In The Color of Water by James McBride, how does James's perception of himself change from the beginning of the book to the end?

Rebecca Karli

Throughout the novel, ,searches for his identity as a black child
who is raised by his white mother. Ever since he was a child, McBride was confused about who he
was and why he and his twelve siblings looked different from their mother. He never knew his
black father because he died before he was born and his stepfather, who was also black, lived in
a different household. Whenever he questioned his mother, Ruth, about his race or her own
background, she would be very elusive or vague. She would claim that they were part of the
human race, that God did not see color, and that education was more important than skin
color.

However, growing up in the 1960s, he witnessed the growing tensions
between blacks and whites in his neighborhood, and her answers did not suffice. He noticed how
many white people were afraid of black people, especially with the growing popularity of the
Black Panthers and Malcolm X, and that most of the heroes he learned about in...

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