Help with summer reading project- The Color of Water?

Question

For my summer reading, I read The Color of Water by James McBride. I have to write a report on society's expectations for a character, and I chose Ruth. I already have a some ideas and wrote a few pages, but it isn't nearly long enough. Can someone help me with ideas?? Thanks so much!

Answer 1

Being completely ostracize by an entire community is the basis of your answer = society was not going to except inte-race marriage, to say nothing of a religious inter-marriage - she wasn't going to be accepted in the community at all.  

Below is the character description of Ruth

Hope this helps

Ruth McBride: Born Ruchel Dwajra Zylska on April 1, 1921, in Poland, Ruth McBride Jordan (or "Mommy"), the mother of twelve children, was born into an Orthodox Jewish family and raised in a violent Southern town. At nineteen, she moved into a new life in New York City, where she fell in love with a black Baptist minister named Andrew McBride. When she married McBride, she was pronounced "dead" by her Jewish relations.

Here is a little something else I found -

Synopsis:

Around the narrative of Ruth McBride Jordan (Rachel Deborah Shilsky), the daughter of an angry, failed Orthodox Jewish rabbi in the South. Her son James writes of the inner confusions he felt as a black child of a white mother and of the love and faith with which his mother surrounded their large family. The result is a powerful portrait of growing up, a meditation on race and identity, and a poignant, beautifully crafted hymn from a son to his mother.

Answer 2

Below is a link to Sparknote's character analysis of Ruth.  Perhaps this will help you.

Best of luck!

Answer 3

Plz post your ideas