Monday, February 28, 2011
"Color of Water" Blog Post #1
There are a number of significant symbols in the first two chapters of The Color of Water. Choose one symbol that you see as especially significant. What is it? What does it symbolize about James, his mother or their families? Use specific examples and/or quotes to support your thinking.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
45 comments:
One symbol in the book so far is the mother's bike. I think that the bike symbolizes the mothers way of getting away from everything and taking a break from life. It is as if she is in her own little bubble. It says in the book that James used to see her riding her bike in the street and she really stood out because she was the only white person in the naborhood and how she didn't mind the people looking at her and being the only white person out there when on her bike.
The two major symbols in 'The Color of Water' are the bike, and the school bus. Since the person above was using the bike, I will talk about the bus.
The school bus is a symbol of multiple things in The Color of Water. It symbolizes: fear, growing up (or coming of age), and being an outsider. It symbolizes fear because James was terrified to ride this bus. His mother literally had to chase him all around the house just to get him to get going. It symbolizes growing up and coming of age in a more obvious way. James had grown up so it was time for him to ride the school bus. All of this siblings before him had done it, so it was looked on by him as this special and scary only big kids do.This sort of legacy he had to continue. They didn't exactly make him feel better on his first day of kindergarden when they teased him abut snakes being on the bus. Lastly, the school bus symbolizes being an outsider in the community. Every day when James would come home, his mother would be waiting there for him apart from all the other parents. She would be smiling up at him, waiting for him to come out. One day when James asked about this and why she doesn't talk and hang out with the other mothers, she said she wasn't like them. She told him to stay away from the other boys and to stick with his brothers and sisters. She said never to 'tell nothing to nobody,' and to keep his personal life to himself. So one day when his mother didn't show up and a parent asked where he lived, James just shook his head no, he didn't know. He was doing just what his mother told him to: never tell nothing to nobody, therefore becoming an outsider in the process.
I think that the James’ mother’s bike is a very significant symbol. The bike symbolizes how the mother getting over the fact that James’ stepfather died and taking a break, like what Bradley (I think..?) said. She doesn’t want to go back to the past. She’d rather be in the present and never look back. She was a white “I didn’t want my friends seeing my white mother out there riding a bicycle. She was already white, that was bad enough, but to go out and ride an old bike that went out of style a hundred years ago? (p. 8)”
James thought it was weird and strange that his mother would ride a bike in the neighborhood that was all black and she was white. His mother didn’t mind at all. It seemed as if she had “haters” but never cared. She would keep her head high and not realize if people were staring at her. The book showed James’ perspective on why his mother was riding an old piece of junk. Through the bike, his mother was grieving over her lose of two husbands. She didn’t want to talk about it at all because that was the past and she’d rather walk about the present.
-Brianna ♥
I think in of the symbols in the book is the mother’s bicycle. Every day she rode around on that old thing, and the author always talks about how much he hates it. I think that to him, it symbolizes how different his mother really is from everyone else in their community. I think that when James was younger, he didn’t really understand why his mother looked so different. He knew something was strange about her, but he couldn’t quite make out what it was. All he knew was that she didn’t quiet look like him, or any of the mothers standing by the bus stop to pick up their kids who didn’t look like her either! His mother explained to him that she did in fact look like him, and that she didn’t want him going around telling people his buisness and that was enough for him. However, she didn’t really explain that it was her skin that was different than his. As James got older I know he realized that, and he was still pretty much okay with the thought of her standing out.
However, as James gets even older, he starts to head down the wrong path, probably due to his father’s death. He flunked out of high school, started hanging out with a bunch of thugs and flat out grew up, and maybe the thought of standing out doesn’t sound too great to him at this stage in his life, especially when gaining new friends. When James sees his mother crawling down the street on this bicycle, he hates it, and the only thing he hates more is his friends seeing it. Now not only is his mother the only white woman around his area, but now she has to go around riding a bicycle? Could things get any worse for him?
You can just tell by the way he describes the way she rides it, that this bicycle is not only a symbol of hatred and embarrassment within the family, but a symbol of change, and how it is effecting James, his family, his friends, and his community.
