In chapter 16 James writes: "I began my own process of running" (138). What does he mean? What examples from this chapter best show how and why Jack symbolically began to run away?
By saying "his own process" he is comparing it to his mothers process of running. At two other points of the book, running has been a symbol for escape, safety, and managing fear. The mother first "runs," litterally, when she discovers her love of sprinting to get away from her abusive father, and her terrible life. She then found herself running when she bought her bike, now finding a way to escape, and feel happy and free again. James' way of running is through drugs, and being a "punk."He runs away to deal with his anger, and how hurt his mother feels.
Throughout chapter 16, we see him "run" in many different ways. It begins as he talks about trying drugs, and eventually turns into stealing, and almost getting arrested. Although he realizes that his actions are wrong, he also feels that this lets him escape, and his "friends became his family, and his family became the people he lived with." James symbollically runs to get away from his mothers emotionalness, and his own fear and saddness.
James really loved his mother, but he could not stand her suffering. He wanted to run from the "sufferings" he had in life, to run away from the sorrows, the world of prejudice and injustice he was in. He wanted to run away, and do the world some injustices, to try to get back at it with crime and anger. He had been pulling a rock weighing a ton on sand paper for all his life, and his criminal deeds released him from the never ending beat of suffering and sadness.
After the death of the father, the world that Ruth had so painstakingly created was falling apart. James had drugs, stole, drank beer, and was a total punk, the opposite of what his mother hoped for him. However, this was the only way for him to drop the rock. He needed this time for him and his mom to regain their senses.
Isn't the quote "I began my own process of running" from chapter 14?
I think that when James McBride states the fact that he too, was starting to run away, he means that he was mentally running from his own thought's, fears, grief, and responsibility by distracting himself with other surroundings and toxins. He clearly states that it was his OWN process of running, hinting that it was very different from his mother's process of running, which was riding a bike all the time. She did it to stay calm, and mentally stable. James did it to hide from his emotions. For example, in the beginning of the chapter, he describes how after his step-father died, his mother was very distant and that "the fire was gone" (137) He had no one to tell him what not to do. More specifically, James began to runaway because he couldn't handle being in the house with his mother and seeing the way she was, hearing her continuously play the piano, and watching his house crumble from lack of care. He spent as much time out of the house as he could, which meant more time in the outside world, unprotected by his mother. He joined a band and met other kids and with them, started to smoke, drink, shoplift, and more. James found it as a way to ignore reality.
In chapter 16 James writes: "I began my own process of running" This quote meant that he had to be away from his mom as his mom wanted to be away from her dad. Jack starts to run away because he doesn't want to be near all the drama and to see his mother start to die away. When he starts to smoke and do the things he does, it calms him down. As he says in this chapter.
When James says he began his "own process of running" He means, that he began to journey to escaping. His mother's process of running, was when she first found her love for sprinting when she was dealing with the pain from her abusive relationship with her father, and then as Kira said, when she began to ride the old bike that James' step father found, around the neighborhood. Now James was too running away, however his way of running away was much different than his mother's.
First James basically dropped out of school. His grades dropped dangerously low, and he gave up on going in general. He quit going to church and gave up on religion. Soon he became involved in violent and illegal things such as drug use, robbing people, and getting wasted. He got high and drunk to deal with the pain, while his mother, years before, literally ran to make her forget the pain.
What James means is that his mom has ran away from most things that occurred in her life and now James is doing the same. But James is not running from his past, he is running from his mom. He is running from his mom so he can be on his own and do what he want with out getting in trouble with her.
Lately James has been stealing, drinking, and doing drugs and has kept this away from his mom. He also dropped out of school without the mom knowing. She still thought that James went to school. He also just wants to live his own life and he can't do that if he is with his mom.
James says he ran the way his mother had ran. However he ran "in his own process". His mother ran from her abusive father. She could stand to stay where she wasn't loved. She felt over powered, that she couldn't speak for herself. Her father had taken her from public in a way. All he life she ran from her father. The only thing that made her feel happy was to get away from him. She had to feel speed going past her, anything to get her mind off of him. On the day of her graduationshe had to go to a church.. Her father didn't let her, he wouldn't dare have her step in a church. It was against her religion, but Ruth wanted to be with Frances, her friend, to graduate beside her. But as they were about to step into the church, Ruth stepped out because inside she felt she was going against her religion. It was almost like she had been imprisoned by her father and even if he wasn't there... It was imprinted in her mind not to do this. The day after graduation, Ruth left for New York
James in a way ran form his family aswell, but not in a litteral way. He ran by stealing form sores, drinking, trying drugs. He would do all of this with his friends. He dropped out of school and forged his report cards. He felt free away from his family. It didn't matter who he was with to "feel good" just as long as he wasn't near his mother. After his step-father died he almost immediatly became this person. This person who did the same thing everyday, and felt like he couldn't stop. He did this to be away form his mother. Away from the moarning in his house.
For me, while reading these chapters, pittness came in mind for JAmes. Before his step father died he had told James that he was the oldest child of the house. That he had to take care of his younger brothers and siters. Yet James disconnected himself from his mother. He couldn't bare see her. He couldn't confront her suffering the way his sibilings had.
In chapter 14, James begins to pull away from his family, mainly his mother who is in deep emotional pain. Ruth has become quite listless since her husband died. To cope, she chose to learn how to ride a bike. When James says," I began my own process of running," he means he chose his own particular way of coping with his pain.
He begins to experiment with drugs, running with kids who could relate to him, and getting into risky situations. James' grades plummet and he skips school. He does this all without his mother knowing, he knows it will hurt her even more. He wants to detach himself from his mother's suffering, but this soon fails. She finds out from the school about his absences and he is sent away to live with his sister, Jack.
When James’ mother, Ruth, runs she tries desperately to escape her reality. She literally runs to put everything behind her. Ruth runs to detach herself from her world and from her suffering. She runs from her abusive father, her crippled mother, the pain she feels at school and all sources of pain in her life. It’s as though she believes that running is her safe haven.
James can’t handle his mother’s suffering. Since his stepfather is dead, he knows he should help Ruth take care of the family. It is the right thing to do. James can’t handle that responsibility and seeing his mother juggle that many kids on her own so instead of offering help, he turns to drugs and crime. James is scared, Ii think, of becoming the eldest and he gets lost in a world of crime. That is how he runs away from his mother’s pain, he runs into drugs and alcohol and shoplifting and mugging and he does this all to escape his reality the way his mother escaped hers in Suffolk Virginia years ago.
