The Color of Water

  In the first chapter of The Color of Water it describes James' family. It describes his mother, father, and grandparents. It explained her family's religion, where she was born, and what her parents were like. In the first chapter it was spoken in James' mothers perception.

   James' mother has had a hard life growing up. She nearly got caught up in the Holocaust and then moving to America. Then she got out of the Jewish religion and converted to Christianity when she married a Baptist minister. She had 12 kids. Many of them were bi-racial.

   In the chapter there are only two main characters. Which are the mother and the son. This helps to explain the mother's life in the past. This chapter makes it seem like the mother's dead and she's writing this to her son.

   There are no conflicts in this chapter unless the mother's death is counted. I think the books ok so far. I don't understand why the letter was the first chapter, unless the narrator wanted the readers to know some facts about his mother. The characters are ok. The mother's past seems to have been a big struggle for her. She had to come to America, a whole new place and her religion being different from everyone.

Chapter 2

  In this story she had two hobbies riding the bicycle and playing the piano. The piano was okay for James but the Bicycle drove him crazy. It was a huge old clunker, blue with white trim with big fat tires, huge fenders and a battery-powered horn built in to the middle of the frame with a button you pushed to make it blow. James stepfather was seventy two when he died trim strong easygoing, seemingly infallible. Even though he was James Stepfather he considered him as daddy.

   He was quiet soft spoken man who wore old timely clothes, fedoras button-down neatly at all times, regardless how dirty his work made him. He took no guff and age none. He married Ruth a Jewish mother when she had eight kids. They had four more to make it an even twelve caring for then all. James virtually dropped out of school after he died failing every class.

     He spent his time at 42nd street movies theater with his friends. Reefer he smoked in as much quantity as possible. He snatched purses, shoplifted and even robbed a petty drug dealer once. Then riding the subway home he would see his mother pedaling her blue bicycle. She would stop teetering shakily, gathering herself before the bike collapsed on to the sidewalk , Dotty (James Sister) would say" I sure wish you wouldn't ride that bike ma"" James silently agreed.

   Mommy was commander chief in the house. matter involving race and identity she ignored. James wore hand me downs from his older brothers. James was scared to go to school ,but after a while he got used to it because his mother would be waiting for him at the bus stop. One day she didn't show and he panicked. He saw a group of loud mouth kids coming his way which was hi siblings he ran in there arms with tears that he was saved.

Chapter 8

   The people in this chapter were James, his mother Rachel, and all his siblings. Rachel was a someone who worked hard at wat she did at all times. A girl who had to raise 12 kids made it hard 4 her to live her life for herself. They didn't have that much food so the children fought over the food they have or little things that seemed like a big problem.

  At one time a girl named Rosetta and one named Helen had a huge fight because they didn't agree on something. This was a big argument because Helen left the house that day and never came back. At first she ran over to a boy named Jack. But after a while she ran away and lived with an old woman for a while.

  The conflicts that took place in chapter eight were the conflicts between two sisters known as Rachel and Helen. Some between the mother and daughter. Soon Helen dropped out of school because she had a motto which said" The white man's education is not for me". but James would be the only one talking about his mother because she never cooked.

Chapter 13

    To me my brothers and sisters are very annoying. A perfect example would be the two girls in the story Helen and Rosetta. My parent work very hard to raise me, and i always have to share my things with them so that they can feel happy. I get mad when my mom takes something and doesn't tell me, lets to talk about any brother or sister doing it to me.

The people in this chapter are Rachel, James's mother, the mother and the whole family o the mother side. In this Rachel explains how her mother knows the she is having a baby. Her mother then sends Rachel to New York for the summer to live with the other side of the family. Rachel doesn't feel very close to them because they aren't the type of people that would really talk a lot, unless you talked to them.

While over there Rachel was pregnant, Aunt Betts, realized there was something wrong with her. She then asked her what was wrong, because at first she didn't want to tell her but then she decided to tell what was on her mind. Soon Rachel had an abortion. The mood of this chapter is sad. I think it is this way because of what happened with her and the abortion and the way she feels.

There were Rachel's words and experiences after Aunt Beet found out she was pregnant. Some conflicts taking place in this chapter are between Rachel and herself, between Rachel and her family and between Rachel and her mothers family. This chapter was an intense chapter. It was really surprising to read how even in the 1960 people got pregnant at and early age, and got in trouble for it. Yet in most cases the female would be beaten to death, or dishonored from her family. Now I know why present people would think like that, because they learned it form their ancestors.

18th

  The people in this chapter were Ruth, James and hir other five siblings. In this chapter Ruth is planning on moving to Delaware. Yet she has to arrange her thoughts, because her husbands death had brought her misery. She finally decides and tells the rest of the family that they are moving to Delaware.

  However now came the problems, half of the children agreed with moving, while the other half didn't. So Ruth took from her time and listened to their pleas. They convinced her and she changed her mind and said that they won't be moving anymore. Still thinking about it for months and months Ruth decided that they will move to Willington, Delaware.

  The mood in this chapter is sad because you would see how bad Ruth felt, how hurt she was by the loss of her husband. She was trying to survive. not only did she have to worry about herself, but her children as well. Some conflicts taking place in this chapter are those among Ruth and herself, her mix-up, the fact that she doesn't know what she's doing. Another conflict would be that between Ruth and her children when they had.