James Mcbride Essay

Submitted By pandaman833
Words: 361
Pages: 2

James Mcbride, author of the book, spent his life trying to understand his mother, and through that, himself. He wanted to find a better understanding about his race, religion, and ultimately his self. In his search for all this, many things happened to his life, and through these trials and tribulations, he was finally able to find himself. One of the first things that happened to James was when he asked his mom if he was “black or white” (80). This lead to her calling him a nobody, giving him his first experience with his race. However, thanks to his mother, he was able to realize that it “[didn’t] matter what color [he] was” (80). This led to him later one questioning society’s reluctance to accept him the same way it accepted the whites. This also helped him expand his music career. He used this frustration to bring out melodies for the soul. Another thing that occurred to him was when he was chased around at gunpoint. This event made him realize that he wasn’t “any smarter, or any wiser, or any bolder than the cats on the Corner,” (126). It was through this that he decided to finally start trying. He tried to do better in school, he tried to better himself, he quit drugs, and he quit hanging around the wrong crowd and was eventually able to make it into a decent college where he was able to study in journalism and music. Through that one incident he was able to pursue something he loved and make a living out of it, which something most people can’t do.