We all have a process of 'running' or just simply escaping from the real world for a little bit. Some people write poetry, some people go to the movies, some literally run like Ruth, and some like James turn to substance abuse. By constantly taking drugs and whatnot, he has escaped into a carefree world. By doing what he did, he lost all responsibility and all expectations. The damage was done and he had hit rock bottom. There was no way he could possibly have disappointed his mother any more. In this way he ran away. He left everything behind. His mother did it in a much calmer and level headed way because she was forced to. She had her father to face if if she was caught as a child and kids to worry about as an adult. She had no real escape.
"I began my own process of running" shows James' mind set during his teenage years. His own process of running was mentally and physically escaping. Some ways he was escaping was through drugs and alcohol, and doing things like shoplifting, getting himself involved with bad people, ditching school and church, and coming home as late as he wanted. He compares this to how is mother escaped in her early life. The way that Ruth escaped was by escaping her judgmental and hard lifestyle both literally and figuratively. She escaped and rebelled her harsh and abusive father. She did this by sprinting and by getting involved and falling in love with a black man. She would also flee over the summers by going to New York, just like James went to Jack's house each summer.
James needed to break free from his hopeless family and did this through his unruly manners. "Daddy's" death caused misery and suffering within the family and especially within his mother. Ruth is not mentally stable after his death and the family starts to fall apart. "Gradually the house slipped farther and farther into despair. I ignored it." When Ruth doesn't do anything about the house crumbling, neither does James.
When James writes that he is starting his own process of running, he is referring to his mother's proccess of running. He physically runs away by being often not at home and he does drugs and steals which both help him run away from the truth. He states that his mother was falling apart after Hunter Sr. died and he just needed to leave. After he ran away he realized that he needed that foundation and support of education and family. After his trips to Kentucky, he slowly reassured himself that he needed to run towards his problems and the truth instead of running away from them.
When James says he began his process of “running” he is talking about how both him and his mother at some point in their life physically and mentally ran away from their lives.
His mother physically ran away by defying her father, moving to New York, and marrying a black man. She mentally ran away from her family’s traditions and values by becoming Christian and also by marrying a black man. James runs away physically by going to Virginia and sort of moving out of his mother’s house. He runs away mentally by becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol. James mentally runs away by stopping to believe in the world his mother has created at home. James gets to a point where he no longer cares that he is the oldest, the “king” in the house. He does not feel motivated to do well in school or church like he was raised. He doesn’t respect or listen to his mother. Rachel or his siblings can no longer help him. The only person who was able to stop James from abusing drugs and alcohol and figure out who he was, in order to become a successful person was himself.
I think although both of these beak downs seemed destructive, overall they were beneficial to James and Rachel. They both had crazy childhoods and running away, physically and mentally, was a way for them to separate from their family and find themselves. I think after “running” they each became individual adults instead of children hurt by their insane families.
Ruth isn’t the only one who has been affected by the death of the stepfather. James has also. I agree with Kira that he is comparing his process to his mother’s. Ruth has been an eye witness to death before and didn’t know how to react, but didn’t have much of a say in that matter. James is going through the same feelings that his mother went through at the death of Zaydeh. The only difference is that he has a choice in how to a deal with it. He decides to “run” away from his emotions by doing drugs, dealing drugs, gambling, shop-lifting, and flunking out of his classes. He’d rather resort to these than have to sit through countless hours of his sorrow. He even says on page 140 that “I was obviously hiding, and angry as well, but I would never admit that to myself.” He is on a search for happiness, but he started his search in the wrong place. These awful acts will only hang over his head and give him even more grief.
Hi, it’s Stef. In the Color of Water when James writes “I began my own process of running,” he ment that his mother had ran to escape her problems, and he had done the same. Whenever Rachel had felt depressed, sad or bored, she would go out and run, because it would make her feal better. When James’s father died, he felt deppressed and sad, so he began to flunk school, do drugs, and become an overall gangster. This was his way of running. Though becoming a gangster and running have nothing in common, they both releaved James and his mother of their depression, saddness, and bordum. The reason that James said that he began his own form of running was because his mother had been running, and he felt that he had began a form of running when he became a gangster because he did it for the same reason that his mother had began to run; because something happened in their life that made them depressed or sad.
After the death of James’s stepfather he feels as though he can no longer cope with the emotional complexities of life. Also, his mother’s constant mourning of James’s stepfather only exacerbates this feeling. Thus, James attempts to forget about his own personal troubles by “running away” or emotionally disconnecting himself from his family. James occupies himself primarily by surrounding himself with new friends in order to make himself feel more secure about himself. And though James still has morals his mother instilled in him he dismisses these as they remind him of his own suffering. For instance, when Chicken Man lectures James about how only he can make something of his life, James dismisses this by stating that “ He’s just a drunk.” The most significant way in which James “runs away” is by disobeying his mother’s wishes. Throughout most of his childhood, James’ mother was the sole guiding force of his life. But now that his stepfather has died , James’ mother’s teachings seem void to James and he purposely attempts to ignore his mother’s admonishments.
When James says he is running, i think he means that he is trying to run away from his problems. It is his turn to run away from his problems like his family and friends did. Jack is just acting like his mother by running away. James and his mother share the same feelings when they are growing up. James feels as though running is the only way he can escape his problems. His mother felt the same way. When James's mother friend died his mother just washed the same pot for hours like she was trying to run away from her problem. A symbol of running away for James his his father's car. The mother never uses the car so she does not have to remember her husband. In a way when they do not use the car they are running away from their problems instead of confronting them.
When James says he began his own process of running, he meant that he was running in the same way his mother had. They had both run to get away from the hardships in their life. However, James running was to avoid seeing his mothers grief while Ruth's running was to escape from her own grief. Both were doing it to disconnect from life, even if for just a moment. Ruth did this by literally running all over town. James does this by doing drugs that make him feel detached from everything he has to deal with.
As Mikah said, Ruth's father's ideas were imprinted in her mind even when he wasn't there. This is the same for James except that drug addiction replaces ideas. After a while James wanted to turn his life around but he couldn't resist doing the drugs that he had used as a crutch for so long. As James said, "Every single day--on the way to school, during school, and on the way home--I felt I had to get high...Weed was my friend, weed kept me running from the truth. And the truth was that my mother was falling apart." He felt that even though drugs made the hurt go away, they always made him come crashing back to a painful reality.
I think that when Jack says that he is beginning his own process of running, he means that he is falling into the same footsteps of his mother. I think that he realizes that she has been running all of her life and he knows that he doesn’t want to go through the same thing. However, he really has no choice due to some of the new problems forcing their way into Jack’s life.
