, a nonchalance in the face of what I perceived to be imminent danger from blacks and whites who disliked her for being a white person in a black world. There were white sections of Suffolk, like the Riverview section, where Jews werent allowed to own property. My parents got rid of that name when we came to America and changed it to Rachel Deborah Shilsky, and I got rid of that name when I was nineteen and never used it again after I left Virginia for good in 1941. Ruth McBride Jordan was born in Poland to an Orthodox Jewish family that immigrated to the United States when she was two. Now, as a grown man, I feel privileged to have come from two worlds. The Color of Water Chapters 4-6 Summary & Analysis - SparkNotes Ruth describes her childhood as a poor Jewish immigrant in the United States. He's not white. I stayed on the black side because that was the only place I could stay. Ruth In Judith Guest's The Color Of Water | ipl.org She saw none of it., She wipes her memory instantly and with purpose; its a way of preserving herself., The question of race was like the power of the moon in my house. As I walked home, holding Mommys hand while she fumed, I thought it would be easier if we were just one color, black or white. The Color of Water is a memoir written about and by James' McBride. Ruth had twelve children from two marriages to black men and raised them all. Sam Ruth's brother, he is two years older than Ruth. You know a Jew living in Suffolk when I was coming up could be lonely even if there were fifteen of them standing in the room, I dont know why; its that feeling that nobody likes you; thats how I felt, living in the South. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. Ruth associates Judaism with her unhappy upbringing, and the discrimination she faced as a child in her small Southern town. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. They were all trying hard to be American, you know, not knowing what to keep and what to leave behind., See, a marriage needs love. Continue to start your free trial. My siblings had already instilled the notion of black pride in me. I found it odd and amazing when white people treated me that way, as if there were no barriers between us. Like any family we have problems, but we have always been close. Nowadays these mixed couples get on TV every other day complaining, Oh, its hard for us. They have cars and television and homes and theyre complaining. I hated him. Mommys children are extraordinary people, most of them leaders in their own right. My siblings had already instilled the notion of black pride in me. Her father's repeated attempts and failures to make a living as a rabbi meant her family had to relocate constantly. Ruth McBride Jordan Quotes 17 of the best book quotes from Ruth McBride Jordan 01 Share "I do remember my Jewish name: Ruchel Dwarja Zylska. God is the color of water. And God. We talk about other times, other places, other persons, and lose our living hold on the present. Dont come back., Like most of the Jews in Suffolk they treated me very kindly, truly warm and welcoming, as if I were one of them, which in an odd way I suppose I was. I was loved, I was loved, and I didn't care what anyone thought." However, Peter did not return the sentiment. Well, I didnt feel number one with nobody but him, and I didnt give a hoot that he was black. Instant PDF downloads. As I walked home, holding Mommys hand while she fumed, I thought it would be easier if we were just one color, black or white. One afternoon at Church, Ruth McBride was weeping after hearing her favorite songs, like "We've Come This Far by Faith" or "What a Friend We Have in Jesus". As children, James and his siblings believe that if Jesus is truly all colors, he should be painted that way. Rachel Shilsky is dead as far as Im concerned. 1, p. 1).This begins Ruth McBride Jordan's account of her past, recorded by her son, James McBride. Complete your free account to request a guide. . I dont consider myself Jewish, but when I look at Holocaust photographs of Jewish women whose children have been wrenched from them by Nazi soldiers, the women look like my own mother and I think to myself, There but for the grace of God goes my own motherand by extension, myself. Ruth McBride Jordans trust in God made her surpass the obstacles in her life. I would have preferred that Mommy were black. PDFs of modern translations of every Shakespeare play and poem. , The greatest gift that anyone can give anyone is LIFE. The Sheffers, Helen Weintraub, the Jaffes, they talked to me in person and by letter in a manner and tone that, in essence, said Dont forget us. It said a lot about this religionJudaismthat some of its followers, old southern crackers who talked with southern twangs and wore straw hats, seemed to believe that its covenants went beyond the color of ones skin. A large black eye peered out. I hated him. Want 100 or more? To this day I dont know. The Color of Water Chapters 9-12 Summary and Analysis I know youre gonna marry a shvartse. And a little money. Theyre making me marry her, he said. Theyd walk away from me if they saw me walking down the road coming toward them, and if they came into the store, they wouldnt even look at me. And the greatest sin a person can do to another is to take away that life. She pushed me away from her just as she'd pushed my elder siblings away when we lived in New York, literally shoving them out the front door when they left for college. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. To deny someones right to have a fruitful life can be likened to the act of killing. I knew that! Theyd say forget it. