color of water

The Color of Water
By James McBride

Part 5
Summery
So for part 5 James McBride he starts to wonder about his mom’s past as an adult and so he flies to Suffolk Virginia, and he walks around the town based on what his mom has told him about it. So when he is walking around he comes across one of his mom’s neighbors, so the neighbor tells him about James’s grandfather, and he also wants his mom to contact Gerry Jaffe the neighbor. And when he is there he finds out that he part Jewish and he got to see where his mom went to temple and where her dad (James’s grandfather) was the rabbi.

For James mother
Ruth (James’s mom) is married to a black man named Dennis. So he comes home one day and is sick but it starts to get worse, so as a family Ruth and Dennis go to the hospital to see what is wrong with him. The doctor tells them that there is nothing wrong so they leave, and this happens quite a few times. Then one day comes by and Dennis has to be hospitalized and the doctors don’t tell Ruth what is going on. Then Dennis dies from cancer.

Part 5
Reaction
For James’s part of the story I thought that is was really nice and it shows a lot about him as a son and as a writer. For a son it shows that he wants to know what his mom went through as a single Jewish mom growing up in a Christian community and then running away to New York and just trying to escape her family, then converting to Christianity and marring two black men and raising a lot of successful black children. And for a writer it shows that he will go to any length to get the story and to get the truth. And I think that those are two great qualities to have.

For Ruth’s part of the story I thought that it was terrible that the doctor would not tell Ruth and her husband Dennis that he had cancer, and part of me says that they were really racist and the other part of me thinks that they just really did not know, but I guess we will never know. I also think that Ruth is really strong because she could have a banded all those kids or just done nothing to help them or her but no she did not she got two jobs and worked really hard and put all those kids in school and put them through college as well. And to me she is strong and she has determination as well.