One problem Jack has is that he used to look forward to seeing his mother; he used to love to go places with her and to just hang out with the family. However, this tight family bond that Jack has described earlier in the book is beginning to fall apart. It all started with his sister leaving the house, and then his mother’s husband and best friend passing away. I feel that when Ruth’s friend passed away, the family fell apart for good. Jack describes that whenever he or his siblings approached their mother, she would always answer them with insults and yelling. This doesn’t sound like a very good environment to live in. Often times, when you don’t feel safe in the place where you are growing up, you want to get out. You want to stay away from those problems as much as possible, so it is only natural for Jack to want some freedom, and to run away from this so called “house of horrors.”
I think that what Ruth was running away from as a kid is very similar to what Jack is dealing with during his childhood. I feel that Ruth, like Jack, did not have a very happy childhood. Instead of it being filled with happiness, love, and laughter, it consisted more of fear, hate, and awkwardness. Her father sexually assaulted her, her parents argued all the time, and all she did was work until she left for New York. Both Ruth and Jack didn’t have a very good household, and in turn, decided to run away from their problems instead of facing them. For example, Ruth realizes that she is giving her son this same awful experience by being the parent that both of them hate so much. I’m not entirely sure if Ruth realizes that she is mirroring her father by striking fear into her kid's lives and creating a household where the only thing anyone wants to do is get out of it. Ruth uses her bicycle to do so, and Jack uses his new friends, who he later realizes are taking him down the wrong path. My final point is that both Jack and his mother are running away from the same things and there is nothing they can do about it until Jack’s mother, the role model of the family, can get it together and create that happy family that she never had.
When James talks about running he is talking about trying to escape or doing things to try to get away from or separate himself his problems. For example James’s Mother would run up and down the streets of her neighborhood to away from her family, especially her abusive father she would try to distract herself from her abuse and family life. James begins "his own process of running" by leave his family all the time, skipping school and doing drugs. The reason that James was running is because of his mother. He loves his mother very much but he wanted to disconnect himself from her and her problems. She was very sad after her husband died and so was James but James did not want to face his sadness or the fact that his stepfather was gone. James’s mother's sadness reminded him of all the sadness he was feel and suppressing. James did not want to be reminded of his stepfather’s death so he started his process of running away and separating himself from his mother and his family.
In the beginning of the book we learn how Ruth rides her bike all around Queens separating herself from the present and reflects on her past. In this case James is trying to get away from his mothers sorrow. After Ruth’s husband died she was at the edge for a while. Then her best friend Irene past away and went on edge again. James did not want to around her at that time. He gets high on drugs and alcohol and became an addict. He had a lot of trouble with finding his inner self and how to deal with his life. He hung out on the corner with Big Richard and his friends where a lot of bad things happened. People got shot after getting into an argument. James had really screwed himself up and had no courage to fix it. In a chapter he talks about how every time he went home and put the key to the door he would say to himself that was the last time he would do drugs but he never did. He felt that everyday he needed to get high. That was his way of putting all the troubles aside.
When James had said "I began my own process of running" he meant that like his mother, he began to run away from his problems. When Ruth was younger, she loved to run. She used running as a way to escape the horrors in life. As she aged she started to use her bicycle as an escape from the difficulties in life. James had not used running or bicycles as his way to leave the world around him, he used drugs. James had dropped out of school and turned to drugs and the streets. To James, this was his way of "running" away from problems. This seemed to calm him down, and help him to feel happier.
After James' step father had died, James had started to fall apart. James had dropped out of school and would leave the house to go to the streets and do drugs. One of the reasons why James would leave every night was because he couldn't stand to see his mother suffering. Seeing her suffer made him suffer. James wanted to run away from all of it and isolated himself from not only his mother, but his whole family and school life. James had left all of the chaos in his life to bring him happiness, even if it brought his loved ones sadness. James had used to loved being able to be alone with his mother, but because of the death of hes step father, James had seen his mother as some thing to stay away from.
By "running," James is escaping being small in a large family. Though at this point in his life, James did not know about his mother past or childhood, it were very similar to his own; both being different in town's that were not use to change. James knew that it was not just his stepfather’s death that caused his mothers pain, but that there was more regret and sorrow that haunted her life.
His way of escaping or "running" away from this life, was to literally enter another dimension. This meant drugs and alcohol. A lot of drugs and alcohol. His goal was to be feeling-less and cold without a heart. He got high every day and loved it. It made him completely forget where or who he was. Though he tried hard to not care, he was still human and he felt stupid for what he was doing, but could not stop. He had an addiction.
His mother ran away from a crazy household as well. Her house was built in a power structure. Her dad was first, because he was a man and he was a rabbi, and the rest of his family just came after him. She ran from that power structure, and yet recreated it in the household she ran as a mother.
He wanted to steal and smoke to prove something, but what he needed to prove was unclear to everyone including himself. All he knew was that his mother was scared and seeing her hurt would make him soft. He knew being soft in a town like the one he lived in would get him into trouble, so he became hard and ran.
James’ mother began running early in her life. Running was a way for her to be happy and free, and get away from all the chaos in her life. Ruth has to use running to free her emotionally and physically from her family. Since her home was a place with almost no love or comfort. Running helped Ruth escape away from her realistic life, where she had no family support, and was in constant danger from her father. Eventually Ruth ran away from home to create a new home for her family, in which James would be included.
James was born in a house of action. He grew up moving around, so when he states "I began my own process of running" (138). This meant he found his own cause for running. The symbols he had to run from, and the symbols he had to run towards. Symbols that James had to run from the police since he was a criminal, and he had to run from his problems of being a drug and alcohol addict. The symbols he had to run towards were a better and clearer future, and understanding of the world around him. For James running meant leaving the past, and going towards the future.
In chapter 16 when James writes “I began my own process of running,” he is saying that much like his mother he is trying to escape from his life. However, in contrast to his mother who escapes by “forgetting,” he adopts his own way of escaping—drugs. After James’ stepfather dies, Rachel loses control. She is unable to do anything because she is grieving. You would think that James would be given room to grieve as well but it is quite the opposite. Because of his mother’s new found weakness and his fathers death, he is forced to become the head of the house and he is certainly not ready for this. His way of dealing with this new responsibility is to ignore all responsibility and to escape his life all together by smoking weed and drinking. He cannot accept his life and so he attempts to get as far away from it as is humanly possible. This is his way of running.
The example that best shows that he is running is that he quits on his education and his church which are the two things that his mother absolutely enforces. Previously if he had been discovered skipping school and church he would have been beaten, but now his mother no longer cares and neither does he. James has run away from the two main things that characterized both his mother’s love for him and his dedication to his own life.
