Chapter 14 and 15
Online Discussion Questions: Due Thursday at midnight (online) Friday (paper
copy)
1. Describe James’ experiences after his
step-father’s death as either positive or negative. You must use at least two
quotations, include three supporting detail sentences, a topic sentence, and a
conclusion sentence. Be sure you explain why his experiences were positive or
negative.
2. What lesson do you think James learns at
the end of chapter 14? You must use at least two quotations, include three
supporting detail sentences, a topic sentence, and a conclusion sentence.
3. What lesson do you think Ruth learns in
chapter 15? You must use at least two quotations, include three supporting
detail sentences, a topic sentence, and a conclusion sentence.
1) After his step-father's death, James' experiences were negative. For example, on page 137, it says, "For months after my step-father died, Mommy walked around the house as if she were blind, staggering through the motions of life." O page, 139, it says, "My new friends and I shoplifted. We broke into cars. We snuck onto the nearby Conrail/Lon Island Rail Road tracks and broke into freight cars, robbing them for bicycles, television sets, and wine." This shows that James' experiences were negative after his step father's death because his mother broke down emotionally and James changed and became a whole new different person, and not a good one.
ReplyDelete2) The lesson James learns at the end of chapter 14 is that this new person that he has become is going nowhere and making all the wrong decisions in life. For example, on page 150, it says, "'If you want to drop out of school and shoot people and hang on this corner all your life, go ahead. It's your life!'" Also on page 150, it says, " I never heard Chicken Man talk so severely and what he said didn't really hit me, not right away." In conclusion, the lesson James learned at the end of chapter 4 was inspired by Chicken Man, who roused him that he is making alll the wrong decisions.
ReplyDelete3) In chapter 15, Ruth learns that you can never trust anyone too much, since she trusted and loved Peter and in the end all she was left with was a broken heart. For example, on page 154, it says, "I told him I didn't want to see him anymore and walked back through the black neighborhood, into the store, and went upstairs and cried my heart out, because I loved him." Another lesson she learned was that true friends would be there for you no matter what. The true friend for her was Frances. For example, on page 155, it says, "So I decided to go to the graduation ceremony for her, because Frances was my best friend and I would do anything for her." In conclusion, Ruth learned that your true friends and family come over everything, including boyfriends, because relationships could last for a limited time before it roughly ends and you become strangers with some memories. A true friend or a family member will stick by you forever, and your relationship with them could last a lifetime.
ReplyDeletequestion 1: The experiences of james mcbride and the sad dealth of his step father led him down the negative path. It affected James a lot because after he dropped out of highschool everything went down from there. For example," i left home in the morning and simply didn't go to school". Another reason is he tried to hide his problems with drugs and he quickly became a thug. For example,"i was the first kid on my block to smoke cigarettes and reefer". that's where he went down the wrong path
ReplyDeleteJames learns a big lesson that kept him safe at the time. One of the lessons james learned is never fight an unessecary battle because you can end up getting badly hurt. For example," don't ever come between a men and his girl". Another reason is dont argue with no girl because bad things happen. For example," she came in the liquior store and stabbed him. he coughed a few times lay on the floor and died". Last lesson is don't hang around the corner because that's going to get you no where. That's the lesson he learned
ReplyDeleteJames experience were very negative because when his step father died he started to do poorly in school ,use drugs, and get involved with petty thief. His mother only started to realized that his grades were slacking and he was starting to cut school sp she sent him to luoisianna. James soon realized that he needs to try and keep up with his work and dont let anything bring him down. That she wasnt ready to tell every one that she defied and her father and get pregnant with a black man
ReplyDeleteMichelle Isakova Class 191 Period #2
ReplyDelete1. James's experience with his step-father's brought a positive experience, well in his point of view of life. In the book, it quotes: "After years of waiting, I am finally the king in my house, the oldest kid, the power to boss and torture my younger siblings the way I'v been bossed around and tortured..." (page 138) In this given quote, James seems to enjoy not being the small kid anymore. After his step-father's death, I think that this means that it was his time to take over the 'throne' in the household.