“The image of her riding that bicycle typified her whole existence of me. Her oddness, her complete nonawareness of what the world thought of her, a nonchalance in the face of what I perceived to be imminent danger from blacks and whites who disliked her for being a white person in a black world. She saw none of it. She rode so slowly that if you looked at her form a distance it seemed as if she weren’t moving, the image frozen, painted against the spring sky, a middle-aged white woman on an antique bycile with black kids zipping past her on Sting-Ray bikes and skateboards, popping wheelies and throwing baseballs that whizzed past her head, tossing fire crackers that burst all around her. She ignored it all.”
In “The Color of Water” a symbol is the father’s car. After the father’s death the car is ignored. “She refused to learn how to drive. Daddy’s old car sat out front for weeks, parked at the curb. Silent. Clean. Polished. Every day she rode her bike right past it, ignoring it.” The car is a memorial dedicated to the father and at this time period a stereotype is the fatherly figure. The fatherly figure is supposed to carry the family or a symbol for that is to drive the family. The Mother’s pursuit in using the bicycle is a statement of how she never intends to remarry. “It was clear that Mommy was no longer interested in getting married again, despite the efforts of a couple of local preachers who were all Cadillacs and smiles and knew that she, and thus we, were broke.” The mother used the bike and the refusal of marriage as statement that life will be carried on in a different way.
As everyone has said before, I think that his mothers bike is a large symbol so far. The bike symbolizes happiness and moving on, or riding forward. As crazybob (Bradley??) said before, when the mother is riding on her bike, she seems to be in her own little world, and she is happy. She’s not thinking about what her children are, about how she looks weird and stupid, she’s just riding her bike. Also she seems to have forgotten about any pain she feels about her past relationships when she’s riding her bike.
Even though his mother looked happy when she was riding her bike, James was still very embarrassed by his mother. The fact that James’ mom gets away from her sadness by riding her bike shows that maybe their family is not very close in terms of talking about feelings. Since the family is so large I doubt that the mother is able to have a very close relationship with all her children in all areas and not just loving them.
Hi, its Stef.
In the book The Color of Water, there are many symbols. Among them is the symbol of names. In the first chapter, the mother talks about her being dead, and that she says that she died when she changed her name. This is a very important symbol, because it shows that she wanted to change herself, and the last piece that would make her a new person, is her name. If she had not changed her name, people would still have called her what they always did, and the only thing different would be the way that she acted. When she changed her name, she felt like a different person because people called her something different, and she responded to something different. In the beginning of the book, Rachel, the mother, talks about herself being dead. She says that she died when she married her husband. She says that she died, or changed her name, when she married her husband, because she wanted to be a different person.
I agree with what almost everyone has said, that the mother's bike is a symbol in the book. The bicycle drove everyone crazy. Her children would ask her to get rid of it, because it was so old. It was so old-yet it has appeared so much in this one chapter, black kids throughout James' life. James explains how hihs mother rides this old fashoined bike.
"She rode so slowly that if you looked at her from a distance it seemed as though she weren't moving, the image frozen, painted against a spring sky, a middle aged white woman on an antique bicycle with black kids zipping past her on Sting-Ray bikes and skateboards, popping wheelies and throwing baseballs that whizzed past her head, tossing firecrackers that burst all around her. She ignored it all." This whole quote is filled with detail comparing her to the other children on the street and the fast things "whizzing" by. She is compared from her small bicycle to children on "Sting-Rays" and skateboards. These things are the ones that go much slower than cars, yet faster than this bicycle. Also, all the distraction appearing on the street- some you might want to get out of the way from. But she kept of pedaling on. She didn't care and didn't mind. As long as she was on this bike she was fine. The bike symbolizes his mother I think. This is what they know her for.
I think that one of the very significant symbols in the Color of Water so far is love. I shows a lot in so many different ways. One example is the blue bike. The Mother has a car and yet she take her time to ride her bike around. I The kids say" why not use the car" But I think that it would bring back to many memories of her deceased husband. This Bike doesn't only show that but it shows that she wants to hold on to her husband because he is the one that gave Rachel the bike.