What James means by saying that, is that he was beginning the process of finding out who he really is, and what he wants to become. Just like how his mother ran away from her home to escape from her home and suffering. His mother ran away from her home and escaped to harlem, there she learned so much more about the world and how she defined herself. James has also began this journey. James wanted to escape his house because of the fact that he was just unable to cope with all the drama of his own house. James goes to spend the summer with his sister, Jack, who lets him hang out with her husband and his friends, who are a bunch of street rats, who hang out on the same corner every day. James talks to his favorit person in the groupe, who’s name is Chickenman, who says, “Youll end up doin time and hanging out on this corner when you get out. Is that what you want for yourself?” After saying this to James, Chickenman dies of being stabbed by a woman who he had goten into a fight with and died. After this incident, James really realizes that life can be short, and that he didn’t want to spend his whole life on that one street corner.
- Oni I think that James means that he started on his own pace compared to his mother. I think that running is a way for the family is take some time from each other and a way of escape, because they could go really fast or really slow but they get a break from all the havoc. First the mother runs to get away from her abusive father and her unreasonable parents that allow her no opinion at all. Running is a way for Rachel and James to just clear their minds and take some time and think/ reflect. When James says, " I began my own process of running" I think that he meant that he began to set his mind on something that he was willing to do. Like he was taking the time out to relax and take his mind off of whatever was troubling him at the moment. In chapter 16 we see James running a lot. I think that this running is a way for him to run away from the suffering that he is experiencing and the pain that he hates to see his mother in. In these chapters we find a lot more about James childhood and his others childhood and how running was a hobby for them and a thing that they both enjoyed. Running has a lot to do with the things that he experiences in life. Like he has to "run" of turn away from drugs and then stealing and leading to almost getting arrested running shows how this boy and his family are always running to do the right thing.
James whole life was stress. his mother was lacking the emotinal help she needed and the two fathers he had in his life were gone. James could not handle his life. so he started running. he ran to drugs, bad influeces, and bad choices. the drugs blocked James from the world, mentally. it made James feel dazed and foregign from the world and his famiy. James met different people who influenced him into doing drugs and were low life losers.James thought these people were cool and people to look up to.James thought a way to avoid life and people was to be a dropout. James was naive and did not want to realize that education is what gets people far in life. being a dropout makes James a quitter, doing drugs makes James a quitter. Sometimes people feel that they need to get away from reality. there are certain ways to vacation from reality but James chose a way that could and would scar him for life.
James began running away from home a lot trying to escape the feelings of his family and his opinions of what is going on in his life, especially surrounding his stepfather’s death. James felt uncomfortable at home and felt that he needed to escape living where everything is sad and depressing. James also wanted to take out his anger by running, and take out any of his other feelings through the quickness of his feet, and the pain of being tired.
James is going through a very pivotal moment in his life. He is simply growing up. The things is, growing up is not simple itself. "My grades plummeted almost immediately. I attended Bejamin Cardoza High School in Bayside, Queens, and while I had been a good student in the ninth grade, the following year I more or less dropped out." In this chapter, we see a different side of James that we thought we would not see for quite a while. A reader would think that from the experiences that his mother went through in terms of having to "run away", James would learn something and decide not to "run away" from his own mother.
James shows happiness in being the oldest child in the house. He felt that he was able to boss around his little siblings and that made him feel like he was at a superior power. He also stopped attending church and socializing with his religious grandparents. "I was the first kid on my block to smoke cigarettes and reefer. Despite this, he joined a soul band, and it is always great to pick up an instrument.
James trying to point out how he is a unique person, and that he is different from his mother. With this said, he begins "his own process of running away."
When James McBride says that he begins his own process of running, he is saying that he is starting to escape his problems just like his mother did when she was a teenager. For Ruth, she fell in love with a black boy and disobeyed her hurtful father. She would actually run away from her problems at home. James was mentally escaping the world. His process of running was doing drugs, shoplifting, coming home really late and other bad things that his friends did. Both characters were disconnecting from their life, as Altana said.
In some chapters, James explains what he did with his friends. For example, he stole a purse from a lady with one of his friends before. James did it again but felt guilty. I think that James does these bad things just for the fun or thrill of it and doesn't actually like it. James also came late one night and was whipped by his mother. She was crying because she doesn't understand why he would get drunk and high and be so carefree. That was how James would escape or run.
James runs away from the truth of his mother’s suffering by taking narcotics, stealing, and drinking liquor. James creates a world in which he is free of responsibility. James’ mothers suffering is caused by with the death of Mr. McBride. With James’ mother on the edge of insanity he tries to escape the responsibility hardly ever at home. With the absence of James however the power structure in which James’ mother created to keep the house in order is destroyed. I agree with others on the blog posts about the similarities which James and his mother share. Both James and his mother run away rebelling and creating a world in which they can escape to. The mother who lives a life where her father is the central figure in her life decides everything for her family. James mother Ruth rebel by falling in love with a black man named Peter. Ruth’s relationship with Peter allows her to escape from her family and be with someone who she felt truly loved her. James who rebels by being a delinquent. James rebels against his mothers’ rules which are there aimed for him to be successful. Both James and his mother create a place in which they can escape to. The difference between James and his mother however is that his mother changes her name to Ruth and is converted to Christianity permanently detaching herself from her family. While James stops rebelling against his mother and goes back to school becoming a disciplined student.
Additional Post: The notion of escaping and leaving is a recurring theme in this story. When James says he began his own process of running, It means he was on a quest to find himself. In this chapter, drugs and stealing ect. become a part of James trying to run away and escape his world. In the first few chapters we see how Ruth handles her way of escaping the real world and entering her personal world. We find out that Ruth uses her piano playing and her cycling to escape. I think since James has always been a confused character who seems to be open to trying new things and is trying to find his escape from the world but is being held back by Ruth and her rules. I think the way Ruth thinks of escaping is by using her mind and not by being physical and I think thats why she is trying to teach her kids that its possible to escape even if it means you don't have to leave the house or leave a safe area.
In James' life there always something running or escaping him. Such as his sister, running away from the family out of frustration. In a way his father when he died before he can meet him, lastly his mother emotionally. Things fall apart for him. He is strung out on drugs, his family was always moving, and he was always being sent out of the house. In a way he was starting the process that his mother went through when she ran away. Feeling she was being restricted so she and he started to rebel in little ways making their parents react driving them farther out the house until you leave. So when he talks about beginning his own process of running he is just referring to how his mother ran away and how he is following in her footsteps.