This death refelts James in another positive way. In the book, it quotes: "...digging out sounds. "oh yeah... you can play, man. You are smokin'..." In this quote friends that listen to their music and enjoy it as much as James does. I think that James enjoys being praised for what he does best, playing music. This is why his step-father's death had a somewhat positive affect in Jame's life, it opened a whole new unknown world in his eyes.
2. Jame's learned a valuable lesson at the end of chaper 14. That lesson was that don't bud into other people's business, if you know what's good for you. In the book, it quotes: " Mike began slapping Mustang around so hard I wanted to jump in, but chicken man stopped me, "Leave that alone, New York! he hissed..." (page 150-151) This quote shows that people shouldn't be in other's businesses, like that fight between Mustang and Mike. This valuable lesson also has another side to it. In the book, it quotes: "... I said to myself "He's just a drunk." " In this quote given, Chicken Man gave him a small, yet powerful lecture why he came to the Corner. And James was being indenial with everything he said because of the excuse Chicken Man being a 'drunk.' This is the valuable lesson James learns at the end of chaper 14.
3. The lesson that Ruth has learned in chapter 15 was that having more options in life are more difficult to handle for her. In the book, it quotes: " I am going to the ceremony." I said, "Respect your mother and me," he said "Don't break the law of the Bible. Don't go into that gentile church." In these two quotes from the text, Ruth had a choice to make. To respect her family and tradition, or go about her way. This was a lesson that Ruth had to overcome when she was a teenager still living in her parent's house. After that, her mind was set she went to the ceremony, but she did not set foot into the church to graduate.
- Kennya Benoit Period 5
ReplyDelete1.James' experiences after his step-father died were negative because it hurt him. He was failing every class. According to pg 138, "My grades plummeted almost immediately. I attended Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Bayside, Queens, and while I had been a good student in the ninth grade, the following year I more or less dropped out." He basically shut everyone out. James quit church, began to avoid his religious godparents, started smoking cigarettes and reefer, and joined a soul band called Black Ice. They would play Kool and the Gang songs for hours, smoking weed, drinking Old English 800 malt liquor, and rehearsing in the drummers basement until his mother threw them out. He and his new friends would shoplift and break into cars just to drive somewhere. The outcome of his step-fathers death was a major turning point in his life which caused him to do the opposite of what his stepdad raised him to do.
2. The lesson James learns is that he is wrong for robbing people, shoplifting, and dropping out of high school. He felt that Chicken Man's words really got to him. James refused to believe it at first because he said thought, "He's just a drunk". According to pg 150, Chicken Man told James, " Everybody on this corner is smart. You ain't no smarter than anybody here. If you so smart, why you got to come on this corner every summer? 'Cause you flunkin' school! You think if you drop out of school somebody's gonna beg you to go back Heck no! They won't beg your black a** to go back. What makes you so special that they'll beg you? Who are you? You ain't nobody! If you want to drop out of school and shoot people and hang on this corner all your life, go ahead. It's your life!". James learns to think wisely before a he makes a final decision with his life.
3. Ruth learns that she cannot disobey her parents because she was still living under their house and she was still their child. According to Chapter 15 pg 158 Ruth stated, " As we approached the church I started to shake and sweat, and just before we reached the church doorway, I stepped out of line. I couldn't do it. I couldn't go inside that church. In my heart I was still a Jew. I had done wrong things in my life, but I was still my parents child." Ruth's life in Suffolk was ending because she couldn't stay there any longer. She'd been heartbroken and she aborted her child by Peter. She decided to start a new life in New York Living with Bubeh. Ruth said on page 158 " I walked home sobbing in my cap and gown and caught a Greyhound bus for New York the very next day."
1)James McBride's reaction to his step-fathers death was tragic. After the death of his step-father he became very distant and self centered. He began to stay away from his family including his mother and his brothers and sisters. As it says(on page 138)"I failed everything. I left in the mornings and simply didn't go to school." He began to hang out with the wrong crowd and started doing things that in his mind he knew was wrong. It says that(on page 142)"I snatched old women's purses just as I had seen my mothers purse snatched when I was eight years old". This alone can show you that In his mind he was doing a just thing getting back at the world but it wasn't right. His actions were wrong because he did to others what he had seen growing up happen to him although I am not saying that It was correct I do believe that if he was raised differently in a different time era he would have been a better person.