Another symbol of love is the school bus scene. I think that this scene represented love because James really loved having his mother walk him to the bus stop every day and then have her pick him up as well. But when the day came that he had to go home by himself he wasn't prepaird and he was really scared because he was expecting the same greeting from his mother and instead he saw everyone else's mother/ fathers and instead he was picked up by his brothers and sisters.
I think that these two examples are very significant because they both show the love for these two different thinks but they also show the pain that happens when these untold actions happen.
One symbol that is significant in the book The Color of Water is Rachel’s (the mom) bike. The bike symbolizes getting away from all of the scariness and sadness of being lonely. Rachel’s two previous husbands had died in the past and she feels that every time she gets into a relationship the person dies on her. Being a single mom is hard but a single mom of twelve is almost impossible. She’s surviving physically by having a house, food and clothes for her and her family but mentally she is struggling.
she died once before when her family disowned her. I think she may be heading in the same path. This bicycle is keeping her from zigzagging everywhere. Its making her keep straight and not to fall of her bike. Her bike is the only thing that is sturdy and that has not died on her through the years. It’s the only thing that she has had through all the rough times. Rachel has a relationship with her bike that is strong. This is the only relationship in Rachel’s life that she can control. The relationship she had with her parents was a distant one. Then when she left them they had a spiritual funeral for her. She was dead to them.
Her two husbands she loved but when she needed them most they died and since all of these tragedies she has been longing for this emotional help that has been hidden from her all of her life. Her bike gives her a glimpse of happiness and help and escape. James is embarresed to be seen with his mother all the time because she’s white but when she’s on the bike its pure torture. For James the bike symbolizes not fitting in and being an outsider.
The only thing James wants is to be in with the gang and fit the norm in his community but it’s as if this bike is the blockade in his way. In the book it says how James would skip school and do drugs. He did this to be cool but also to get away from everything. In this way him and his mother relate. They both want to get away from their problems but they have different ways of doing it.
I think that one symbol in the book so far is the father's car. Ever since the father died, they never used the car. It symbolizes that James's family, particularly his mother, probably doesn't choose to use the car because she either really likes her bike, or doesn't want to use it because it brings back so many memories of her husband and it's too much to handle. So far, we don't know much about how the mother feels about the father's death, and even though she is strict with her children, she probably only shows her soft side when she's around or thinking about her father. The car just sat on the curb, clean and unused, and like Jamie said, I think it shows how she never wants to use the car again because she has no intentions of getting married. Every day, she rode her bike, and never deliberated about ever doing something with the car. I think it shows that ever since James's father died, his mother tried not to let it affect her that much, but even so, her personality probably changed after his death, which resulted in her behavior towards her children.
Hi, it's Kai W.
I think one of the symbols in “The Color Of Water” is the father’s car and how the mother chooses to ignore it.
The car is shiny and polished; it is perfectly capable of serving the family’s transportation needs. Compared to the ancient bicycle, it is obvious choice. However, the mother continues to ignore it, passing it silently as she drives along on the old bicycle. I think the car symbols dependence, aid and support. It represents her dead husband and the benefits of a husband/father figure to her family. But the mother wants independence, to do things for her. She prefers the old bicycle to the shiny car. She needs to do things her way and does not want help or support, in this case, the car. She wants her own handle on her family, her own take on life. He mother has, in a sense, chosen herself over a husband. The bike is her tool to clear her mind and get a grip on her and her children’s lives. The car is a nice option but not what she wants or needs. The car is like an obstacle. And while her family prefers the help and ease of their father’s car, the mom is the boss and she wants to keep it that way. While the bicycle is old and obnoxious, it serves the same purpose as the car. I think that the mother needs to prove something and she does she in her defiance and resistance to the father’s car.
I think one of the main symbols so far is James's mother's bike. It is a symbol of happiness. When she is riding her bike she is in her own little world, she does not pay attention to the real world. James is a bit embarased that his mother rides that very old bike, but in a way i think he is happy for his mother because she is happy when she is riding her bike. James is not really happy about the bike, but as long as his mother is happy, he is happy.
