The Color of Water

The Color of Water

Chapter 21- A Bird Who Flies

·  Ruth remembers the day Bubeh died and how devastated her mother was.

·  Ruth’s sister, Dee-Dee, and her mother beg Ruth to stay in Suffolk, but Ruth explains that she cannot stay. Dee-Dee stops speaking to Ruth because Ruth once promised that she would never leave. Even Ruth’s father tries to convince her to stay, but she refuses.

·  Her ftaher accuses her of running off to marry a black man, warning her that if she did she should never come home again. Ruth has no idea, then or ever, how he knew this.

·  She returns to New York, discovering on the bus ride that her mother had left her Polish passport in Ruth's bag lunch. It remains the only picture Ruth has of Mameh.

·  Dennis, while he is working at Aunt Mary’s factory, hears that Memeh is very sick and that she is in a hospital in NY. Ruth wants to see her, but she is told by Aunt Mary that she is dead to the family and Ruth would only upset the situation.

·  A few days later Mameh died.

·  Ruth struggles with her death and the sense of guilt she felt at abandoning her. Ruth finds strength from Dennis, and from her newfound affinity with Christianity.

Chapter 22- A Jew Discovered

·  James continues his exploration of Suffolk, locating the synagogue his mother's family had attended. Although James most likely could have found Ruth's sister Dee-Dee, he feels that to do so only would only introduce more pain into her life.

·  He wants to enter the synagogue, both to come to terms with his Jewish roots and to be able to tell his children about those roots. The rabbi at the synagogue knows of the Shilsky family, but gives a curt response to James's request for additional information.

·  James meets instead with Aubrey Rubenstein, whose father had taken over the Shilsky's store when Ruth's father left town. Aubrey uses James's tape recorder to send a greeting to Ruth, but James never plays it for her, thinking it might be too painful.

·  During his last night in Suffolk, James awakes in the middle of the night in his motel room. He walks down to the Nansemond River, where a penetrating loneliness envelopes him. The burden of the past falls upon him and he feels the acute pain his grandmother Hudis must have endured in Suffolk.

·  He experiences a desire to embrace life and humanity. James returns to New York, recognizing that in this appreciation of life, beyond "all the rules and religions in the world," he paid silent tribute to his grandmother.