The Color Of Water Ruth Values

It is said that the success of a parent is through the success of his/her children. When children are successful, it is easy to assume that their parents must have taught them well. People learn through observation so a child learns a lot from watching their parents. Ruth in The Color of Water has three core values that she lives by. Ruth values religion, loving others, and education. Ruth’s children see those values in their mother and copy them. All of Ruth’s children thrive because of the values they learned growing up. Ruth is a great mother because of the strong values she believes in. To begin, religion is very important to Ruth because she grew up with it in her life. She becomes Christian when she hears about the magnificence

Ruth’s life is transformed when she gets her first boyfriend. Ruth says that her life changed when she fell in love with Peter (McBride 112). Ruth never sees love as a child. Her family cared for her but they did not love her the way Peter did. Ruth begins to learn to love from Peter and sees its value. Because she values love, she then later loves her children. Ruth’s two husbands also bring out her value for love. Ruth comes to rely on her two husbands. Her first husband Dennis brought her so much happiness and joy. Dennis provided for his family and loved Ruth so much. Ruth’s world changed, and she became a better person because of Dennis (McBride 234). Ruth learned the importance of relationships since her relationship with Dennis changed her so much. She was able to learn the traits that Dennis had and show them to her kids. Hunter Jordan, Ruth’s second husband, loved Ruth also. Hunter tells Ruth that he’ll help Ruth for the rest of his life (McBride 247). Hunter supports and loves Ruth and her family so Ruth values that relationship. Through Ruth’s boyfriend and two husbands, she learns to rely and value on love from other men. Ruth then gave her love back to her children to support them like her men supported her. Ruth’s unconditional love helps shape the children into the wonderful adults they

Ruth pushes her children to go to school the whole book. James said that his mother “forced us to go to white schools to get the best education,” (McBride 29). Even though Ruth has no money and does not like or trust white people, she sends her kids to the white and more expensive schools so they can get the best education possible. Ruth raises her family like an all black family in an all black community and still sends her kids to a white school. She tells her children to “forget everything else” and remember school (McBride 29). Ruth saw the value of education and knew that her children could get somewhere if they were smart and had an education. Raising an all black family was not easy for Ruth because she saw how her children could and did get beaten down because of their race. Ruth, though, believed that her kids could show the world that they could make it if they had a good education. It was never about the money for Ruth though. She believed that if her children had a brain full of knowledge then money meant nothing (McBride 33). Ruth even goes back to college at age 65 (McBride). Ruth and her children show the world that anyone who works hard can get an education. With this education, one can become successful and whatever he/she wants to be. Since Ruth valued school she made sure all of her children received a good education so they could become