I think one significant symbol in "The Color of Water" is walking to the school bus. This is a very important time for James because it is the only time he gets to be alone with his mother. At first he was scared to go on the bus to school. His siblings teased him and being the kindergartener he was, he ate up the stories they told him. Once he found out his mother would be walking him to the bus stop, the fear vanished and was replaced with excitement. Living in a house with a mother who does everything by herself, and supervises the twelve kids she has, this time he had with her alone was rare.
For James, the walk to school means a chance to bond with his mom. It’s an escape from the chaos that lives with him in his house. A chance for him to get full attention. When living among twelve other children, there is barely any time for individual love. Every kid is given the same amount of love and the same amount of attention and this may cause a child to question whether he/she is unique. With this special time that James had alone with his mother, he really had her all to himself, and this kind of pleasure was very hard to come by.
When James' mom did not show up at the bus stop because she said he needed to start walking home by himself, he became confused because his mind was clouded with the fact this had broken a daily routine that he knew so well. James was also scared and sad because his special time with his mother had come to an end.
I think three of the major symbols in the book The Color Of Water are the bicycle, when James' mom had referred to herself as "dead." The bike was a major symbol because James had explained it as if riding that bike was a sickness. It had worried him. The bike had represented a bridge for the mom from the real world, and her world to think. The bike enabled her to break away from the rest of the world and only leave herself and her problems in life alone. She didn't seem to care what other people had thought of her being insane when everyday riding the old bike along the same path. I think one of the reasons she had kept that old bike was because although it seems that she doesn't mind change, because she had changed who she was many times just to get over the past, she secretly despises it. She keeps that bike only because it is her only connection to the past, and when she rides it she thinks about the past, such as her problems with family, and both her late husbands. Without her past problems, James' mom wouldn't have been the type of person she was then. I think that one specific example from the book really stood out to me was when James was explaining all of the places his mother would pass during her bike ride, she passes the place where a kid named Roger was killed. That place connected to the past and what had happened then, so thinking about the past is really important in this book. Also how the mother rides the same course everyday, not wanting any change because I think she likes the feeling of knowing exactly where she was going and making her own path and being able to feel comfortable with it. Comfortable enough wit hit as to not even have to concentrate on where she was going, just to think.
Another major symbol is when James' mother had referred to herself as "dead." When she meant dead, I think she meant that her past was dead. Earlier in the book, the mom had described her past with a nostalgic way. Yet she had seemed as if she were glad that part of her life was over. She had gotten a new start on life, and in doing so she never talked about her past life as an Orthodox Jew living in Europe, but as an American woman married to a black man. She never really described her parents, but when she had they were described as not the best parents a person could have. She seemed almost glad that her past life was "dead" and never to be spoken of again because she could start off on a clean slate and she would be more aware of which steps to take in life to get in the right direction. "I was born an Orthodox Jew on April 1, 1921, April Fool's Day, in Poland. I don't remember the name of the town where I was born, but I do remember my Jewish name: Ruchel Dwajra Zylska. My parents got ride of that name when we came to American and changed it to Rachel Deborah Shilsky, and I got rid of that name when I was nineteen and never used it again after I left Virginia for good in 1941. Rachel Shilsky is dead as far as I'm concerned. She had to die in order for me, the rest of me, to live." (Pages 1-2)
Two significant symbols in "The Color of Water" are the bike and the bus. These are two very contradicting yet important symbols. The bike shows how the narrator and his brothers are ashamed of their mother and the bus shows the realization of how important she is.
"She was already white, that was bad enough, but to ride an old bike that went out of style a hundred years ago?" The narrator can't deal with the fact that his mother embarrasses whenever she comes around but when she doesn't come around to pick him up, he feels panicked. He depends on his mother so much and to have her not be there that one time was scary for him. The bus and his mother not coming shows that he really does love her regardless of him being embarrassed by the bike and her being white.
