Color of Water

Voice and Point of View

One part of the story is told from Rachel's point of view. Rachel tells her story in an interview of her past life. She describes the hardships she went through as a child all the way until she became an adult. Her voice of sadness and despair are in her words. It would be right to be sympethetic to her autobiography because not many people go through the pain she did. Rachel suffered through racism and being shunned by her family. "You're out of the family. Stay out. We sat shiva for you. You can't see her." pg. 216. This influences the story a lot because it shows how back then, society didn't give people much of a chance to be independent
and how hard it was.

Another part of the whole story is told from James' point of view. James tells his story as he if he were describing his childhood and his adolescent years. He describes all the racism he faced and how he would be able to deal with it. It was fairly hard for him to grow up with a white mother and at some points of his life, he did drugs. It wouldn't be such a big deal to be sympethetic about him because he made many bad choices. James didn't have to do drugs and defy his mother even when she loved him. But James story affected the whole story because it shows how his life compared to his mother's life and how hard society was.

Voice and Point of View

Me: One time, my friend Anthony and I went to a party and hung out. We were all joking around and I said something but I meant it as a joke. Anthony started getting mad but I thought he shouldn't have because I was just playing around. I thought he would've known not to take things like that seriously. We argued for a little bit but I explained to him that i didn't mean it and he finally believed me. Then we made up and joked around again. This time no one took anything seriously.

Anthony: Yea, the only time I ever got mad at Janet was when we went to this one party and everyone was joking aorund with eachother. Janet... [continues]

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