The Color of Water-Week 4, Post A

Vocab:
-Haw (236): An utterance used by a speaker who is fumbling for words.
-Divinity (240): Deity; godhood.

Appeals:
"I can still hear her weeping now sometimes. I know the exact sound of it, like a note you hear or a song that keeps spinning around in your head and you can't forget it." (214) This passage definently represents an emotional appeal because the reader can completely relate to Ruth's situation. Everyone has gotten a song stuck in their head at one point or another so it is easy to imagine this feeling.

"That man was the finest preacher I've ever heard to this day. He could make a frog stand up straight and get happy with Jesus. You never heard anything like him. He was not fire and brimstone. He brought God into your everyday life in a way that made you think heaven was right next door." (233) This description is a logical appeal because the reader can create an image in their head about how this man preached.

"If you didn't get out on that sidewalk by nine A.M. on Sunday morning for the eleven A.M. service, you had to stand in the aisles, and the place seated maybe, I don't know, at least two thousand people." (234) This passage represents a logical appeal because it gives the reader clear information about how popular this church was.

Quote:
"There is such a big difference between being dead and alive, I told myself, and the greatest gift that anyone can give anyone else is life. And the greatest sin a person can do to another is to take away that life. Next to that, all the rules and religions in the world are secondary; mere words and beliefs that people choose to believe and kill and hate by. My life won't be lived that way, and neither, I hope, will my children's." (229) This quote is significant because it demonstrates James finally understanding all the good his mother did by raising him to look beyond a person's color. He has now become more tolerant and seems to be giving his mother the credit he deserves.

Theme:
The theme that came to mind in this portion of the reading is self-discovery. Self-discovery cannot simply be obtained by examining just yourself, you must also examine the other aspects of your life around you. James went to the town where his mother grew up and learned about this side of the family he was never told about. He learned a lot about himself through learning about his backround.