The narrator's "first day of school attire" plays an important role in the 2nd chapter. Although it only appears for a moment, it's description is sullen and dreary: "It was a gray coat with a fur collar that had literally been chewed up by somebody." This uniform is a hand-me-down from multiple siblings of the narrator. As one of the middle children, we can tell as readers that this is not something he is too keen about. Although he doesn't seem to happy about the outfit, the narrator also has a significant connection to it. His first day of school where these clothes are first seen is also a day where he forms a particularly close relationship with his mother. He ends the moment where he is describing his day, with something his mother said while she was helping him get ready. "'C'mon.' She said. 'Ill walk you to the bus stop." His garb for the first day of school symbolizes his inevitability about his family, but also how his mother occasional warmth.
A symbol that is especially significant to me so far in this book are the siblings, mother, and James' clothes. I think that even though their clothes weren't mentioned as much in the chapter, it describes a lot about their family and James. The clothes represents the journey and hardships their family has gone through and separates them from the rest, in the same way his mother is separated. The clothes is also significant because it shows not only everything they've had to deal with, like poverty but the unison of them all dealing with it together, and wearing the same clothes. It brings a strong family essence. The clothes also symbolizes James' life because as he explained, in his teens, he starts failing school, stealing, and more, resembling the dirty rips and stains of his clothes. But then at the same time the clothes represents his family and their care. Everyone wears hand me downs and shares, bringing his siblings and mothers presence in his clothes as well. For example, "They were a motley crew of girls and boys, ragged, with wild hairdos and unkempt jackets, hooting, making noise, and only when they were almost upon me did I recognize the faces of my elder siblings... as they gathers around me laughing" (14) This quote signifies the comfort his siblings bring him and how the clothes is dirty but it comes with the comfort of his family.
I agree with most of the people above that the most significant symbol so far in The Color of Water has been the mother’s bike. “The image of her riding that bicycle typified her whole existence to me. Her oddness, her complete nonawareness of what the world thought of her”. I think the bike really signifies the boy’s relationship with his mother. He thinks she is slightly crazy but he respects her for having self-confidence. Although James is worried for his mothers safety and about what people will think of her on the bike he is never mad about the fact that she rides the bike, he believes it is a part of her “grieving process”. Overall I think the bike shows that James and his mother have a complicated relationship, he loves her because she is his mom, because she believes in herself and doesn’t care what people think of her, and finally he loves her in protective way because she can act clueless at times.
Julian and his mother both symbolize their parents having a look. Julian's mother has a walk that every one knows what will happen. When Julian’s mom walks a certain way Julian and all of his siblings know that she is angry.
Julian’s mother had a similar experience with her father. Julian’s, mothers father had his pants that he wears all the time. Her father had a walk like her. Her father had a walk when she knew either she was in trouble or someone else.
A significant symbol in The Color of Water is the five minutes James and his mother walk to the bus stop alone together. James expresses his happiness in this moment because this was the first moment in his life that he was completely alone with his mother. This moment is significant because this scene demonstrates the small moments in life James is content with. Though most people would not think much of a five-minute walk alone with their mother, James demonstrates his extreme happiness in these brief walks because it is the sole time he is alone with his mother. In a family of twelve, James expresses the difficulties of living with so many siblings, he states that there are constant sibling rivalries to spend time with their mother. So when James is alone with his mother, this is a small but mighty accomplishment for himself.
A symbol in “The Color of Water” is the bike. When the mother rides the bike, it symbolizes her being one person who can’t be bothered by anything that by passes her. “A middle-aged white women on an antique bicycle with black kids zipping past her on Sting-Ray bikes and skateboards, popping wheelies and throwing baseballs that whizzed past her head, tossing firecrackers that burst all around her.” James McBride is talks about how his mother and her solitude. It is as if when she is on her bike no harm can reach her. When she is on her bike she hears nothing. Being a single mom with 12 children to monitor is a very, very hard job to do. Everyone needs their space away from madness and other human beings ounce and a while but with being around 12 children almost every second of your life you more than just a break you need a time to reflect on your past and present and ignore your surroundings in peace.
A significant symbol in “The Color of Water” is the narrator’s mother’s impassiveness toward other individuals, and occasionally toward her own children. Throughout the beginning of the story the narrator’s mother is depicted as being in rebellion to her family. This rebellion is mainly due to her family’s oppressive social order in which they impose their ideology on their children “There were too many rules to follow, too many forbidden and you can’ts and you mustn’ts...”