ReplyDelete2)At the end of chapter fourteen I believe that James learned one of the biggest lessons of his life. The lesson he learned was(on page 150)that nobody cared about his education and that If he wanted it bad enough he was supposed to get it."And nobody'll give a damn neither". Chicken man also told him "They wont beg your black ass to go back. What makes you so special that they'll beg you! Who are you? You ain't nobody!". I think that although it says that It took him a while to figure out what chicken man meant about what he said he learned that nobody cared about his black ass and that if he wanted something he was going to have to fight for it.
ReplyDelete3)In chapter thirteen Ruth learns something that affected her through out her life. The lesson that she learns is that although she changed her name to Ruth she still couldn't deny that she really in a former life was Rachel. It says on page 158 that "As we approached the church I started to sweat and shake"it also says that"I just couldn't go inside that church. In my heart I was still a Jew". This goes to show you that even though through her life she never found love or inspiration through the Jewish religion she learned that she still in a way was the old Rachel. This in my opinion was the lesson that Ruth learned.
ReplyDelete1) After james` step-father dies, James has many positive and negative experences. One experience that he had was that he used to ditch school. On page 138 it says "My grdaes plummeted almost immediately. I attended Benjamin Cardozo High School in Bayside, Queens, and while i had been a good student in ninth grade the following year I more or lesss dropped out. I failed everything . I left home in the mornings and simply did not go to school. Another experience that James had was thst he was the first kid on his block to start smoking. ON page 138 it says "I was the first kid on my block to smoke cigarettes and reefer." This was a bad experience for James because this kind of behavior could lead to bigger things and he could potientially end up in jail.
ReplyDelete2) The lesson that I think James learns at the end of the chapter is that hanging around with the worng people can get you killed. On page "Who are you? You ain`t nobody! If you want to drop out of school and shoot people and hang out on this corner for the rest of your life, go ahead. It`s your life." Another quote that I found was on page 152 it said "That`s why I don`t have no agruments with no woman, Chicken Man said. It don`t do nothing but fool you around. But not long after, he did get into an agrument with a woman. They agrued in the morning and he went off and forgot about it, and later that day she came into the liquor store and stabbed him as he was waiting in line to but a beer. He coughed a few times, them lay down on the floor and died."
3) The lesson that i think Ruth learns at the end of chaper 15 is that no matter how hard she tries she cant disobey her parents wishes and her religion. One quote that I found was on page 156 it said "The minute he heard about me marching into a Protestant church, he said, no forget about it. You`re noit marching into any gentile church." The sencond quote that I found was on page 157 it says" Respect your mother and me, don`t break the law of the bible. Don`t go into that gentile church."
Family comes first no matter what happens somethings are just not worth crossing the line. The lesson that Ruth learned was family come first snd no matter what they do you can't do certain things because she was going to regret it for the rest of her life. i say that because she was scared shaking and know it wasn't the right decison she was abput to make.For example,as we aproached the church i started to shake and sweat". It was bugging her mind because that's not how she is she only did it for her friend. For example,"well i felt like i couldn't let that happen so i said i can do it lets go!". i appluad her for making the right dission for not going in the church because that would have been a BIG mistake. that's the lesson Ruth learned at the end of chapter 15. (question 3)
ReplyDelete1. James experiences after his step father’s death were negative. He did a lot of bad things and saw a lot of bad things. Bad things happened to him because all of a sudden what his mother said did not matter to him anymore. He skipped school and went to the movies instead, he smoked reefer, he stole things it was clearly not good experiences. He witnessed murders and thought that they were cool. He messed with drug lords. None of these were good experiences and proof that some of these things happened to him come directly from “The Color of Water”. For example on page 138 it says “My grades plummeted almost immediately. I attended Benjamin N. Cardozo high school in Bayside, Queens and while I had been a good student in the ninth grade, the following year I more or less dropped out.” This tells you that he stopped caring about what his mother thought and the rules that she had in place about studying and etc. Another quote from page 139 states “My new friends and I shoplifted. We broke into cars. We snuck into the nearby Contrail/ Long Island Rail Road tracks and broke into freight cars, robbing them of bicycles, television sets, and wine.” This quote shows some of the negative things he was getting himself into. Basically as you can see his whole life went downhill.
