• What experiences do you share with the characters?

• In what ways is your family similar or different from those in the book?

• What did you learn about a character or group of people that you have not personally experienced?

A similar experience that I share with the characters of this book is that we also have moved houses a couple of times. We moved houses once in the Philippines and twice here in the United States. My family is kind of similar because we do believe in god and we go to church but we are not very religious I would say. My family and I are also 100% Filipino which is different from the family in the Color of Water because they are a mixed family. I learned that the mom of the author was SA by her father when she was a young girl and they were a very religious family that was not aloud to talk about their life to anybody.

• Social Class

• Race/Ethnicity

• Religion

• Education

• Culture

• Health

• Political Landscape

Race/Ethnicity and Religion

James the Daughter of Rachel had asked her mother about her because he knew that she was different from him. He says that him and her mother do not look the same, questioning if she really is the same as him. Rachel the mother of James also had a struggle with her religion. She did not like the way her Jewish family did in their religion so she switched to Christianity when she came to America. Her family would always tell her to hide everything about their life which she also taught her kids because that is how she was raised as a child.

• Give context for your quote. What was happening in the story that made this quote significant? Who was speaking?

• Why did this quote stand out to you?

"My family mourned me when I married your father." This quote stood out to me because I did not know that people could mourn their family members while they are still alive. The fact that the reason they did this was because she married a Black person which her family did like is outrageous to me. They made their relationship with their daughter more dull when she already did not have a good relationship with them.

3. In chapter 1 page 2, it states "My family mourned me when I married your father." I think the authors purpose for telling this is for the readers to know how the family felt about the marriage and to show how the character is not really close to their family much.

8. The author changes the font of the story to show the tone and mood in the book The Color of Water. For example "The Old Testament (pg 37) and "The New Testament (pg 45)" are when the authors change the font to show the change of mood.

3. People born younger than us that are reading the text probably view this book differently and might have a different opinion on it. Since they are still young, younger than us, they would not have much more knowledge in what is happening in the story with the different social class issues that has been going on throughout the story.

6. The book Color of Water's intended audience are probably the people that have been in the same situations that James family have. Where people are not accepted in their families for how they are and do not agree with their decisions. Which lead to distant relations between one another.

This quote stood out to me because in my opinion once you fear someone you give them respect. I don't mean the fear in a bad way, in this context the word "fear" means something positive that lead to something good which really caught my attention once I saw it.

People in different parts of the town where Ruth lives has different school which has different type of ethnicities in. These schools experience different types of education because of the environment of the town they live in. In some areas people do not have the same resources as the ones in areas where rich "white" people live in because of the amount of money that is flowing into those areas. Our character Ruth although not a wealthy family they could still afford a private school which lets her have enough resources for her to have a better education than other people.

Although Ruth's family was wealthy because their aunts and uncles had a life going for them, owning businesses and apartments in cities, Ruth's family was not as wealthy as them. She had to find jobs so that she could gain money and live. She was also almost became a person that sells their own body but she figured out that it was not right so she left before it could even happen. There are also people out there that are doing the same things because they can't afford their houses and everyday needs. Sometimes it is their only way of surviving because they can't get a proper job that would take them.

This quote stood out to me because Ruth's mother was in the hospital and her family was not letting Ruth see her mother for the last time because they "sat shiva" for her. They basically told her that she was not part of them anymore not even thinking how she was feeling at the time. At the time of reading I felt bad for what they are doing to Ruth because it was not her fault that they did not agree with her decisions back then and now they would not even let the her see the person that raised her whole childhood and taught her everything she knows.