The Color of Water Essay

The Color of Water
The book ‘The Color of Water’ tells the story of a black boy’s life living with his white mother. His mother considered herself light skinned, not black but certainly not white. James, the boy, he had 12 siblings, which was hard for Mameh (what they called their mom) to keep up with all of them. Mameh barely had friends because of her appearance. Mameh was an orthodox Jew who married 2 black men and had eight children by one man and had four more by another to make an equal twelve.
There is two point of views in this book. The odd chapters are the chapter about Ruth (Mameh), who is also the narrator, explaining her life and the even chapters are about James explaining his life experience with his mom. Basically in this book they constantly face discrimination from their race in certain neighborhoods and of their religious beliefs. Whenever Mameh or James faced racism or discrimination in their life they can always look to religion to help them through those tough times. In this book, Mameh basically shows that religion knows no race. In chapter 6, James tells about his church memories. He talks about his moms embrace of Christianity, her lovely singing voice, and the fact that she was the only white person there. Mamehs favorite church songs were “We’ve Come This Far by Faith” and “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”.
One day, James questioned whether Jesus was black or white. His mom then replied that he is not black or white which led to Jesus being the color of water. Jesus being the color of water was the main metaphor in this book. James also reflected on his life up to a teenager, who knew that bad things would occur in the future if he didn’t change his ways and behavior. James began to give serious consideration to the warnings of his sister Jack and Chicken Man. So he decided, “Like my own mother did in times of stress, I turned to God.” His quote on that helped him with all his problems in life. Including his problem with drug...