ReplyDelete2. The lesson James learned at the end of chapter 14 was that what he was doing and thinking was false. The reason I think that he learned this was because Chicken Man got stabbed to death after getting into a fight, while James had thought fighting was for respect and that it was needed. Also Chicken Man even though bring a drunk, still knew what was good and what was bad because he told him that what he was doing was wrong and that he thought he was smart but really he was not. He was flunking school and etc and so he told him he was not smart and everyone else on the corner was smart. Also he wanted to see a fight between Mustangs new boyfriend and Mike, but instead he saw this fight between Chicken Man and this woman so he got the opposite of what he wanted. This is proven on page 150 chicken man says “And nobody will give a damn neither! Everyone on this corner is smart. You ain’t so smart then anybody here. If you so smart why you got to some to this corner every summer? ‘Cause you flunkin’ school!” and on page 152 “ … She came into the liquor store and stabbed him as he was waiting in line to buy a beer. He coughed a few times, then lay down on the floor and died.” This is why I think he learned that what he was doing was wrong.
3. The lesson that I Think Ruth learns in chapter 15 is that there is no such thing as good or evil in the world. There are only things in between. The reason that I think she learned this was because she realized that the only boy who she ever loved was getting married to another woman and got someone else pregnant. This crushed her because she thought that he might have still had feelings for her and she thought of him so highly. Another reason that I think she learned that was because she left before graduation because she could not walk into the church. The reason I thought this taught her that was because she knew that she wanted to walk in for her friend who cared for her, but could not because of her parents. She realized that there was no correct choice and she just started crying and went home and took the bus to New York. You can see this on page 154 where she finds out about her boyfriend “They’re making me marry her – Did you get her pregnant? – Yeah.” “Oh that messed me up. I told him I didn’t want to see him anymore and walked back through the black neighborhood, into the store, and went upstairs and cried my heart out, because I still loved him” This showed you one of the things that I explained and on page 158 where Ruth leaves “I couldn’t do it because in my heart I was still a Jew … I walked home sobbing in my cap and gown and caught a greyhound bus for New York the very next day.
1. James’ experiences after his step-father’s death was a negative because, James began to do poorly in school, use drugs, and get involved in petty thief. He was only aware later that much of this phase related to the anger he felt at his situation. After Ruth discovered that not only were James' grades poor, but he had been skipping school entirely, she sent him to his sister Jack's house in Louisville, Kentucky, for the summer. Quotes that support my answer are "I left home in the mornings and simply didn't go to school." "I failed everything." These quotes support my answer because once James' father died; he went down a negative road that only led to destruction. Primarily, this shows how James’ experience after his stepfather’s death was a negative.
ReplyDelete2. At the end of chapter 14, I think James learns street smarts and being educated in school. James ended up spending three consecutive summers in Louisville. Jack's husband Big Richard and his friends, southern workers, hung out day and night on "the corner," where James says he received his "true street education." Chicken Man was James's favorite local man, and the one from whom he learned the most. While James was working at the gas station, he got in a fight with his boss's friend and was fired. James ranted to Chicken Man about his wish for a gun, and Chicken Man responded seriously. Chicken Man recognized his failures in life, and urged James to educate himself and work hard. Chicken Man made a negative example of himself and the men on the corner. Shortly after his talk with James, Chicken Man had a dispute with a woman who returned later that day and stabbed him to death. Another quote that supports my answer is, "stay off the corner," says Big Richard. This shows they wanted him to not only be street smart and know how to take care of himself but be educated, go to school and do his work.
