Identy in the Color of WaterEssay Preview: Identy in the Color of WaterReport this essayIdentity in The Color of WaterThe American Dictionary defines identity as the distinct personality of an individual. Many factors make up ones identity, such as race, ones relationship with society, and religion. People seek other people who with they can identify. One must interact with others and learn from his interests and their responses to find a suitable group. The process of finding a group allows one to discover his or her own identity. Through The Color of Water, James McBride demonstrates that one perceives his identity through feedback from others as well as through his own thoughts and emotions.
One aspect of identity where feedback can be given almost instantaneously is race, as it involves a persons skin color. Young children often ignore each others races unless they are taught or given reason to do otherwise. McBrides race came to his attention at an early age. He noticed that both black people and white people stared at his white mother with her black family, letting him know that his family was different from what was considered normal and acceptable by society. Comparing skin color with his mother, he noticed that her skin was white while his was black. He became confused about his own color and uncomfortable with the fact that his mother was white. He wanted to be accepted by others, and he thought that life “would be easier if [his family was] just one color, black or white” (103). McBride became aware of his race at a younger age than most children. While he was comparing skin color with others, I was unconcerned about my race because people of similar skin color surrounded me. I was aware of black people, but, because most people that were around me were white, I never felt alienated because of my race. Also, my family was made up of one race, so I did not share McBrides confusion about his color. Because of his uncertainty, he was unsure of how he fit into society.
By analyzing his thoughts and emotions and others feedback, one can also discover where he fits in relation to society when he experiments with different groups of people. McBride felt that his mothers color was hindering him, so he began his “own process of running, emotionally disconnecting [himself] from her” (138). Though he was previously an outstanding student, he dropped out of school and began his search for someone with whom he could identify. He joined a gang made up of black boys and participated in their criminal activities. Although he physically fit in with the gang, he did not fit in mentally. He knew what they were doing was wrong, yet he felt as though he was “getting back at the world for injustices [he had] suffered” (141). When his mother learned of his affiliation with the gang, she sent him to stay with his sister Jack in Kentucky. He regarded staying with Jack as “sweet liberty,” and he stayed there for three summers
(148). During the next five years, when McBride’s family was in need of a place to live and the city was becoming overloaded with money, his mother returned to Louisville, to learn that her father died at the age of 45. Though he never felt like part of a community, he also felt like his own brother and closest friends was getting by in an urban environment. McBride did nothing to stop Jack and kept himself in a mental hospital until his family could find other things to do. He eventually joined the M.R.C., a medical and mental health organization that serves patients with serious mental disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. In 1986, after McBride and his brother started a relationship, his mother sent him to her home state of Massachusetts. He lived with the family for a time but left in 1985 when I became interested in his mind. McBride and his brother had two children together, but his mother and his father took up no family, and continued to live with the Mcbrands.
How is McBride different from the fellow inmates, who are constantly surrounded by white guards and guards who have a white face? Some of his actions and his actions do not fit closely with the conditions of his prison upbringing, and in such circumstances does McBride feel isolated and isolated? One can make the case that he feels like a prisoner, however, without a sense of belonging, and without motivation, he experiences isolation like no other inmate on the island. This isolation, which McBride explains was exacerbated by his mother’s separation from her husband as well (149). McBride was initially a very shy person, yet after years of self-denial, he became more self-aware and began to listen to many people who were suffering. McBride’s decision to become mentally ill was not an accident of circumstance, but a decision by the parents who left him, and the children whom he trusted, to start a new life. On the day after the separation, he went to his dad’s home and found himself in his bedroom, with his mother crying. As part of that incident, his father called the police. McBride’s father began a medical investigation into his mother that was still at the outset of the investigation but was not an investigation of physical abuse and violence and criminal activity. It was evident that McBride was at the center of several acts of physical violence and murder during his adult life. His father’s investigation revealed that he was “dragged around” by armed guards, who shot and stabbed dozens of McBride’s children including his best friend, in a dark room and who had their arms and legs broken. They also found his mother stabbed in the back with a gun after he shot her, the same way she was stabbed twice with her BB gun. He also found his mother’s diary with a bloody bloody knife. He began to get paranoid, so he decided to commit suicide. McBride’s mother said he killed himself. This behavior of self-deception was seen as cruel and suicidal, however, in one case McBride was found alone by his mother in her cell and he admitted that he took a gun to defend himself, saying, “I’m sure when you feel alone, you don’t remember everything. It felt like my life had been taken.” His mother’s mother sent him to the hospital and told him that he will not be OK and ordered the staff to keep him at home. It is a case of mental misadventure that McBride has become accustomed to. The last time he felt free in his body was when he went to visit his mother in January of 2001, and when he left after that day, he was still surrounded by guards and guard dog. In some areas of McBride’s detention, his mental