The Color of Water

The color of water

. "Mommy's contradictions crashed and slammed against one another like bumper cars at Coney Island. White folks, she felt, were implicitly evil toward blacks, yet she forced us to go to white schools to get the best education. Blacks could be trusted more, but anything involving blacks was probably substandard... She was against welfare and never applied for it despite our need, but championed those who availed themselves of it." Do you think these contradictions served to confuse Ruth's children further, or did they somehow contribute to the balanced view of humanity that James McBride possesses?

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I think Ruth is a complex character. It is her apparent ironies that shaped James and the children into functioning adults. Many of her beliefs were paradoxes that served her world view that things were not "black and white" rather than shades of grey or "the color of water". James internalized the paradoxes which gave him a wide view in which he framed the world.