Remake of Ulises Torres - The color of water by Ulises Torres-142001570

Personal Reflection

142001570 — 2024-01-23 16:48:39 UTC

I have never personally experienced a religion like the one that is in the novel because their religion is very strict and it has a lot of rules that you need to follow.

Social Issue

142001570 — 2024-01-23 16:48:39 UTC

A social issue that I believe was present in the novel is race/ethnicity. I believe this is a social issue because many people have experienced it. For example in the novel the mom was someone who experienced it because she is a lighter skin tone and is constantly being seen differently from everyone else. Another way that shows this is because the kid still is confused and does not understand race completely and is confused why his mom looks different from him and his siblings. But his mom seems to avoid the question when he asks her and just tells him she is light skin.

Quote

142001570 — 2024-01-23 16:48:39 UTC

Without getting rid of her past self, Rachel couldn't move on from her past, causing her to change name. She goes to say, "Rachel shilsky is dead as far as i'm concerned. She had to die in order for me, the of me, to live" (pg 2).

Formalist Lens

142001570 — 2024-01-23 16:48:39 UTC

A significant event that occurred in the book was when the mom was explaining how her mom was abused by her dad. I think the author included that in the book so we can understand what made the mom the way she is. and since the beginning it has helped us understand the mom.
There are two different tones throughout the book because the author goes back and forth between the characters. I think the mom has more of a serious tone and since the kid is small he seems more curious. Those are the 2 different tones that I have noticed throughout the book.
there was a gap before in the beginning because we did not know anything about the mom. Now the author has filled us in on why the mom is the way she is and it is because she had a very rough childhood. This shows us why she avoids certain questions.

Reader Response Lens

142001570 — 2024-02-02 16:40:25 UTC

The reading is changing while we read this novel because at the beginning the mom would just avoid any conversations that ad to do with race but, as we start to read more we start to understand more about the mom and why she is the way she is.
I feel like readers from a different time period would interpret the text differently because back then things were different from how they are today.
I believe that the novel's intended audience was people of color that might have struggled with some of the same problems like their identity.

Quote

142001570 — 2024-02-02 16:59:05 UTC

In the novel, james talks about living with his siblings and how it led to a rivalry/competition, while growing up in poverity. James would go on to say, "There were so many of us that were constantly hungry....we would hide food from on another" (pg 66).

Social Issue

142001570 — 2024-02-02 17:00:20 UTC

Another social issue I see in the novel is poverty. I believe that poverty is a social issue in the novel because it is something that they were currently struggling with in the novel and were also struggling when the mom was little. The mom would also live in the red hook housing projects growing up and she explains how she would struggle as a kid and have so many siblings living in the same house.

Personal Reflection

142001570 — 2024-02-02 17:01:39 UTC

I am really enjoying this novel because it is interesting to see what life was like a long time ago and the struggles that they faced. I find the book interesting how we did not know much about the mom in the beginning but now we get to understand her because the author goes back and tells her life and what she went through.

Personal Reflection

142001570 — 2024-02-08 17:06:47 UTC

I found these few chapters we read really interesting because it talked about how the mom sent James to live with his sister so she could take care of him and get him to behave because when he was with his mom he did not want to go to school and would do bad things such as drugs and steal. When James went with his sister he was no better and would just be on the corner with other people until he was talking to chicken man and he told him that they are the same but that just the people there were given as much opportunity's as he has this helped him open his eyes and go back and get back into school.

Quote

142001570 — 2024-02-08 17:08:33 UTC

In the novel James is ignorant and says that he is smarter than the people on the corner. Chicken man answers ¨Everybody on this corner is smart¨(pg 150).

Social Issue

142001570 — 2024-02-08 17:08:46 UTC

A social Issue I see in the novel is housing because the novel tells about how housing was a issue for them because even for the mom they lived in the red hook project houses and now they have also lived in the red hook project houses. the mom explained about how it was really rough living in those conditions because they were not that big and especially growing up with a lot of siblings like she did.

Social class lens

142001570 — 2024-02-08 17:09:19 UTC

I think that people in the novel are aware of their difference in social class because in the chapter New York it talks about how the mom would go visit their family in new York and they all were pretty successful and had their own company's and how they seemed really money driven and tried hard to be american. I think that she was aware of their social class and how it affected their lives.