Discerning Racial "Color": Ruth's Role in The Color of Water Annmicha Blugh College

In The Color of Water, Ruth, a Caucasian young woman, gravitates toward Black men because of the rejection, lack of love, paternal neglect, and sexual abuse she encountered at the hands of her own father, and because of the first love of her life Peter, was a black man. Fishel Shilsky, Ruth's father, repels his daughter by fear which he instills in her and her siblings. Fear erects barriers to the relationship. Because of fear, self-expression is inhibited and feelings of love and affection are withheld. Shilsky, a Jewish rabbi, is a rigid, pedantic, martinet who inspires terror in Ruth because he quickly gets infuriated at her blunders. She dreads the constant drill to memorize passages of scripture. She must endure the "scolding that makes you feel worse than the hitting"(62) and statements like "you're stupid., you're nothing but a fool, a sinner" (62). Ruth cowers for "he put the fear of God in her"(80). She "is afraid of Tateh and has no love for him at all" (42). The domineering attitude, the totalitarian, despotic control over his own wife and children and the utter disregard for their feelings alienate Ruth and pushes her away from her own people and white men by extension.

The sexual abuse which Ruth has to endure in...