Color of Water Character List

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Color of Water Character List

James McBride - Author and main narrator of the memoir, he is artistically inclined. James is a writer, journalist, jazz musician, and composer. Like his mother, he places significant emphasis on his Christian faith and on family unity. As a young man, he expresses his confusion by succumbing to drugs and crime. Later, he becomes diligent and determined.
Ruth McBride Jordan - The central figure of the memoir, she is the tough but big-hearted mother of James and eleven other children. A Polish Jewish immigrant, she is spiritual, intelligent, determined, practical, and brave. She stresses the importance of work, school, and God. She chose an unconventional life, and succeeds in it because she has the grit and conviction to endure hardships.
Andrew Dennis McBride - Ruth's first husband and James's biological father. Dennis was a violinist from North Carolina who Ruth met while working at her aunt's leather factory. He was gentle and strong, and fathered eight of Ruth's twelve children. He died from lung cancer at a young age.
Hunter Jordan - Ruth's second husband and James's primary male role model. Hunter was a mechanic for the New York City Housing Authority. He met Ruth shortly after her first husband's death, married her, and had four children with her. Like Dennis, he was rather conservative. He shared Ruth's notions of the importance of God, family, and education. He died of a stroke when James was a teenager, and his entire family recalls him with fondness.
Hudis Shilsky - Ruth's mother, she suffered from polio her entire life. Soft-spoken and meek, she deferred to Ruth's father in virtually all matters. While she came from a well-to-do background, her family had little to do with her because of her handicap. Ruth felt that her mother was good to her, and suffered a lifelong sense of guilt for not taking better care of Mameh.
Fishel Shilsky - Ruth's father. Tateh was an incredibly difficult person. He was racist, demanding, harsh, unloving, and greedy. He sexually abused his daughter Ruth. He finalized his separation from Ruth when he told her never to return home if she married a black man.
Dee-Dee - Ruth's younger sister. Dee-Dee was a shy, pretty girl, less strong-willed than Ruth. She had fewer conflicts with her father than Ruth did, and she was more Americanized from a young age. While Ruth always envied her, later in life she realized that Dee-Dee had suffered sorrow and desperation.
Sam - Ruth's brother, he is two years older than Ruth. Tateh was particularly hard on the timid, sensitive Sam, expecting him to fulfill many duties at the family store. Sam found the burden too weighty and ran away at fifteen. He was killed in the army during World War II.
Frances - Ruth's only childhood friend in Suffolk. Frances was sweet and accepting of Ruth, even though she is from a gentile family. Ruth's few good memories of Suffolk involve the time she spent playing with Frances.
Bubeh - Ruth's maternal grandmother, she is one of her few family members Ruth recalls fondly. Bubeh allowed Ruth to stay with her in New York. While Bubeh tried to shape Ruth's behavior in some ways, she also gave Ruth some space, and seemed to accept her.
Aunt Mary, Aunt Laura, Aunt Betsy - Ruth's aunts, and Hudis's sisters. They were wealthy, and generally snobby toward Ruth, although Aunt Betsy helps Ruth when she needs an abortion.
Peter - Ruth's first boyfriend, he was the first black person with whom Ruth was genuinely close. Because of the heated racial atmosphere of the times, Peter and Ruth had to see one another secretly. Ruth got pregnant by Peter during her adolescence, but chose not to have the baby.
Helen McBride - James's older sister and Ruth's daughter. Helen is a strong-willed and pretty girl who runs away from home at the age of fifteen. Perhaps more than any of James's other siblings, her struggles with her background exemplify the political and racial turmoil of the 1960s. She eventually returned home, but her conflict with Ruth had a large impact on.
Jack - James's older sister. James lives with Jack in Louisville, Kentucky for three summers during his teenage years. James regards her as sweet and fun, but she is also serious: she warns him seriously about his drug abuse and petty crime. Jack's opinion matters to James, and eventually he heeds her advice.
Big Richard - Jack's husband. Big Richard is a tough and fun guy who introduces James to all the working men on "the corner."
Chicken Man - Part of the crew on "the corner." Chicken Man is endearing and intelligent, but he has done little with his life, wasting money and time on the corner drinking.

Plot Overview

In The Color of Water, author James McBride writes both his autobiography and a tribute to the life of his mother, Ruth McBride. Ruth came to America when she was a young girl in a family of Polish Jewish immigrants. Ruth married Andrew Dennis McBride, a black man from North Carolina. James's childhood was spent in a chaotic household of twelve children who had neither the time nor the outlet to ponder questions of race and identity. Ruth did not want to discuss the painful details of her early family life, when her abusive father Tateh lorded over her sweet-tempered and meek mother Mameh. Ruth had cut all ties with her Jewish family.

After arriving in the United States when she was two years old, Ruth spent her early childhood traveling around the country with her family as her father sought employment as a rabbi. Tateh eventually gave up hope of making a living as a rabbi. He settled the family in Suffolk, Virginia, and opened a store in the mostly black section of town, where he overcharged his customers and expressed racist opinions. When Ruth was a child, Tateh sexually abused her and made harsh demands on her to work constantly in the family store. Tateh cheated on his wife, in an affair of which practically everyone in town was aware. Ruth's brother Sam left home at age fifteen, and soon after, Ruth too felt she must leave. She wanted to escape the oppressive environment of both her family and the South. She was also pregnant by Peter, her black boyfriend in Suffolk, and wanted to deal with the pregnancy away from her family. She took trips to New York to stay with relatives, and later moved permanently to Harlem. Ruth's family disowned her when she left, disgusted with her preference for marrying a black man instead of a Jewish man, her general failure to embrace Judaism, and her defiance of her father. Ruth promised her sister Dee-Dee that she would return to Suffolk, but she could not reconcile her family's desires for her life with her own desires for her life. She betrayed her promise to return for Dee-Dee, and her relationship with her sister suffered as a consequence. This separation from her family recurs throughout the memoir as a painful element in Ruth's life.

In Harlem, Ruth met Dennis, to whom she was immediately attracted. She married him, converted to Christianity, and became very involved with church activities. The couple experienced a certain degree of prejudice as a result of their interracial marriage. However, Ruth recalls these years of her life as her happiest ones. Dennis and Ruth opened the New Brown Memorial Church together in memory of Reverend Brown, their favorite preacher. They had several children, and eventually moved to accommodate their growing family. When Ruth became pregnant with Dennis's eighth child, James, Dennis fell ill with lung cancer, and died before James was born. Ruth mourned his death deeply and became desperate to find a means to support herself and her eight children. She approached her relatives for assistance, but they refused to have any sort of contact with her. Ruth met her second husband, Hunter Jordan, soon after. They married and eventually had four children together.

James weaves his own life story into his mother's story. Ruth's philosophies on race, religion, and work influence him greatly. Ruth always sent her children to the best schools, no matter the commute, to ensure they received the finest possible educations. She demanded respect and hard work from her children, and always treated them tenderly. She had an unwavering faith in God and strong moral convictions. To Ruth, issues of race and identity took secondary importance to moral beliefs.

James's confusion over his identity, along with his grief for the death of his beloved stepfather, drove him to a phase of drug use and crime. After spending time with working with black men in Louisville, Kentucky, where his sister Jack lives, James became convinced of the importance of self-reliance and hard work. He began to trust in God and to work toward self-improvement, honing his skills in jazz music and writing. During his senior year of high school, James was pleasantly surprised when he learned he had been admitted to Oberlin College. He and his eleven siblings complete college and lead successful careers. Ruth remains close with her children, and, later, her grandchildren, holding holiday gatherings that remind James of his household during childhood: chaotic, but delightfully active and stimulating.

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