Summary: The Color Of Water By James Mcbride

AP English: Fiction Name: Madison Taylor, Juan Linares, Dane Steen Per. 2

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Title: The Color Of Water.
Author: James McBride.
Date of Publication: 1995.
Genre: Memoir. Biographical information about the author: James McBride, born 1957 and raised in the Red Hook housing projects in Brooklyn. He is the eighth born of twelve. His childhood is told in his bestseller The Color Of Water, a time spent witnessing various changes in society at the side of his Jewish mother Ruth McBride. Aside from an acclaimed writer he is also an avid tenor saxophone player with a degree in music composition. …show more content…
Historical information about the period of publication: Historical information about the period of publication: James McBride wrote The Color of Water at the end of an era seeing very controversial Civil Rights movements. That era greatly influenced his writing in the experiences lived within the book. In the book there are mentions of some of the most notorious groups and leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. These include Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and The Black Panthers. Many of the influential figures mentioned in McBride's story lived in a time separate from his, either long before and already dead, or already formed and in motion. But their effect and contributions stayed. In the few years preceding the publication there were many victories for civil rights and there were less and less violent protests; however, just three years before The Color of Water was published, the United States was treated to the eruption of the first race riots in decades following the beating of Rodney King by four white LAPD officers. This lit the flame once more for racial …show more content…
He is confused over his identity as his mother is not as dark skinned as him and at first her does not feel bothered and feels proud when he and his mom go out alone without the other siblings; however, in his teenage years he felt embarrassed when walking around with a light skinned woman. James brothers and sisters grow to become very highly educated people and with thoughts and ideas of the influencing civil rights movement shaping how they are. He feels lost however as he discovers the importance of hard work and being able to rely upon oneself. All of Ruth's twelve children graduate college and they remain very close throughout their

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