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4) Why do people share their stories? I'd say people share their own stories for many reasons like for entertainment, to tell one's point of view, to express themselves, or to relate with someone. Which would lead to James McBride telling his own story in which he tries to find himself and who he was. In doing so he had to understand his mom's past. which he would finally find his racial, religious, and social identity. This would also lead to people loving his story The Color of Water for it relating to so many for many specific reasons. James McBride sharing his story would also affect me by understanding struggles I wouldn't really don't experience as much myself and made me reflect as to who am I and what my story is.

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4) I would say in chapter 20 James behavior was always plausible. Because ever since James was a kid he would always wonder about his mothers past since her past of being a Jew would be brought up in small detail. But she would never ever give him a straight answer which would lead to James being confused as to why he couldn't learn about her past. Which would allow James to figure out his own racial identity by finally visiting his mothers hometown.

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The context of the quote is James goes to Suffolk to learn more about his mothers past which he barely knows anything about and then starts to learn about it. "Like most of the Jews in Suffolk they treated me very kindly, truly warm and welcoming, as if I were one of them, which in an odd way I suppose I was. I found it odd and amazing when white people treated me that way, as if there were no barriers between us. It said a lot about this religion—Judaism—that some of its followers, old southern crackers who talked with southern twangs and wore straw hats, seemed to believe that its covenants went beyond the color of one’s skin.” This quote is significant because throughout James life he would be treated differently due to him being biracial. This shows James idea of Jews being like other white people were wrong. This quote stood out to me because the Jews James went to school with would treat him differently due to him being black and having their bias rather than what he had encountered with the Jews in Suffolk.

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The experiences I share with James are trying to find my parents past but by asking them questions about their life and how it was for them back then. The way my family is somewhat similar from Ruth's family is we do argue over my life choices but not to the point where they don't want to see me and they just want me to learn from my mistakes. What I learned about Ruth that I've not experienced is her making the decision to leave behind her home for her to better herself which is reasonable for her because what she's been through.

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4) I would say capitalism does challenge the characters in The Color of Water. Because we see gentrification a couple times with James telling of the story. For example due to urban housing projects people in his neighborhood would be forced out due to wealthier people buying the estate and increasing the value to live there. Later James mother is told to leave New York because she couldn't afford to live there making them move to Delaware because it's cheaper.

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The context is Ruth was sent to New York due her mom finding out she is pregnant and doesn't want Ruth to worry about it so she is sent to her aunts for the summer.

"I was always grateful to Aunt Betts for that. Even though she slammed the door in my face years later, I never felt bitter toward her. She had her own life and her own set of hurts to deal with, and after all, I wasn’t her child. Mameh’s sisters were more about money than anything else, and any hurts that popped up along the way, they just swept them under the rug. They were trying hard to be American, you know, not knowing what to keep and what to leave behind. But you know what happens when you do that. If you throw water on the floor it will always find a hole, believe me." This quote is significant because we see how Ruth family doesn't really prioritize her and just feels obligated to take care of because she is connected to her mother and she see their flaws and still is grateful. This quote stood out to me because I like how Ruth has been treated with struggle in her life she still finds a way to just push through.

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A social issue that I chose was education. Because education was brought up when James was sent to Louisville to get straightened out by his sister Jack. This happened due to James having poor behavior and not doing well in education. While there he meets a group of people who weren't well educated in school but in life. He gets told by his new friend Chicken Man how important education truly is. Because he learns that people aren't as privileged as him and it's hard for people who have really nothing and who another race than white to get a good education.

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The experience I share is with James and wanting to change his habits and choices into better ones. The way my family is similar to James family is when James gets accepted to college and his mom is happy for him and supportive. Then my parents are also proud when I accomplish a goal of mine and theirs and are supportive. What I learned about James and I have not personally experienced is him going down the path of drugs and becoming a petty thief due to losing his stepfather and the angry he felt due to his situation in life.

