James

//The Color of Water// Character James...

Author and main narrator of the memoir, James, is artistically inclined. James is probably one of the most important people in this book. The narrator of his experiences growing up in a Brooklyn housing project with a Jewish mother, James McBride describes his personal confusion about race and identity, the initial impulse to discover his mother's history, his evolution into music and writing, and his ultimate endeavor to tell his mother's story - a story that is, at heart, his own. He is worried about his mom. He always knew that she was different, but he loves her just the same. James was always very frustrated about knowing where his mother came from. When he would as her, she would respond by saying "god made me" (xvii). She never cared to socialize with neighbors. Her past was as mystery she refused to discuss. James is the eight child out of twelve. He has older brothers and sisters that he follows after. He bases a lot of the decisions that he has to make, off of what they do. Sometimes it is hard for him to decide which sibling to follow after, because they all went into so many different directions.

Questions about his own racial identity plagued James's childhood and early adolescence. James persistently expressed his curiosity to his mother, but saw race as secondarily important. When the racial changes of the 1960s swept through New York, James had difficulty reconciling the rise of black power with the fact that his mother was white. James was constantly embarrassed by his mother's whiteness, because it signified her difference from his peers and their parents. As James grew older, however, he began to accept his mother more easily, embracing her quirks and eccentricities rather than resenting them.When James was fourteen, he was a troubled teen. He dropped out of school right after his stepfather died, he was already failing every class. He spent the year going to movies on fourty second street with his friends. "James is going through his revolution" (6) his siblings would say. His sisters were concerned about this, and his brothers were angry. But James did not care, he got into drugs, snatching purses, shoplifting, and stealing from dealers. James sometimes wishes that his family is normal. "As a kid, I remember wishing i were in the TV show Father Knows Best, where the father comes home from work every day wearing a suit and tie and there are only enough kids to fit on his lap, instead of in my house..." (9-10)