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By saying "his own process" he is comparing it to his mothers process of running. At two other points of the book, running has been a symbol for escape, safety, and managing fear. The mother first "runs," litterally, when she discovers her love of sprinting to get away from her abusive father, and her terrible life. She then found herself running when she bought her bike, now finding a way to escape, and feel happy and free again. James' way of running is through drugs, and being a "punk."He runs away to deal with his anger, and how hurt his mother feels.
Throughout chapter 16, we see him "run" in many different ways. It begins as he talks about trying drugs, and eventually turns into stealing, and almost getting arrested. Although he realizes that his actions are wrong, he also feels that this lets him escape, and his "friends became his family, and his family became the people he lived with." James symbollically runs to get away from his mothers emotionalness, and his own fear and saddness.
James really loved his mother, but he could not stand her suffering. He wanted to run from the "sufferings" he had in life, to run away from the sorrows, the world of prejudice and injustice he was in. He wanted to run away, and do the world some injustices, to try to get back at it with crime and anger. He had been pulling a rock weighing a ton on sand paper for all his life, and his criminal deeds released him from the never ending beat of suffering and sadness.
After the death of the father, the world that Ruth had so painstakingly created was falling apart. James had drugs, stole, drank beer, and was a total punk, the opposite of what his mother hoped for him. However, this was the only way for him to drop the rock. He needed this time for him and his mom to regain their senses.
Isn't the quote "I began my own process of running" from chapter 14?
I think that when James McBride states the fact that he too, was starting to run away, he means that he was mentally running from his own thought's, fears, grief, and responsibility by distracting himself with other surroundings and toxins. He clearly states that it was his OWN process of running, hinting that it was very different from his mother's process of running, which was riding a bike all the time. She did it to stay calm, and mentally stable. James did it to hide from his emotions. For example, in the beginning of the chapter, he describes how after his step-father died, his mother was very distant and that "the fire was gone" (137) He had no one to tell him what not to do. More specifically, James began to runaway because he couldn't handle being in the house with his mother and seeing the way she was, hearing her continuously play the piano, and watching his house crumble from lack of care. He spent as much time out of the house as he could, which meant more time in the outside world, unprotected by his mother. He joined a band and met other kids and with them, started to smoke, drink, shoplift, and more. James found it as a way to ignore reality.
In chapter 16 James writes: "I began my own process of running"
This quote meant that he had to be away from his mom as his mom wanted to be away from her dad. Jack starts to run away because he doesn't want to be near all the drama and to see his mother start to die away. When he starts to smoke and do the things he does, it calms him down. As he says in this chapter.
When James says he began his "own process of running" He means, that he began to journey to escaping. His mother's process of running, was when she first found her love for sprinting when she was dealing with the pain from her abusive relationship with her father, and then as Kira said, when she began to ride the old bike that James' step father found, around the neighborhood. Now James was too running away, however his way of running away was much different than his mother's.
First James basically dropped out of school. His grades dropped dangerously low, and he gave up on going in general. He quit going to church and gave up on religion. Soon he became involved in violent and illegal things such as drug use, robbing people, and getting wasted. He got high and drunk to deal with the pain, while his mother, years before, literally ran to make her forget the pain.
What James means is that his mom has ran away from most things that occurred in her life and now James is doing the same. But James is not running from his past, he is running from his mom. He is running from his mom so he can be on his own and do what he want with out getting in trouble with her.
Lately James has been stealing, drinking, and doing drugs and has kept this away from his mom. He also dropped out of school without the mom knowing. She still thought that James went to school. He also just wants to live his own life and he can't do that if he is with his mom.
James says he ran the way his mother had ran. However he ran "in his own process". His mother ran from her abusive father. She could stand to stay where she wasn't loved. She felt over powered, that she couldn't speak for herself. Her father had taken her from public in a way. All he life she ran from her father. The only thing that made her feel happy was to get away from him. She had to feel speed going past her, anything to get her mind off of him. On the day of her graduationshe had to go to a church.. Her father didn't let her, he wouldn't dare have her step in a church. It was against her religion, but Ruth wanted to be with Frances, her friend, to graduate beside her. But as they were about to step into the church, Ruth stepped out because inside she felt she was going against her religion. It was almost like she had been imprisoned by her father and even if he wasn't there... It was imprinted in her mind not to do this. The day after graduation, Ruth left for New York
James in a way ran form his family aswell, but not in a litteral way. He ran by stealing form sores, drinking, trying drugs. He would do all of this with his friends. He dropped out of school and forged his report cards. He felt free away from his family. It didn't matter who he was with to "feel good" just as long as he wasn't near his mother. After his step-father died he almost immediatly became this person. This person who did the same thing everyday, and felt like he couldn't stop. He did this to be away form his mother. Away from the moarning in his house.
For me, while reading these chapters, pittness came in mind for JAmes. Before his step father died he had told James that he was the oldest child of the house. That he had to take care of his younger brothers and siters. Yet James disconnected himself from his mother. He couldn't bare see her. He couldn't confront her suffering the way his sibilings had.
In chapter 14, James begins to pull away from his family, mainly his mother who is in deep emotional pain. Ruth has become quite listless since her husband died. To cope, she chose to learn how to ride a bike. When James says," I began my own process of running," he means he chose his own particular way of coping with his pain.
He begins to experiment with drugs, running with kids who could relate to him, and getting into risky situations. James' grades plummet and he skips school. He does this all without his mother knowing, he knows it will hurt her even more. He wants to detach himself from his mother's suffering, but this soon fails. She finds out from the school about his absences and he is sent away to live with his sister, Jack.
When James’ mother, Ruth, runs she tries desperately to escape her reality. She literally runs to put everything behind her. Ruth runs to detach herself from her world and from her suffering. She runs from her abusive father, her crippled mother, the pain she feels at school and all sources of pain in her life. It’s as though she believes that running is her safe haven.
James can’t handle his mother’s suffering. Since his stepfather is dead, he knows he should help Ruth take care of the family. It is the right thing to do. James can’t handle that responsibility and seeing his mother juggle that many kids on her own so instead of offering help, he turns to drugs and crime. James is scared, Ii think, of becoming the eldest and he gets lost in a world of crime. That is how he runs away from his mother’s pain, he runs into drugs and alcohol and shoplifting and mugging and he does this all to escape his reality the way his mother escaped hers in Suffolk Virginia years ago.
"I began my own process of running."