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2) I would say my own values do change my perception of the text. I say this because there's a situation in the book where James is told to get milk but comes home with a spoiled one and his mother tells him to get her money back. In this process the owner of the shop who sold him the milk wont return his money leading to his mother on a rant about the milk. From this scenario I would rather not value conflict because I know we'll still live at the end of the day and its not that deep but on the other hand the mother values the money very much because they have very little.

3) I do think that different time periods and ages could view the text differently. Due to the fact that we are our own person whose lifestyles, culture, and appreciation are different. The example for different time periods is we grow our society leading to words, items, and scenarios to be out-dated or new. The example for different ages is people may not comprehend the text because they're too young and older people could view the text as understanding because of the time period or situations.

6) I think the intended audience are people who are figuring out who they are as a person from race and religion. Because in the Color of Water the idea of how James fits in from being black and Jewish is brought up from being liked and disliked. I'd say I do fit into the audience to a degree for the fact i'm Mexican american and I struggle how I fit in from my race and religion.

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In the color of water James finds out his mother is Jewish and has only thought of Jewish's in one way which was from the bible. He then later finds out how Jewish are similar to blacks from his experience. In which he states “Later as an adult when I heard folks talk of the love/hate relationship between blacks and Jews I understood it to the bone not because of any outside sociological study, but because of my own experience with Jewish teachers and classmates—some who were truly kind, genuine, and sensitive, others who could not hide their distaste for my black face—people I’d met during my own contacts with the Jewish world, which Mommy tacitly arranged by forcing every one of us to go to predominantly Jewish public schools.” (James McBride, pg 67 ) What is so significant about this quote is James never understood how Jewish people were different from white's and thought nothing of it at the time which lead him to find he was wrong about them. This quote stood out to me because of the message in a way to never judge a book by its cover.

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The social issues I chose was religion. I picked this because religion is present during the story of Ruth and James. We are introduced to Jewish and christian religion by James mother Ruth. She explains she left Jewish religion to put everything she had been through as a kid behind her and later to join christian religion from James father. Which she brings into her kids life which includes James.

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The experience I share are with James sibilings being told by my mother that eduction is first in life. My family is similar in the sense we have to lookout for one or the other.I learned that some of James sibilings are not as succesful later on and dont feel eduction is for them because they dont want to work for the white man.

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3) A significant event that happens in The Color of Water is during chapter 5 of the mothers telling. It's significant because it tells us why the mother is the way she is. In the chapter she goals into detail how her father would sexual assault her but due to the negative experience she becomes traumatized and grows up to be defensive

7) There is a relationship between the beginning of the chapter and the end of the chapter. One real relation I noticed is we start and end with the mothers story. The second relation I saw in chapters "Dead" and "Sam" is it talks about a person leaving their life for a new one .

8) The tone and mood created is different from time to time. For example one tone/mood is in chapter 5 "The Old Testament" the story becomes dark and heavy. Rather than in chapter 6 "The New Testament" the story becomes light and cheerful.

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The context of this quote is that James mother Ruth is taking her kids out to go play in their black neighborhood in which they live. They also stick out like a sore thumb due to the mother being white and Jewish while the kids are black like their father.

"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, 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."

This quote is significant because throughout the book the mother doesn't talk about race at all which leads the kids confused as to why their mother is just different and not like them.

This quote stood out to me because this leads me to think why the mother does what she does and her purpose.

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The social issues I chose were race/ethnicity. I chose this because race/ethnicity is present during James telling of his story. We first find out that James mother Ruth is a white Jewish woman. We also learn that James father is black and therefore making him biracial because of his parents being different races. Later in the story James is confused as to why his mother is different from her kids but James doesn't get an answer. Leading to James trying to find out how he fits in by being biracial and is very conflicted. The reason is because he's sent to a Jewish school and people view him as an outcast rather than from his black neighborhood who only view as an outcast when he's with his mother.

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The experiences I share with James are trying to fit in and not by race but in other aspects where people judge. The way my family is different from the book is there are only few people in my family and the way James and his family grew are up our worse than how I grew up. I learned how different upbringings can lead to different paths in the future.