3. In chapter 15, Ruth learns how to be independent. During her junior year of high school, Ruth stayed with Bubeh in New York. The school she was attending was too hard, however, and she had to return to Suffolk to complete high school. Upon her return, she visited Peter, who claimed he still loved her. However, while she was working at her family's store one day, Ruth overheard someone say that Peter had gotten a black girl pregnant and was to marry her. She approached Peter, who said he was marrying the girl because of pressure from his family. At that moment, Ruth felt sure that she had to escape Suffolk. Tateh forbid Ruth to attend her graduation because part of it was to take place in a Protestant church. Ruth defied her father and planned to attend graduation. However, when she approached the threshold of the church, she was unable to go through with it. She took the bus to New York City the next day. Quotes that support my answer are, "I'm going to the ceremony" "Respect your mother and me". This shows that Ruth rebelled against her parents and did what she felt was on right. Primarily, Ruth's argument with her father about graduation speaks volumes about her relationship with him, and the strength of cultural and religious traditions. Ruth and her father have several large conflicts over the course of her life with her family. However, this argument is particularly telling. Ruth genuinely wanted to attend her graduation, not just for the sake of attending, but because attending became a symbolic victory over her father. Ruth decided to ignore her father's prohibition, rather than seeking his permission. However, when she attempted to cross the threshold of a gentile church for the first time, Ruth realized that she had not completely shed her father's restrictive interpretation of the Jewish faith or her concern about her family's opinion of her. This setback greatly upset Ruth, but she also recognized that the graduation debate would be one of the last times when her family's expectations dictated her behavior.
Karla Galiano Herrera
ReplyDeleteClass 191/5th period
1) James' experiences after his step-father's death were negative throughout many ways. (Page 138) "-and while I had been a good student in the ninth grade, the following year I more or less dropped out. I failed everything. I left home in the mornings and simply didn't go to school.", this is a negative experience, because James is fooling his mother by making her think that he's on his way to school when he's not, also this a negative experience, because he had the opportunity to get an education, but by him dropping out of school, he's giving up on his mother and himself. (Page 139)" My new friends and I shoplifted. We broke into cars. We snuck onto the nearby Conrail/Long Island Rail Road tracks and broke into freight cars, robbing them of bicycles, television sets, and wine." this is another negative experience, because he's setting a bad example for his siblings, also those "friends" of him aren't really his friends, because they are guiding him in the wrong direction and a friend wouldn't sell you out to the police, like his friend did; (Page 139) "He lined us up against a freight car and searched us, then smashed one kid in the face with his blackjack- the kid had tried to say he wasn’t with the rest of us". These are the many negative experiences James went through after his step-father's death.
2) By the end of chapter 14, James learned a lot of things. On page 144, of the Color of Water, James says how one of the things he learned was; street education. On page 145 it says, “The men on the Corner were honorable drinking men, with their own code of ethics: A man's word was his bond, you never insulted anyone's woman, you didn't drink from the same bottle as a man who confessed to oral sex with women, you never cuffed the dice during crap games, and if you pulled out a gun-which you shouldn't do- you'd better use it before it got used on you" James called this his street education. Another thing James learned was to stay off the streets; after James got fired, due to being a fistfight, he angrily ranted to Chicken Man about wanting to shoot the guy, but Chicken Man responded in a very serious manner,(Page 150) "Everybody on this corner is smart. You ain’t no smarter than anybody here. If you so smart, why you got to come on this corner every summer? 'Cause you flunkin' school! You think if you drop out of school somebody's gonna beg for you to go back? Hell no! They won't beg your black ass to go back. What makes you think you so special that they'll beg you! Who are you? You ain’t nobody! If you want to drop out of school and shoot people and hang on this corner all your life, go ahead. It's your life!" These are the many things James learned by the end of chapter 14.
3) Ruth learns many things in chapter 15. She learned not to trust so much in people, on page 153 Ruth says, "When I came back to Suffolk, the first thing I said to Peter was, "We can't see each other anymore. Don't come by." He said, "I've been waiting for you. I still love you," and I was swayed, because I still felt a deep love for him." Sadly later on after, Ruth found out that Peter impregnated some female and was soon to marry her, Ruth felt heartbroken, and she cried her heart out. These are the many things that Ruth learned in chapter 15.