We all have a process of 'running' or just simply escaping from the real world for a little bit. Some people write poetry, some people go to the movies, some literally run like Ruth, and some like James turn to substance abuse. By constantly taking drugs and whatnot, he has escaped into a carefree world. By doing what he did, he lost all responsibility and all expectations. The damage was done and he had hit rock bottom. There was no way he could possibly have disappointed his mother any more.
In this way he ran away. He left everything behind. His mother did it in a much calmer and level headed way because she was forced to. She had her father to face if if she was caught as a child and kids to worry about as an adult. She had no real escape.
"I began my own process of running" shows James' mind set during his teenage years. His own process of running was mentally and physically escaping. Some ways he was escaping was through drugs and alcohol, and doing things like shoplifting, getting himself involved with bad people, ditching school and church, and coming home as late as he wanted. He compares this to how is mother escaped in her early life. The way that Ruth escaped was by escaping her judgmental and hard lifestyle both literally and figuratively. She escaped and rebelled her harsh and abusive father. She did this by sprinting and by getting involved and falling in love with a black man. She would also flee over the summers by going to New York, just like James went to Jack's house each summer.
James needed to break free from his hopeless family and did this through his unruly manners. "Daddy's" death caused misery and suffering within the family and especially within his mother. Ruth is not mentally stable after his death and the family starts to fall apart. "Gradually the house slipped farther and farther into despair. I ignored it." When Ruth doesn't do anything about the house crumbling, neither does James.
When James writes that he is starting his own process of running, he is referring to his mother's proccess of running. He physically runs away by being often not at home and he does drugs and steals which both help him run away from the truth. He states that his mother was falling apart after Hunter Sr. died and he just needed to leave. After he ran away he realized that he needed that foundation and support of education and family. After his trips to Kentucky, he slowly reassured himself that he needed to run towards his problems and the truth instead of running away from them.
When James says he began his process of “running” he is talking about how both him and his mother at some point in their life physically and mentally ran away from their lives.
His mother physically ran away by defying her father, moving to New York, and marrying a black man. She mentally ran away from her family’s traditions and values by becoming Christian and also by marrying a black man. James runs away physically by going to Virginia and sort of moving out of his mother’s house. He runs away mentally by becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol. James mentally runs away by stopping to believe in the world his mother has created at home. James gets to a point where he no longer cares that he is the oldest, the “king” in the house. He does not feel motivated to do well in school or church like he was raised. He doesn’t respect or listen to his mother. Rachel or his siblings can no longer help him. The only person who was able to stop James from abusing drugs and alcohol and figure out who he was, in order to become a successful person was himself.
I think although both of these beak downs seemed destructive, overall they were beneficial to James and Rachel. They both had crazy childhoods and running away, physically and mentally, was a way for them to separate from their family and find themselves. I think after “running” they each became individual adults instead of children hurt by their insane families.
Ruth isn’t the only one who has been affected by the death of the stepfather. James has also. I agree with Kira that he is comparing his process to his mother’s. Ruth has been an eye witness to death before and didn’t know how to react, but didn’t have much of a say in that matter. James is going through the same feelings that his mother went through at the death of Zaydeh. The only difference is that he has a choice in how to a deal with it. He decides to “run” away from his emotions by doing drugs, dealing drugs, gambling, shop-lifting, and flunking out of his classes. He’d rather resort to these than have to sit through countless hours of his sorrow. He even says on page 140 that “I was obviously hiding, and angry as well, but I would never admit that to myself.” He is on a search for happiness, but he started his search in the wrong place. These awful acts will only hang over his head and give him even more grief.
Hi, it’s Stef. In the Color of Water when James writes “I began my own process of running,” he ment that his mother had ran to escape her problems, and he had done the same. Whenever Rachel had felt depressed, sad or bored, she would go out and run, because it would make her feal better. When James’s father died, he felt deppressed and sad, so he began to flunk school, do drugs, and become an overall gangster. This was his way of running. Though becoming a gangster and running have nothing in common, they both releaved James and his mother of their depression, saddness, and bordum. The reason that James said that he began his own form of running was because his mother had been running, and he felt that he had began a form of running when he became a gangster because he did it for the same reason that his mother had began to run; because something happened in their life that made them depressed or sad.
After the death of James’s stepfather he feels as though he can no longer cope with the emotional complexities of life. Also, his mother’s constant mourning of James’s stepfather only exacerbates this feeling. Thus, James attempts to forget about his own personal troubles by “running away” or emotionally disconnecting himself from his family. James occupies himself primarily by surrounding himself with new friends in order to make himself feel more secure about himself. And though James still has morals his mother instilled in him he dismisses these as they remind him of his own suffering. For instance, when Chicken Man lectures James about how only he can make something of his life, James dismisses this by stating that “ He’s just a drunk.” The most significant way in which James “runs away” is by disobeying his mother’s wishes. Throughout most of his childhood, James’ mother was the sole guiding force of his life. But now that his stepfather has died , James’ mother’s teachings seem void to James and he purposely attempts to ignore his mother’s admonishments.
When James says he is running, i think he means that he is trying to run away from his problems. It is his turn to run away from his problems like his family and friends did. Jack is just acting like his mother by running away. James and his mother share the same feelings when they are growing up. James feels as though running is the only way he can escape his problems. His mother felt the same way. When James's mother friend died his mother just washed the same pot for hours like she was trying to run away from her problem. A symbol of running away for James his his father's car. The mother never uses the car so she does not have to remember her husband. In a way when they do not use the car they are running away from their problems instead of confronting them.
When James says he began his own process of running, he meant that he was running in the same way his mother had. They had both run to get away from the hardships in their life. However, James running was to avoid seeing his mothers grief while Ruth's running was to escape from her own grief. Both were doing it to disconnect from life, even if for just a moment. Ruth did this by literally running all over town. James does this by doing drugs that make him feel detached from everything he has to deal with.
As Mikah said, Ruth's father's ideas were imprinted in her mind even when he wasn't there. This is the same for James except that drug addiction replaces ideas. After a while James wanted to turn his life around but he couldn't resist doing the drugs that he had used as a crutch for so long. As James said, "Every single day--on the way to school, during school, and on the way home--I felt I had to get high...Weed was my friend, weed kept me running from the truth. And the truth was that my mother was falling apart." He felt that even though drugs made the hurt go away, they always made him come crashing back to a painful reality.
I think that when Jack says that he is beginning his own process of running, he means that he is falling into the same footsteps of his mother. I think that he realizes that she has been running all of her life and he knows that he doesn’t want to go through the same thing. However, he really has no choice due to some of the new problems forcing their way into Jack’s life.
