The Color of Water Lesson Plan

Is Chapter 16 about driving, as the title suggests? Why or why not? What does your answer to this question reveal about the author's writing style? Cite specific excerpts from the chapter to support your answer.

A useful exercise might be to ask students to sum up the main theme(s) of Chapter 16 in one sentence. For example, they may feel that the chapter is about Ruth's grief and depression after her husband's death, or James’s decision to turn toward faith. They might explore how the driving excursion serves as something of a culminating incident which jolts the reader (and James himself) into a moment of clarity about how the family was suffering after Daddy's death...