Because of her family’s social order the narrator’s mother becomes distant from her family and disregards their religion by marrying the narrator’s father. It is because the narrator’s mother becomes cut off from her family at an early age and the death of both of her husbands that she becomes more reserved and impassive. The narrator’s mother also takes on the habit of doing things different than what is considered normal. For instance , the mother insists on riding a bicycle that “went out of style a hundred years ago.” Though the bicycle greatly displeases her children and arouses the curiosity of many of her neighbors, the narrator’s mother continues to ride the bike. The narrator himself speculates that his mother’s attitude is in fact a psychological defense mechanism against adversity. “...A (the narrator’s mother’s) nonchalance in the face of what I perceived to be imminent danger from blacks and whites who disliked her for being a white person In a black world. “ Therefore it is because the narrator’s mother is so accustomed to adversity and has experienced great emotional pain that she maintains an impassive countenance. (It’s her poker face!!!!!!)
I think a symbol in “The Color of Water” is the stepfather’s car. It was abandoned after he died. James’ mother does not use the car she prefers to use her old bicycle. She works hard to pedal the old bike and get places and I think that symbolizes the work that she puts into keeping her family together. I think the car is a symbol of dependence. She feels by taking the car she is relying on her late husband or is relying on a second party to make work easier for her. James’ mother is a very independent person and I think to her the car symbolizes and easy way out and her bike symbolizes the hard work and care she puts into her family. The car might be easier but it would involve her being dependent.
Many people have said that among all of the symbols in "The Color of Water" so far, the "antique" bicycle is the most important and I agree. The bicycle symbolizes the mother. It symbolizes her attitude towards the rest of her community and in a way, the world. She seems to be completely oblivious of the fact the she is the only white woman in her neighborhood, the only woman with twelve children, and the only woman with children that don't look like her. In her world the only things that exist are herself, her kids, piano, and the bike. She is already an outsider in her community, so for her to ride an old bike up and down the street and at such a slow pace reinforces that fact that she is different. When she rides her bike, it’s her way of saying, I don’t care that I’m different or an outsider. That’s exactly why James and his sibling don’t like it when their mother rides her bike; she’s already different, but she chooses to make herself even more different which embarrasses them and generally makes them uncomfortable. Also James talks about how his mother being middle-aged changes a lot as well. A child could ride his bike up and down a street and no one would think anything of it, even if the child was an outsider. When a grown woman who’s already an outsider rides her bike down the street slowly people think that she’s crazy and needs a lot of help.
-Kai Marcel
I think the most significant symbol, like most people said, is the bike. The bike shows a sense of a family that wants to be unique. Not only are they unique in terms of transportation, but the family is also unique in terms of race. The mother is a predominant Jewish woman, who is living in a neighborhood that consisted mostly of African Americans. She decided that it was not necessary to move after her black husband had died.
The bike also shows the families strength. As long as that bike lives, the family's strength lives. They had gone through a lot, having two fathers die on them, one who was hated, and one who was loved. Nothing will ever stop the symbolize qualities until the bike is no longer in existence.
In addition to the symbols mentioned by my classmates a Symbol that appeared in the first two chapters of The Color of Water is Family, fathers in particular within the families. Family is a symbol so far because in the story there have been many references to of fathers and family. Family is also a symbol because it relates to of many other symbols that were in the first two chapters.
James talks a lot about his stepfather in the second chapter. He described about how his stepfather would only come home on weekends, to fix things, and with food and gifts, such as tricycles to bring for the family. He would also talk about how his stepfather though poor was very neat and tidy. In contrast the mother described her father, as very mean, strong, abusive, and merciless.
The symbol of Family relates to other symbols in the story like the bicycle. As someone above said, the mother uses time riding the bike to be in her own bubble, be able to think about things that she needs to think about, and James McBride said that he believes, though he didn’t think about it at the time, that riding the bike was his mother’s way of grieving for the deaths of two husbands.
