The Color of Water

Semester 1, blog post 3

This blog post may contain spoilers. Reader discretion is advised. You have been warned...mwahahaha. >:D

The 1900's in particular were a time of severe racial tension. Civil rights movements, coupled with violent backlashes, caused this time period to be both dangerous and intriguing to live in.

The two intertwined stores of author James McBride and his mother Ruth Shilsky, during this time of racial extremes, are detailed in the New York Times Bestseller The Color of Water.

The cover is kind of plain but whatever. Here's a picture of it nonetheless.

The Color of Water has quite a few meaningful themes. Of these, one that really stood out to me is: No matter what color skin one has, they are still a human being and God still loves them with the same intensity. This theme is portrayed countless times throughout the story, like when Ruth says, "God is the color of water," (51). Hence the book title (heh). The theme is also present when Ruth tells James,

"I bet you never heard the joke about the teacher and the beans, Mommy says...The teacher says to the class, 'Tell us about different kinds of beans.'

"The first little boy says, 'There's pinto beans.'

"'Correct,' says the teacher.

"Another boy raises his hand. 'There's lima beans.'

"'Very good,' says the teacher. "Then a little girl in the back raises her hand and says, 'We're all human beans!'" (92-93).

Anyway. The theme. No one deserves to be treated differently because they have a different skin color. Whether it was James for being colored in a nation that was then dominated by whites, or Ruth for being the only white person in a black neighborhood, this theme plays a major role in Ruth's and James' separate (a few decades apart) yet overlapping journeys of self-discovery and family.

To learn more about McBride and his books, click here. To view a Wikipedia article about him, click here.

You have now reached the end of my ramblings. I hope I didn't bore you to death. And now I should probably thank you appropriately for reading. So thanks, I guess.