Identity In James Mcbride's Color Of Water

Everyone, at some point in their lives, is faced with the question of their own identity and how they will respond when they are faced with trials and adversity. While one’s self-perception is constantly being shaped by the world around them and the prejudices that they face, one must endure a vital, sometimes painful, journey to look past these discriminations to find their true roots and identity. Often, one is required to look beyond the surface to reveal the depths of their own identity. In the memoir Color of Water, James confronts this exact problem by exploring the impact of race relations and the pressures of society in terms of his mother’s life. Throughout his life, James struggles with his identity, but it was not until he juxtaposes …show more content…
He was very familiar with the African-American side of the family but was not at all familiar with his white heritage. James would often ask his mother to share memories of her heritage during his childhood, but every time she would withhold this information from him. During James’ adolescent years, there were black power movements, which did not help James answer questions to racial identity but rather provoked them. While he was black and wanted to support those of his own color, he was also worried for his mother and her safety. At a time of such racial polarization, James’ two worlds were clashing, and he was left with the internal conflict of which one to follow. In combination with the internal racial conflict and the passing of his step-father, James decided to deal with the uncertainties of his life with drugs and alcohol and is led down a dark path during his teenage years. It was not until later in his life when James decided to write a book about his mother that she started to open up about her past, and James begins to understand his racial identity in terms his own …show more content…
After hearing the painful story of his mother, James begins to see threads of his mother’s past throughout his childhood and learns why she did the things that she did. His mother Ruth grew up in an extremely strict Orthodox Jewish household with an abusive rabbi father and a handicapped mother. The education that she did not receive as a child caused her to put a great emphasis on education for her children. The prejudices that she encountered when she was an adolescent propelled Ruth to stress that one’s skin color does not matter. The abuse that she went through as a child provoked a nurturing spirit within her. While Ruth made the most conscious effort of getting rid of her past, it managed to make its way back into her life by molding her into the person that she is. The parallelism of the past and the present in the juxtaposed stories of James and Ruth’s presents the idea that the past does play a big part in one’s identity, but it does not mean that it solely defines

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Summary: The Color Of Water By James Mcbride