The Color of Water-Week 3, Post A

Vocab:
-Spry (185): Active; nimble; agile; energetic; brisk.
-Bandy-Legged (187): having crooked legs; bowlegged.

Appeals:
"She [James's mother] was the unhappiest I had ever seen her. It was like her legs were cut out from under her. The day before Thanksgiving in 1974, her old Toyota broke down and she had no money to fix it, which meant we had to take a bus to some godforsaken distant supermarket to find a turkey we could afford. We found the bird, but when we got on the bus to go home the paper bag holding the frozen turkey burst; it fell out of the bag and rolled all the way down the aisle to the front of the bus, where the driver grabbed it. The passengers and driver laughed, but to Ma this episode epitomized her entire experience in Delaware, that darned turkey rolling down the darned aisle in front of all those darned people. She had few friends there. The black folks found her to be awkward. The white folks bored her." (188) This passage displays an emotional feel because the details force the reader to feel these emotions, as if it were us in this difficult situation. McBride describes his mother's experience in Delaware in such a way that the reader cannot help but feel sorry for her and wish she could be cut a break and find a way out of this place or a way to finding happiness.

"On a cloudy, rainy day in September 1975, I packed everything I owned into an old green duffel bag and Ma drove me to the Greyhound bus station." (189) This passage is clearly a logical appeal because the reader can further understand James's family's financial situation. The fact that James fit everything he owned into a duffel bag shows that James didn't need much to live a successful life and that he wasn't given much either.

"She was wearing a brown raincoat and a scarf over her head, a lone white woman marching back forth on a dim street in front of the dilapidated bus station in Wilmington, Delaware, beneath a rumbling Amtrak train trestle and a cloudy sky." (190) I think this passage represents a logical appeal because McBride is describing a scene in such a way that the reader can truly picture it in there mind.

Quote:
"She [James's father's aunt] came up from North Carolina and cared for y'all after Dennis died, because I was grieving and lost and I couldn't move. I couldn't move." (195) After I read this quote I found myself intrigued by the repeat of the phrase "I couldn't move". I had read earlier in the memoir about Ruth's grieving for her first husband but I was never understood it quite as well as I did after reading this one passage. I thought I had understood it, but this passage proved me wrong. It's brilliant how one passage can make you see a situation in an entirely different light.

Theme
The theme I have noticed to be occuring throughout this section is the theme of how grieving can transform your life. Ruth goes through a grieving period that proves to be very negative for her. She loses control of her children and her emotions. James also experience a transformation from his grieving that turns him into a juvenile delinquent who has lost all self-control to drugs and alcohol.