Prejudice against humans, according to some characteristic is a common social norm today and in the past. Exclusion forced many to change themselves so that society would either accept them or in the case of Ruth, to avoid trouble. In The Color of Water, McBride uses indirect characterization through internal thoughts to portray Ruth as adaptive illustrating the truth that exclusion can lead to a person evolving to avoid consequences.
Ruth was forced to be adaptive to avoid conflict. She knows deep inside her that she would be in big trouble if she continued to meet Peter. This feeling was implied when “she wrote to Tateh,” that she “didn’t want to come back to Suffolk”, after she got her abortion done. Ruth still “felt a deep love for him”, but didn’t want to go back to Suffolk again because she felt guilty for her mistake and doesn’t want to relive the past by going back,
Ruth explains the possibility of marrying Peter if societal norms accepted the…show more content… In about the same time period, Rosa Parks was a loyal citizen who followed the laws for the same reason as Ruth, to avoid any further trouble. One day after having a long work day, she sat in the “colored” section of the bus. Soon, the white section became full and she had to give up her seat to this white man. She was outraged. She was tired and was not willing to stand, but still obeyed the rules by sitting in the “colored” section. She decided she was done with being ill-treated, and she refused to give up her seat. Rosa Parks was a person who followed the rules, but with this incident, she transformed into a civil rights activist willing to fight for the injustice that had been done to her and all African Americans. External Pressure transformed Rosa Parks into a person willing to fight societal norms while Ruth being a teenager wanted to forget what had happened to her to avoid any further consequences, especially with Tateh on
