Ready Reference Treatise: The Color of Water

By Raja Sharma

The conflicting emotions are highly effective in the autobiography. The author continued to find out who he really was. Likewise, the author’s mother describes the hardships she had to go through as a white Jewish woman. She had to face difficulties because she had chosen to marry a black man in the year 1942.

The places in the book are Suffolk, Virginia, New York City, and Wilmington, Delaware. Suffolk was the hometown of the author’s mother. During most of his childhood, New York City was the author’s home. The author had moved to Delaware during his teen years.

Ready Reference Treatise: The Color of Water
Copyright
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: Plot Overview
Chapter Three: Characters
Chapter Four: Complete Summary
Chapter Five: Critical Analysis

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: Apr 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310697623

Raja Sharma

Raja Sharma is a retired college lecturer.He has taught English Literature to University students for more than two decades.His students are scattered all over the world, and it is noticeable that he is in contact with more than ninety thousand of his students.

Book preview

Ready Reference Treatise: The Color of Water

Copyright

Ready Reference Treatise: The Color of Water

Raja Sharma

Copyright@2015 Raja Sharma

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Chapter One: Introduction

The Color of Water by James McBride was first published in 1995. It is the author’s autobiography. The subtitle of the book is A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother.

The alternate narrative keeps on shifting between the descriptions of the author’s early life and the first person narration of the life of the author’s mother, Ruth. The book describes the life of the author’s mother before the author was born.

The conflicting emotions are highly effective in the autobiography. The author continued to find out who he really was. Likewise, the author’s mother describes the hardships she had to go through as a white Jewish woman. She had to face difficulties because she had chosen to marry a black man in the year 1942.

The places in the book are Suffolk, Virginia, New York City, and Wilmington, Delaware. Suffolk was the hometown of the author’s mother. During most of his childhood, New York City was the author’s home. The author had moved to Delaware during his teen years.

The autobiography covers the time period, the author’s life, 1960 to 1990, and Ruth’s life from 1920 to 1950. Most of the emphasis is on 1930s, 40s, and 50s.

The author was born in 1957. His father was an African-American. His mother was a Polish Jewish immigrant.

Andrew Dennis McBride was the author’s biological father who had died of lung cancer, while the author’s mother, Ruth McBride, was pregnant with James, the author.

His mother remarried so James began to call his stepfather, Hunter Jordan, his ‘Daddy.’ The author’s mother had altogether twelve children, eight from her first marriage and four from her second marriage.

The author spent most of his childhood in New York City and Delaware.

When the author was a bit young and was able to understand the events of the 1960s, he experienced the impact of the events through his older brothers and sister.

The behavior of his older siblings the author could learn a lot about the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. The behavior of his older siblings often led to conflicts with their mother Ruth.

Since they were biracial members of society, the children began to question the authority of the white man. James, the author, also had to struggle with the same issues later in his life.

When the author actually confronted the issues, he found out that it was necessary for him to understand the background of his mother