One problem Jack has is that he used to look forward to seeing his mother; he used to love to go places with her and to just hang out with the family. However, this tight family bond that Jack has described earlier in the book is beginning to fall apart. It all started with his sister leaving the house, and then his mother’s husband and best friend passing away. I feel that when Ruth’s friend passed away, the family fell apart for good. Jack describes that whenever he or his siblings approached their mother, she would always answer them with insults and yelling. This doesn’t sound like a very good environment to live in. Often times, when you don’t feel safe in the place where you are growing up, you want to get out. You want to stay away from those problems as much as possible, so it is only natural for Jack to want some freedom, and to run away from this so called “house of horrors.”
I think that what Ruth was running away from as a kid is very similar to what Jack is dealing with during his childhood. I feel that Ruth, like Jack, did not have a very happy childhood. Instead of it being filled with happiness, love, and laughter, it consisted more of fear, hate, and awkwardness. Her father sexually assaulted her, her parents argued all the time, and all she did was work until she left for New York. Both Ruth and Jack didn’t have a very good household, and in turn, decided to run away from their problems instead of facing them. For example, Ruth realizes that she is giving her son this same awful experience by being the parent that both of them hate so much. I’m not entirely sure if Ruth realizes that she is mirroring her father by striking fear into her kid's lives and creating a household where the only thing anyone wants to do is get out of it. Ruth uses her bicycle to do so, and Jack uses his new friends, who he later realizes are taking him down the wrong path. My final point is that both Jack and his mother are running away from the same things and there is nothing they can do about it until Jack’s mother, the role model of the family, can get it together and create that happy family that she never had.
When James talks about running he is talking about trying to escape or doing things to try to get away from or separate himself his problems. For example James’s Mother would run up and down the streets of her neighborhood to away from her family, especially her abusive father she would try to distract herself from her abuse and family life. James begins "his own process of running" by leave his family all the time, skipping school and doing drugs.
The reason that James was running is because of his mother. He loves his mother very much but he wanted to disconnect himself from her and her problems. She was very sad after her husband died and so was James but James did not want to face his sadness or the fact that his stepfather was gone. James’s mother's sadness reminded him of all the sadness he was feel and suppressing. James did not want to be reminded of his stepfather’s death so he started his process of running away and separating himself from his mother and his family.
oops I meant to say James......
In the beginning of the book we learn how Ruth rides her bike all around Queens separating herself from the present and reflects on her past. In this case James is trying to get away from his mothers sorrow. After Ruth’s husband died she was at the edge for a while. Then her best friend Irene past away and went on edge again. James did not want to around her at that time. He gets high on drugs and alcohol and became an addict. He had a lot of trouble with finding his inner self and how to deal with his life. He hung out on the corner with Big Richard and his friends where a lot of bad things happened. People got shot after getting into an argument. James had really screwed himself up and had no courage to fix it. In a chapter he talks about how every time he went home and put the key to the door he would say to himself that was the last time he would do drugs but he never did. He felt that everyday he needed to get high. That was his way of putting all the troubles aside.
When James had said "I began my own process of running" he meant that like his mother, he began to run away from his problems. When Ruth was younger, she loved to run. She used running as a way to escape the horrors in life. As she aged she started to use her bicycle as an escape from the difficulties in life. James had not used running or bicycles as his way to leave the world around him, he used drugs. James had dropped out of school and turned to drugs and the streets. To James, this was his way of "running" away from problems. This seemed to calm him down, and help him to feel happier.
After James' step father had died, James had started to fall apart. James had dropped out of school and would leave the house to go to the streets and do drugs. One of the reasons why James would leave every night was because he couldn't stand to see his mother suffering. Seeing her suffer made him suffer. James wanted to run away from all of it and isolated himself from not only his mother, but his whole family and school life. James had left all of the chaos in his life to bring him happiness, even if it brought his loved ones sadness. James had used to loved being able to be alone with his mother, but because of the death of hes step father, James had seen his mother as some thing to stay away from.
By "running," James is escaping being small in a large family. Though at this point in his life, James did not know about his mother past or childhood, it were very similar to his own; both being different in town's that were not use to change. James knew that it was not just his stepfather’s death that caused his mothers pain, but that there was more regret and sorrow that haunted her life.
His way of escaping or "running" away from this life, was to literally enter another dimension. This meant drugs and alcohol. A lot of drugs and alcohol. His goal was to be feeling-less and cold without a heart. He got high every day and loved it. It made him completely forget where or who he was. Though he tried hard to not care, he was still human and he felt stupid for what he was doing, but could not stop. He had an addiction.
His mother ran away from a crazy household as well. Her house was built in a power structure. Her dad was first, because he was a man and he was a rabbi, and the rest of his family just came after him. She ran from that power structure, and yet recreated it in the household she ran as a mother.
He wanted to steal and smoke to prove something, but what he needed to prove was unclear to everyone including himself. All he knew was that his mother was scared and seeing her hurt would make him soft. He knew being soft in a town like the one he lived in would get him into trouble, so he became hard and ran.
James’ mother began running early in her life. Running was a way for her to be happy and free, and get away from all the chaos in her life. Ruth has to use running to free her emotionally and physically from her family. Since her home was a place with almost no love or comfort. Running helped Ruth escape away from her realistic life, where she had no family support, and was in constant danger from her father. Eventually Ruth ran away from home to create a new home for her family, in which James would be included.
James was born in a house of action. He grew up moving around, so when he states "I began my own process of running" (138). This meant he found his own cause for running. The symbols he had to run from, and the symbols he had to run towards. Symbols that James had to run from the police since he was a criminal, and he had to run from his problems of being a drug and alcohol addict. The symbols he had to run towards were a better and clearer future, and understanding of the world around him. For James running meant leaving the past, and going towards the future.
In chapter 16 when James writes “I began my own process of running,” he is saying that much like his mother he is trying to escape from his life. However, in contrast to his mother who escapes by “forgetting,” he adopts his own way of escaping—drugs. After James’ stepfather dies, Rachel loses control. She is unable to do anything because she is grieving. You would think that James would be given room to grieve as well but it is quite the opposite. Because of his mother’s new found weakness and his fathers death, he is forced to become the head of the house and he is certainly not ready for this. His way of dealing with this new responsibility is to ignore all responsibility and to escape his life all together by smoking weed and drinking. He cannot accept his life and so he attempts to get as far away from it as is humanly possible. This is his way of running.
The example that best shows that he is running is that he quits on his education and his church which are the two things that his mother absolutely enforces. Previously if he had been discovered skipping school and church he would have been beaten, but now his mother no longer cares and neither does he. James has run away from the two main things that characterized both his mother’s love for him and his dedication to his own life.
