James Mcbride's The Color Of Water

At the beginning of the book it starts to talk about Ruth, James McBride's, mother. We learn of the life Ruth had and who her family was. Learning that Ruth was Jewish and the her family consisted of two siblings and her parents. The father was Fishel Shilsky and the mother was Hudis Shilsky. These two got an arranged marriage in order to get/stay in the U.S. Fishel, or Tateh (meaning father), was a mean and crude father and never really liked his children. Hudis, or Mameh (meaning mother), was kind of mild and loved her children, but also suffered from polio. Tateh used to be a rabbi, but then moved to the colored part of town and started a business. Mameh never really loved him, but she could not leave him because she could not provide for the
It tells us how Hunter had four out of twelve kids with Ruth he was the second husband. Once he died, Ruth began to ride on a bicycle to symbolise her constant moving. James is pretty heavily affected as well because he started to turn to crime, drugs, and fail his classes. He also started to notice that his mother was different and that she did not mind/care for the issues of race. James always struggled with the fact that his mother had a different skin color than him and different background as in religion. He sometimes thought of himself as adopted. He had problems with race because he grew up during the Civil Rights Era and had trouble finding himself to fit in. He finds, through his mother, that family, church, and school is more important than racial issues. James learns that his mother can be confusing due to her many contradictions; believed to be fueled by her used to being a Jew. James worried about his mother and even remembered a time where he went off to camp and tried to warn her about the Black Panther next to her. He was too late, so he punched the son of the Black Panther in the