The Color of Water-Week 1, Post A

Vocab:
-Fedora (6): A soft felt hat with a curved brim, worn with the crown creased lengthwise.
-Typify (7): To represent by a type or symbol.

Appeals:
"I still remember the smell of the South. It smelled like azaleas. And leaves. And peanuts. Peanuts everywhere. Planters peanuts had their headquarters in Suffolk...You could buy peanuts by the pound in Suffolk for nothing. There were farmers growing peanuts, hauling peanuts, making peanut oil, peanut butter, even peanut soap. They called the high school yearbook The Peanut. They even had a contest once to see who could make the best logo for Planters peanut company. Some lady won it. They gave her twenty-five dollars, which was a ton of money in those days." (39) This passage represents an emotional appeal because the reader feels a full understanding of life in a small town. This town had one aspect about it that made it unique and they truly embraced it. The reader can understand how living in this peanut-obbssessed town could drive a person out of their mind, which explains the reasoning for the sarcastic tone it is described with.

"The biggest event Suffolk had seen in years was a traveling sideshow that came through town on the railroad tracks, with a stuffed whale in a boxcar. The folks loved that. They loved anything different, or new, or from out of town, except for Jews. In school the kids called me "Christ killer" and "Jew baby." That name stuck with me for a long time. "Jew baby." You know it's so easy to hurt a child. (39-40) I feel that this is an emotional appeal. This passage struck me hard and the reader can feel a real understanding for how she was treated in this small and small-minded town. Any reader knows what is it like to be picked on by other children when they were young, even if it was a rare and a small experience. From those experiences we can easily agree that it is indeed easy to hurt a child.

"...but even as a boy I knew that God was all-powerful because of Mommy's utter deference to Him, and also because she would occasionally do something in church that I never saw her do at home or anywhere else: at some point in the service, usually when the congregation was singing one of her favorite songs, like 'We've Come This Far by Faith' or 'What a Friend We Have in Jesus,' she would bow down her head and weep. It was the only time I ever saw her cry...Mommy's tears seemed to come from someplace else, a place far away, a place inside her that she never let any of us children visit, even as a boy I felt there was pain behind them."(50) This passage also represents an emotional appeal. The reader has learned that James's mother is an extremely strong woman. One can assume that she would not be very prone to tears because she is too stong-willed to allow herself to appear weak in front of others. So when I read this passage I can truly understand her emotions she feels in church and how significantely they affect her.

Quote:
"A short silence. 'My mother died many, many, many years ago,' she said. 'My father, he was fox. No more questions tonight. You want some coffee cake?'" (25) This is the most information James has received about his mother's past at this point in the book. The statement "he was a fox." caught my eye. All James had asked was why he never met his grandparents and Ruth went on to tell him that his grandmother died, however, she then tells him his grandfather was a sly, untrustworthy man (aka, a "fox"). The reader knows the grandfather has also died and that is the reason James never met him, yet this is not the reply Ruth chooses to answer James's question. Clearly, Ruth feels very strongly about the kind of person her father was. This could possibly be the reason Ruth keeps her past an extremely private matter.

Theme:
Feeling ashamed of one's family is a theme that is quite apparent in this memoir. Ruth constately talks about her family in a sarcastic, embarrased tone. James displays this emotion as well when talking about his white mother and his 11 other brothers and sisters.