What James means by saying that, is that he was beginning the process of finding out who he really is, and what he wants to become. Just like how his mother ran away from her home to escape from her home and suffering. His mother ran away from her home and escaped to harlem, there she learned so much more about the world and how she defined herself. James has also began this journey. James wanted to escape his house because of the fact that he was just unable to cope with all the drama of his own house. James goes to spend the summer with his sister, Jack, who lets him hang out with her husband and his friends, who are a bunch of street rats, who hang out on the same corner every day. James talks to his favorit person in the groupe, who’s name is Chickenman, who says, “Youll end up doin time and hanging out on this corner when you get out. Is that what you want for yourself?” After saying this to James, Chickenman dies of being stabbed by a woman who he had goten into a fight with and died. After this incident, James really realizes that life can be short, and that he didn’t want to spend his whole life on that one street corner.
- Oni
I think that James means that he started on his own pace compared to his mother. I think that running is a way for the family is take some time from each other and a way of escape, because they could go really fast or really slow but they get a break from all the havoc. First the mother runs to get away from her abusive father and her unreasonable parents that allow her no opinion at all. Running is a way for Rachel and James to just clear their minds and take some time and think/ reflect.
When James says, " I began my own process of running" I think that he meant that he began to set his mind on something that he was willing to do. Like he was taking the time out to relax and take his mind off of whatever was troubling him at the moment.
In chapter 16 we see James running a lot. I think that this running is a way for him to run away from the suffering that he is experiencing and the pain that he hates to see his mother in. In these chapters we find a lot more about James childhood and his others childhood and how running was a hobby for them and a thing that they both enjoyed. Running has a lot to do with the things that he experiences in life. Like he has to "run" of turn away from drugs and then stealing and leading to almost getting arrested running shows how this boy and his family are always running to do the right thing.
James whole life was stress. his mother was lacking the emotinal help she needed and the two fathers he had in his life were gone. James could not handle his life. so he started running. he ran to drugs, bad influeces, and bad choices. the drugs blocked James from the world, mentally. it made James feel dazed and foregign from the world and his famiy.
James met different people who influenced him into doing drugs and were low life losers.James thought these people were cool and people to look up to.James thought a way to avoid life and people was to be a dropout. James was naive and did not want to realize that education is what gets people far in life. being a dropout makes James a quitter, doing drugs makes James a quitter.
Sometimes people feel that they need to get away from reality. there are certain ways to vacation from reality but James chose a way that could and would scar him for life.
James began running away from home a lot trying to escape the feelings of his family and his opinions of what is going on in his life, especially surrounding his stepfather’s death. James felt uncomfortable at home and felt that he needed to escape living where everything is sad and depressing. James also wanted to take out his anger by running, and take out any of his other feelings through the quickness of his feet, and the pain of being tired.
James is going through a very pivotal moment in his life. He is simply growing up. The things is, growing up is not simple itself. "My grades plummeted almost immediately. I attended Bejamin Cardoza High School in Bayside, Queens, and while I had been a good student in the ninth grade, the following year I more or less dropped out." In this chapter, we see a different side of James that we thought we would not see for quite a while. A reader would think that from the experiences that his mother went through in terms of having to "run away", James would learn something and decide not to "run away" from his own mother.
James shows happiness in being the oldest child in the house. He felt that he was able to boss around his little siblings and that made him feel like he was at a superior power. He also stopped attending church and socializing with his religious grandparents. "I was the first kid on my block to smoke cigarettes and reefer. Despite this, he joined a soul band, and it is always great to pick up an instrument.
James trying to point out how he is a unique person, and that he is different from his mother. With this said, he begins "his own process of running away."
When James McBride says that he begins his own process of running, he is saying that he is starting to escape his problems just like his mother did when she was a teenager. For Ruth, she fell in love with a black boy and disobeyed her hurtful father. She would actually run away from her problems at home. James was mentally escaping the world. His process of running was doing drugs, shoplifting, coming home really late and other bad things that his friends did. Both characters were disconnecting from their life, as Altana said.
In some chapters, James explains what he did with his friends. For example, he stole a purse from a lady with one of his friends before. James did it again but felt guilty. I think that James does these bad things just for the fun or thrill of it and doesn't actually like it. James also came late one night and was whipped by his mother. She was crying because she doesn't understand why he would get drunk and high and be so carefree. That was how James would escape or run.
James runs away from the truth of his mother’s suffering by taking narcotics, stealing, and drinking liquor. James creates a world in which he is free of responsibility. James’ mothers suffering is caused by with the death of Mr. McBride. With James’ mother on the edge of insanity he tries to escape the responsibility hardly ever at home. With the absence of James however the power structure in which James’ mother created to keep the house in order is destroyed.
I agree with others on the blog posts about the similarities which James and his mother share. Both James and his mother run away rebelling and creating a world in which they can escape to. The mother who lives a life where her father is the central figure in her life decides everything for her family. James mother Ruth rebel by falling in love with a black man named Peter. Ruth’s relationship with Peter allows her to escape from her family and be with someone who she felt truly loved her. James who rebels by being a delinquent. James rebels against his mothers’ rules which are there aimed for him to be successful. Both James and his mother create a place in which they can escape to. The difference between James and his mother however is that his mother changes her name to Ruth and is converted to Christianity permanently detaching herself from her family. While James stops rebelling against his mother and goes back to school becoming a disciplined student.
Additional Post: The notion of escaping and leaving is a recurring theme in this story. When James says he began his own process of running, It means he was on a quest to find himself. In this chapter, drugs and stealing ect. become a part of James trying to run away and escape his world. In the first few chapters we see how Ruth handles her way of escaping the real world and entering her personal world. We find out that Ruth uses her piano playing and her cycling to escape. I think since James has always been a confused character who seems to be open to trying new things and is trying to find his escape from the world but is being held back by Ruth and her rules. I think the way Ruth thinks of escaping is by using her mind and not by being physical and I think thats why she is trying to teach her kids that its possible to escape even if it means you don't have to leave the house or leave a safe area.
In James' life there always something running or escaping him. Such as his sister, running away from the family out of frustration. In a way his father when he died before he can meet him, lastly his mother emotionally. Things fall apart for him. He is strung out on drugs, his family was always moving, and he was always being sent out of the house. In a way he was starting the process that his mother went through when she ran away. Feeling she was being restricted so she and he started to rebel in little ways making their parents react driving them farther out the house until you leave. So when he talks about beginning his own process of running he is just referring to how his mother ran away and how he is following in her footsteps.
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