One major symbol is the bicycle. The reason the bicycle is most significant is because of the attachment. The mother had a attachment to the bike because it reminded her of her prior love. Since the step father died the mother had a harsh time coping. The bike symbolizes herself in the essence of how shaky she actually is. When she rides the bike, she thinks. Ruth ignores the others as she goes slowly, like time doesn't matter. Just as James described in the story, the bike symbolizes her time alone, slowly moving among the crowd. When she arrives home, before the bike collapses, she then snaps back into boss mode and calmly returns to her original state.
A significant symbol in The Color of Water is James hand-me-down clothes. After his step father dies, a poor single mother raises James and his eleven siblings. Since he is one of the younger ones, James only gets clothes that are passed down—he never has anything that was just bought especially for him. Similarly, except for walking him to the bus in kindergarten, he never gets any individual attention from his mother. In his house, there is hardly ever any time for an individual. Not only is James unable to enjoy the luxuries that might be accessible to other children, but he is also unable to receive the same type of attention that children require. This is best demonstrated in that even on his first day of school he does not wear new cloths. While starting school is like an adventure for him, his family treats it like “standard procedure” and acts like it does not merit any extra attention. What is incredibly important to James cannot be important to the family, and, while this may seem like a cold gesture, it is a reality. Nonetheless, his mother still makes an effort in that she makes sure his clothes are absolutely clean and that they fit him. Despite not getting new clothes, his mother’s love makes them seem new. Besides symbolizing his mother’s love and his poverty, his clothes also symbolize that they are close as a family. Not only do they share a very cramped space, but also they even share clothes with each other.
A major symbol in the story is James’s mother’s name. Her original Yiddish name is a symbol of his mother’s jewishness. It is the name that her parents gave her. This name, however, had a rather dark representation. Back in the time that she was in Poland, the Poles excluded the Jews from the rest of society. They were treated as subservient to everyone else. This name hung that repressive cloud over her head; hence her name was then anglicized afterwards. At the time of the Holocaust, the USA was fighting against Hitler and his companions. The anglicized name, to them, represented the hopes and dreams of a future anew; where they could finally be assimilated into society as equal. After this, she changed her name yet again. This change was a renewing of her own identity. James’s mother’s name to her is like what Malcolm X’s last name was to him, or my own grandmother’s name that was changed when she came to America. Her name represents three very different stages in her life.
A significant symbol in the first two chapters of "The Color of Water" is family, like Khalil said. From the beginning of the book, it has been about James and his mother's parentage and the differences and similarities in their raising. James' mother was raised with an overbearing father who she grew to resent over time. But she loved her mother and regretted leaving her. I think there is positivity regarding the mothers, but negativity regarding the fathers. James revered his mother and spoke about her to the smallest detail. How she looked, acted, and her significance in his life.
Her father's parenting ideals passed to her and how she raised the children, though it did not liken to resentment (pertaining to James, as it did with his mother).
An important symbol in The Color of Water is a name. For the mother names are like shackles and she does everything in her power not to be held captive by them. As she said in the first chapter,"Rachel Shilsky is dead as far as I'm concerned. She had to die in order for me, the rest of me, to live." This is an example of how she felt that names put her in a box. She never cared about how people saw her. She would do what her children thought of as outrageous activities and merely turn the other cheek. The way she saw it people are people. period.
To the mother names were also a way of running away. If she was nobody then she could never be tied down. She was always free to run away to a world in her mind where there are no limitations. If a tree is not called a tree than it can be anything the individual wants.
I think that James' mother walking him to the bus stop resembles being closer to each other. James says how this is the best part of his day and how he remembers the walks to the bus stops as his only time being alone with his mother. He, still being a very young boy, feels secured and comforted having someone walk by his` side during the two block walk, but I believe that having his mother with him makes this experience all more exciting for him.
This part of the day symbolizes being close with family. We see that as James grew up, he viewed the practices of his mother as quite odd. In times where James and his mother are around, that wondering why and strangness around each other seems to disappear.