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. I kept in touch with her for many years. I dont know where thats been done before, white and black marrying in Virginia. I dont remember the name of the town where I was born, but I do remember my Jewish name: Ruchel Dwarja Zylska. By a week. She had her own life and her own set of hurts to deal with, and after all, I wasnt her child. Ruth explains her first ideal marriage to her son James. It hurt me a little bit to stand there and lie. Welcome back. Anyone who has ever revisited the place of his birth after years of absence is shocked by the differences between the way the place actually is, and the way he has remembered it. Another brother, David, who is a doctoral student at Colombia at the time, is arrested in Delaware for an illegal U-turn. The fact that he was black and the girl he was marrying was blackwell, that hurt me even more. The Color of Water is a moving story that centers around the narrative of son and mother James and Ruth McBride. Her oddness, her complete nonawareness of what the world thought of her, a nonchalance in the face of what I perceived to be imminent danger from blacks and whites who disliked her for being a white person in a black world. 23, p. 233). So I didnt have a lot of Jewish friends either. You were different from everyone and liked by very few. 'That's all I have,' she said. $24.99 chapter, James McBride Quotes (Author of The Color of Water) - Goodreads Though Ruth and James' were separated by countless years, the audience . It was a dilapidated housing project near St. Nicholas Avenue, with junkies and winos standing out front. It was like the sun started shining on me for the first time, and for the first time in my life I began to smile. They didnt have to run for their lives like we did. Yeah she said. Well, I didnt feel number one with nobody but him, and I didnt give a hoot that he was black. Yet conflict was a part of our lives, written into our very faces, hands, and arms, and to see how contradiction lived and survived in its essence, we had to look no farther than our own mother. Ill never learn to drive, she said. I would have preferred that Mommy were black. Theyre all rich. Then after a while, my period was late. Since Ruth is Jewish and James is black, they both faced difficulty with racial discrimination and prejudice. You got enough for a baseball team, he said. In a world where everyones playing, love trumps us all. Teacher Editions with classroom activities for all 1725 titles we cover. The Jews in Suffolk did stick together, but even among Jews my family was low because we dealt with shvartses. Your people will be my people and your God my God. She had an iron purpose to protect and raise her children, to be strong and overcome whatever happened. While other people continue to suffer, Ruth finds solace in God. PDFs of modern translations of every Shakespeare play and poem. Theyre all rich. Sometimes you just need to believe in yourself. Almost every scene in The Color of Water takes place against a backdrop of anti-Black racism in America. On open school nights, the question most often asked by my schoolteachers was: Is James adopted? which always prompted an outraged response from Mommy. on 50-99 accounts. -Graham S. Below you will find the important quotes in, Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. She recognized that the Ku Klux Klan, and the white population in general, fostered a tense, violence atmosphere. The image of her riding that bicycle typified her whole existence to me. We talk about other times, other places, other persons, and lose our living hold on the present. You know, my whole life changed after I fell in love. James explains how her mother bore her tragic past, the loss of her family, and the constant insults to herself and her children because of the racial issue. Theyd walk away from me if they saw me walking down the road coming toward them, and if they came into the store, they wouldnt even look at me. Hes a spirit. Ruth Mcbride Challenges. Nobody liked me. I told him I didnt want to see him anymore and walked back through the black neighborhood, into the store, and went upstairs and cried my heart out, because I still loved him. Teachers and parents! The Color of Water Quotes About Racial Discrimination and a Mother's Love The Color of Water: Character List | SparkNotes Mommy was by her own definition, light-skinned, a statement which I had initially accepted as fact but at some point later decided was not true.. She disliked people with money yet was in constant need of it. Those leaders are no better than their Jewish counterparts who spin statistics in marvelous ways to make African-Americans look like savages, criminals, drags on society, and animals (a word quite popular when used to describe blacks these days). For James, however, Judaism is a way for him to connect with his mother, and with the half of his family he never knew he had. Water doesn't have a color., I asked her if I was black or white. She wipes her memory instantly and with purpose; its a way of preserving herself (Chpt. My view of the world is not merely that of a black man but that of a black man with something of a Jewish soul. She knocked on the door. Anyone who has ever revisited the place of his birth after years of absence is shocked by the differences between the way the place actually is, and the way he has remembered it. She was always sending me off on a bus someplace, to elementary school, to camp, to relatives in Kentucky, to college. But you know what happens when you do that. Even though she slammed the door in my face years later, I never felt bitter toward her. Its not about black or white (Chpt. No way. Her Jewish family performed the ceremony of the dead for her, treating her as dead to them and never spoke to her again. 25 Thoughtful Quotes from the Book - The Color of Water. Instead, they are the color of water, which is colorless. Not in 1937.I made up my mind then that I was going to leave Suffolk for good. Ironically, its a condition that affects mostly white people. When I asked if she was white, she'd say, "I'm light-skinned," and change the subject. Rachel Shilsky is dead as far as Im concerned. The few problems I had with black folks were nothing compared to the grief white folks dished out. NEXT to that, all rules and religions in the worldare secondary, mere words and beliefs that people CHOOSE to believe and KILL and HATE by., Sometimes it seemed like the truth was a bandy-legged soul who dashed from one side of the world to the other and I could never find him., You have to choose between what the world expects of you and what you want for yourself, my sister Jack told me several times.