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What forces are motivating the characters?

We see how Ruth's love for her mother makes go back to help out in the family store to visit her mother who she fears might pass away soon. She goes back to visit her family even though she dislikes her father for the way she was treated and also visits her sister DeDe who she was a bit jealous of since she feels DeDe was the favorite child in her family and received good affection from their father. This jealousy of DeDe gives Ruth a bit of a low self-esteem but yet still goes back home to take care of her mother. Ruth loved her mother and felt a sense of guilt when thinking that she did not really do right by her mother.

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Why do people share their stories.

People share their stories because it is a good way to connect with others and share experiences that we have gone through. In the color of water we see Jame's and Ruth’s stories and what they go through and how they change a bit throughout the story. We see how they experience poverty and discrimination and what challenges they faced. Throughout the book we are able to find connections to these moments like what they go through or even the family dynamic. By sharing all this we can find parts that we connect with throughout the book.

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How do economic conditions determine the charaters lives.

The way we saw how economic conditions determined James' life was that they would be forced to move sometimes if they did not have enough for rent. His mom would have to raise all of her children all by yourself when her husbands died and had to make difficult decisions to help provide for her children. Even though they had a bit of struggles James's mom would always push her son's towards a good education so that they could have a greater future.

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1. How do your values alter your preception of the text?

Like if we value family we could value how James's mother was as a single mother navigating her children through poverty and trying her best to give them a higher education. If we value equality, when we see parts of discrimination in the book we sympathize with the character and wish that something better happens for them.

2. How might readers in different time periods or of different ages interpret the text?

We can see how readers from different ages can interpret to text by younger readers feeling more of a connection towards James's story and how he grew up while older readers may feel a stronger connection towards Ruth's story and her challenges as a single mother raising her children.

3. What was the work´s original intended adieence? To what extent are you similar or different from that audience?

No work's original intended audience may be people who are facing issues with their identity like how in the book James struggles being a man of color while having a white mother.

I am a bit different from the audience since I haven't struggled with identity problems while James questions himself throughout the book.

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"Okay, I promise, I said. I'll stay. But I broke my promise to Dee-Dee and she never forgot it. And she would remind me of it many years later."

It was interesting to read how Ruth made a promises sister  saying that she would stay and not leave her alone with their parents even though she knew that she would eventually return back to her home.

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"The Klan would ride up and Main street in broad daylight and no one did a thing about it."

In this quote we get a picture of how the time period was when Ruth what's with her family working at the store. It was normal for colored people to be hunted by the KKK and discriminated against for the way they looked.

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"I just couldn't go inside that church. In my heart I was still a Jew. I had done some wrong things in my life, but I was still my parent's child." (158)

This quote is interesting because we see how she does not enter the church because at this point of her life she Still believed in Jewish customs. She was still her parents child and she felt like she couldn't go against them and their beliefs. Even though she disliked her father she still had a good relationship with her mother and didn't want to disappoint. But then we find out later on that when her mother dies this is what kind of pushed her to stop believing Judaism.

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Choose 3 Formalist Lens Questions to respond to. Your responses should thoroughly respond to the prompt in at least three sentences.

1. What recurring patterns (repeated or related words, images, etc.) can you find? What is the effect of these patterns or motifs?

We see how racism is a repeating topic because James is black while having a white mother.

2. How effective is the author’s use of dialogue? How does dialogue enhance the storytelling?

He author uses dialogue to help share what they were feeling when sharing a memory. It also helps with giving more context to stories.

3. Choose a significant event that occurs in your reading. What do you think the author's purpose was in telling that part of the story?

We read how when James mother is talking about her time at the family store, she mentions how the KKK would drive up and down the street. By telling us this event we see how back in the day it was normal to discriminate against balck people and how they were basically being hunted down by the KKK.

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Find a quote in this chunk that stood out to you. Please also include a picture or GIF to further describe this quote.

James wrote how in church "It was the only time I ever saw her cry. "why do you cry in church?" I asked her one afternoon after service. "Because God makes me happy". Page 50

What made this quote stad out was how it shows how she feels happy now comparied to how she used to feel when she was an orthodox jew.

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Choose at least one of the following social issues that were present in this reading chunk. Discuss how this social force was present in a characters life. (Your response should be at least 5-6 sentences)

In this first chunk that we read we read how race was a social issue that showed up a lot in the charaters lives. James was always worried for this mom who is a white momther to black childern. We read how people have treated here because she stands put from the others. We have also read how when she was a girl the KKK would ride around and we see how black people where treated. Race is seems to be a big part in the characters lifes but jame's mom seems to sometimes avoid the topic of race.

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In what ways was this chunk a window or a mirror? Use the following questions to guide your response, but really we want to hear your personal thoughts and reactions to this chunk!

A expericance a share with James is that we are both part of a religious family.

A way my family and Jame's family are the same is that we are religious and go to the service. A way we are different is that my family are all the same race and Jame's mother is a different race from the rest of her family.

When reading we read how Jame's mother faces probelms for being a white mother to black children.

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I liked how we got to see how Ruth viewed her mother and her relationship with her.  We see how she came back to see her when she was ill and how she would help her mother around. We got to see how her mother's death heavily impacted her.  she got really depressed for months and can eat and was near suicide. We see how Dennis was able to help her get to this phase of her life. We read how the Jew in her was slowly dying but when her mom died that marks when it truly ended and she turned into a Christian.

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We see how racial problems was a huge thing throughout Ruth's life and how she had to abort her first child because her boyfriend was black while she was white and she did not want people to go after them.

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We see how James went off to college and how his mom broke down when he left but knowing  it was best for him to go off to college. It was interesting to follow how James was slowly starting to not do well in school and having to go with his sister over the summer as punishment. We also read how at some point he goes to an all black public school even though his mother always would send them into private schools. It's so nice to see how he still went off to college and shows how his mother always pushed her children for an higher education.

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We can see poverty being an issue for James's family and how they face against Financial struggles. like how we see them having a difficult time finding an affordable house and trying to provide for their basic needs.

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It was nice to see how Ruth was always pushing and trying to provide for children even with all her struggles. Even through all the struggles that they had like Facing discrimination and poverty she was always determined to help her children with taking them to nice school so they could have a better life.