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The Color of Water Study Guide
You will receive 5 extra points on your The Color of Water test for your
successful completion of this Study Guide. These five extra points will be
given in addition to a 75 possible pt. class work grade for completing the
study guide. In order to receive all 5 points, are all your response must be
correct, clear, thoughtful, and precise.
This is due TOMORROW, April 4rd, at the BEGINNING of the class
period.
Part 1. Directions: Please write a description for each of the following
major characters. Your description should be at least two sentences.
1. James McBride:
2. Ruth McBride Jordan:
3. Fishel Shilsky (Tateh):
4. Hudis Shilsky (Mameh):
5. Hunter Jordan:
Part 2. Directions: For the following quotes from the memoir, please a)
explain the quote in your own words and b) explain why the quote is
important to the memoir.
1. During the rare, inopportune social moments when I found myself
squeezed between black and white, I fell to the black side, just as my
mother had done, and did not emerge unless driven out by smoke and fire.
Being mixed is like that tingling feeling you have in your nose just before you
sneeze—you’re waiting for it to happen but it never does,” (McBride 262).
A.
B.
2. “There were two worlds bursting inside me trying to get out. I had to find
out more about who I was, and in order to find out who I was, I had to find
out who my mother was. It was a devastating realization, coming to grips
with the fact that all your life you had never really known the person you
loved the most. Even as a young boy, I was used to Mommy hiding her past,
and I grew to accept it, and the details of her past got lost as my own life
moved forward, which is probably how she wanted it anyways” (Mcbride
266).
A.
B.
3. “The plain truth is that you’d have an easier time standing in the middle of
the Mississippi River and requesting that it flow backward than to expect
people of different races and backgrounds to stop loving each other, stop
marrying each other, stop starting families, stop enjoying the dreams that
love inspires. Love is unstoppable. It is our greatest weapon, a natural force,
created by God,” (McBride 293).
A.
B.
5.“ ‘It doesn’t have a color, she said. God is the color of water. Water
doesn’t have a color,’ ” (McBride 50).
A.
B.
Part 3. Short Answer. Directions: Please respond thoughtfully and
thoroughly to the following questions:
1. How is a memoir different from a novel? How is a memoir different
from a biography?
2. What is one way that Ruth dealt with pain throughout her life?
3. How did James react when his step-father died?
4. What did Ruth always stress as the single most important thing in her
children’s lives?
5. How did James’ mother react when people said racist things to her?
6. What was the lesson that James learned from Chicken Man?
7. Why did James’ family feel lost in Delaware?
8. Did James get answers to his questions by the end of the novel? Why
or why not? Explain.
Part 4 Possible Essay Questions. On your test, you will have to complete a 5paragraph essay in response to one of the questions below. Please complete
the graphic organizer on the next page in response to one of the following
essays questions.
1. As a reminder, a theme is an author’s intended message, the central
idea conveyed in the work. What is a theme in The Color of Water? In
other words, what message was McBride trying to his readers? Please
back up your response with examples from the text.
2. Explain what James means in the novel when he tells his readers “I
felt like a Tinker toy kid building my own self out of one of those toy
building sets; for as she laid her life before me, I reassembled the
tableau of her words like a picture puzzle, and as I did, so my own life
was rebuilt” (270). Use examples from the text to support your
response.
3. Throughout his memoir, McBride interwove the story of his childhood
with the story of his mother’s past. At times, it seemed like many of
the chapters could be linked to one another under common themes,
and that James actually had more in common with his mother than he
realized. For this essay, please describe the similarities that exist
between James’ story and his mother’s story. You might what to think
about the ways that James and his mother are similar or had similar
reactions to certain experiences.
4. Throughout his memoir, McBride described the emphasis that his
mother put on education, along with her refusal to address issues of
race and identity. James and his siblings were clearly affected in
many ways (both positive and negative) by her parenting choices. With
that in mind, do you think Mommy was a good mother to James and his
siblings? Why or why not? Explain with examples from the text.
The Color of Water Essay Organizer
Introduction: Write a sentence or two brainstorming ideas about what you
will write in your introduction.
Body Paragraph # 1 Main Idea: What will you write about for your first
main idea? (This should be a sentence or two to help you brainstorm)
What examples from the text will you use?
Body Paragraph # 2 Main Idea: What will you write about for your second
main idea? (This should be a sentence or two to help you brainstorm)
What examples from the text will you use?
Body Paragraph # 3 Main Idea: What will you write about for your third
main idea? (This should be a sentence or two to help you brainstorm)
What examples from the text will you use?
Conclusion: What will you write about in your conclusion? What main points
will you reiterate? (This should be a sentence or two to help you brainstorm)