Color of Water

The Color of Water revolves around author James McBride’s mother, who has two

identities: Rachel, the frightened Jewish girl who flees her painful past to reinvent

herself in New York City’s black community. Rachel’s way of raising her children turns

out to be a reflection of her otherwise repudiated Jewish cultural background. This side

of McBride’s mother establishes her home as a place of learning and moral instruction

and, despite the domestic chaos of her household, maintains strict rules and high

expectations for her children both intellectually and ethically. Her other identity is Ruth,

a jubilant Baptist and an eccentric but loving mother, who allows her twelve children to

assume she is a light-skinned black woman. A strong and spirited matriarch, the Ruth

her children know is sustained through many crises by both her personal

resourcefulness and her deep religious faith. Despite her strength, however, a layer of

Ruth’s personality retains the sorrows and regrets of her childhood.

The other major figure in The Color of Water is Ruth’s troubled but curious son James,

who senses that he must recover the world his mother abandoned if he is to complete

his own sense of identity. The process of releasing his mother from her grief and guiltfilled silence and his discovery that he is indeed biracial allows James to reconcile

different aspects of his personality that he has always seen as opposed. Most

important, while affirming his sense of himself as a black man, James’s journey into his

mother’s past convinces him that he also possesses something of a Jewish soul.

James discovers that he must recognize both his African American and his white family

background if he is to construct a coherent American identity. This need to acknowledge

the complex and plural historical roots of American identity forms a core theme of the

book. Related to this understanding of identity is the importance of family history and

memory: Both mother and son...