Rebecca Freeman

Rebecca Freeman
The Color of Water
James McBride
Autobiography
Just Right
253

1. In my book, Ruth just met her second husband-to-be. She didn't want to marry him at first because she was so devastated about the death of Dennis, her first husband. Finally she began to consider marrying him so she went to visit her first husband's relatives and they told her to go on and marry him, so she did. She loved him, but not as much as she loved Dennis. Then it becomes a new chapter and it switches to James' point of view. His mother was older, probably in her sixties. They are at a dinner celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the New Brown Memorial Church, which Ruth founded with Dennis. Unfortunately, the new minister did not know Ruth and treated her distantly because she was white- the only white person at the dinner. He didn't mention her at all during his speech and Ruth got so angry she said that she'd never go back, but she did every Sunday anyway.

2. So far I like this book. It is very interesting and it is very different from most books that I've read. I usually only read fiction because in general I find nonfiction boring and dry but this isn't at all. This book is very fast paced- it covers about 70 years- half of them in Ruth's perspective and half of them in James'. Their lives are fascinating and very different from mine. I also think that it is interesting to see how racism changes from decade to decade throughout the book- from Ruth being afraid her black boyfriend would be killed in the 30's if they were found together to people calling her names on the subways for having mixed race kids to James just preferring hanging around blacks- but still having white friends.

3. A noticeable theme in this book is staying strong. By that I don't mean literally but instead being able to continue to do what you want to do and being able to block out what people are saying about you. I see this in the many times where it mentions that Ruth never retaliated when someone insulted her for marrying a black man and having children unless they threatened her children. She always told her children to do the same- focus on school, go to church and ignore what people say about you.

4. My favorite character is definitely Ruth. She is my favorite because she does what she wants to do and doesn't let anybody bug her about it. She has the courage to run away from her only home where she was never happy and live the life she wanted to. The life she wanted to live also is a reason why she is my favorite character. No one wanted her to do what she did, but she did it anyway (Marry a black man). She loved him, and that's all that mattered to her. She didn't care about race and didn't think of people as being one color or another.

5. My least favorite character is Ruth's father her Tateh. He didn't care for his family in anyway, they were just there to cook, clean and help him with the store. I hated how he abused his wife. She was kind and always was a good wife but he made fun of her, hit her and cheated on her, ultimately getting divorced and marrying some fat woman (at least, that's how she is described) . She was also crippled but he never helped her, instead he made her situation worse. The products in his store were always way overpriced. He hated black people and was completely intolerant of everyone unless they were a Jew. He wouldn't let his children befriend gentiles or even go into a church for their graduation ceremony.

6. I think that the book will end when Ruth dies. I think that she will be very old. By then James will have a good reporting job and will be married with children (or maybe he'd have them after her death). I think that he will either come in contact with his aunt Dee Dee after his mother's death or some other long lost relative or friend of hers. I think that before she dies she will write to him about her past (the chapters that are in this book) and then he will finally understand who she is and who he is.