I think that one symbol in the book so far is the father's car. Ever since the father died, they never used the car. It symbolizes that James's family, particularly his mother, probably doesn't choose to use the car because she either really likes her bike, or doesn't want to use it because it brings back so many memories of her husband and it's too much to handle. So far, we don't know much about how the mother feels about the father's death, and even though she is strict with her children, she probably only shows her soft side when she's around or thinking about her father. The car just sat on the curb, clean and unused, and like Jamie said, I think it shows how she never wants to use the car again because she has no intentions of getting married. Every day, she rode her bike, and never deliberated about ever doing something with the car. I think it shows that ever since James's father died, his mother tried not to let it affect her that much, but even so, her personality probably changed after his death, which resulted in her behavior towards her children.
From Cara- Sorry about the previous. Wrong account.
I think that the most important symbol in the first two chapters of The Color of Water is transportation. When the mom and the main character ride on a vehicle, they are within it and they go on their way, and nothing at all happens to them But all around them there is conflict. Kids treat the mom unfairly just because she was of another color. But she does not care, and goes on on her way, not stopping or collapsing under such hardships. The main character finds his mom a stranger in a midst of people alike him, and still naive to the world of racial discrimination, has not learned how to ride on the vehicle. She is affected by what he sees outside the vehicle, and does not yet know how to ignore these things and move directly forward in the vehicle and ignore everything going on around it.
Like many of my classmates stated, the mother's bike is a very significant symbol in these chapters. I think it's the mothers way of escaping the world. She lives in a black neighborhood and she is aware that she might be the only white person in the neighborhood. Riding her bike is a way of meditation for her. It relaxes her. Riding her bike makes lets her step back from her hectic life and unwind. I think the fact that rachel is white in a black neighborhood shows a contradiction. It shows that she is an outsider but the fact that she is white makes her of "higher position".
The bike seems to be one of the most significant symbols in the first two chapters. The bike could symbolize many aspects of the story, but out of everything we have red so far in the book, it seems to represent the fact that the narrators family is running away from her past and her problems. In the beginning of chapter one, the mom explains to the narrator that she is “dead” to her family. The narrator also says that it took him fourteen years to get his mother to actually tell him her story. The fact that the mother also was riding her bike to mourn her dead husband shows that she uses her bike as a type of stress relief. As shown in the first two chapters, the mothers bike is used as a way for her to run away from her past and problems.
Additional post: In the beginning of the book, James mentions, briefly, about a piano Ruth had. Although there are only 2-3 sentences about it in this book, I think its a significant symbol.
"When I was fourteen, my mother took up two new hobbies: riding a bicycle and playing piano." (5)
The fact that Ruth only pursued 2 hobbies is interesting. But what is most interesting is that they seem to both have a hidden 'theme' of being isolated and alone and 'in your own world'. They are hobbies you usually do by yourself and these 2 hobbies seem to be one of those.
I think the piano is a symbol because it defines who Ruth is as a person and her environment. I think the piano can even symbolize her life story. If you really think about what a piano looks like, it has black and white keys. The black and white keys are next to each other. I think this symbolizes her being close with her husbands because they were black and she was white. The keys could also symbolize her being the only white person in her community. It represents her standing out/being an outsider.
The piano as a whole is usually black. This symbolizes her children. Since we now know, her children identify themselves as black jews. (even though they are black on the outside, they're is a part of them that is white/jewish)
If you start playing the piano from low to high, the sounds seem to be Ruths' voice throughout her life. When you think about it, In the begining of Ruths' life, it was really dark and it haunted her, hence making a low sound on the piano. As her life went on and she became proud of herself and her kids and the piano seemed to play in a more higher tune.
One significant symbol in this book is skin color and race. The mother is a white woman who lives in a black neighborhood. She would automatically stand out, but the fact that she has black children makes her even more unique. The mother doesn't care, which is surprising considering most would be humiliated. A time when race really sticks out is when the James is on the bus and is waiting for his mother. When she picks him he asks, " Why don't you look like the other mothers." this shows that not only the community recognizes the divide but her kids do as well.
Another symbol in the book is realization. James is seeing his mother go crazy, by riding vintage bikes in the street where everyone can see and comment, before his eyes. He knows she is slowly slipping. But yet he also realizes that she is the strength, that on her way slipping she will raise all of the children up. It is this idea that one can observe the amazing feat and yet still feel embarrassed that this happened is the major theme.
Post a Comment