James McBride's The Color of Water

A character's personality is often times determined by their tone of voice. If the voice or tone of a character is misinterpreted the meaning is misinterpreted as well. In The Color of Water by James McBride, he remarkably switches between his voice to his mothers and back. Using this technique, the reader is able to understand where Ruth McBride (mother) came from mentally and emotionally. In this bittersweet memoir McBride deals with the asperity of …

…little detail it paints an image in the reader's mind to make them feel like they were apart of his life. The book makes you realize that many of us take life for granted and do not pay attention to the things that really matter. McBride could have written this memoir out of bitterness and anger towards his mother from hiding her past and his grandfather and it would have not have been the same.