Nonchalance In The Color Of Water

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Arianna Salcido

Honors English 10

Period 1

27 August 2012

In the novel, The Color of Water by McBride tells us a story about his journey in finding

his life. He slowly finds out that he doesn’t know who his mother so he goes on a journey

to find his mother and along way he finds himself. As McBride explains his mothers

opinion of life , he states , “ Her oddness , her complete nonawareness of what the world

thought of her , a nonchalance in the face of what I perceived to be imminent danger from

blacks and whites who disliked her for being a white person in a black world” (McBride

5). McBride is giving this image of his mother being different. Using words such as

“nonchalance” to show that she does not care about what others perceived of her.

McBride also uses the word “nonawareness” to tell us that she is not paying attention; she

is lost. McBride witnessed many things as this. “She played each note separately, as if

they had no connection to each other, and they echoed through the house and landed on

the walls like tears” (McBride 106). This gives us an image that the house is empty and

all we hear is the music slowly fade. He uses the word “echoed” to give us an idea that

Ruth , the mother , played the music until it finished taunting her and it disappeared

completely. He also makes the comparison of the notes to the tears because it is the way

to release pain. People say that music makes them forget the pain and when you cry ,

your letting out all of

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