The impact of withheld secrets

James McBride writes in The Color of Water about his mother Ruth
McBride-Jordan and the way she withholds information from her past to her children. Do
I believe that withholding secrets affects a family in the long run? Yes, I believe that
Ruth McBride Jordan could’ve opened up more to her children. The acts of rebellion that the children later expressed could be partially because they feel that their mother does not express the trust and faith to disclose personal information to them,
Segregation is at a high with Whites and Blacks fighting each other for the freedoms they want and believe in, with groups like the Black Panthers and the KKK at war for their own freedoms and beliefs. As the battle lines for Civil Rights has been drawn. In the PBS TV series “Eyes on the Prize” Craig Rains one of the first Black students in a white school says “You could cut it with a knife, the tension.” That’s how bad it is, a civil rights battle that is splitting the nation and these are things Ruth and her children have to deal with every day and with all that stress why would she bring up her dark past? The personal issues Ruth McBride-Jordan has deep inside of her, are dark, saddening and disappointing. From the sexual abuse from her father, being pregnant as a teenager with a Black teenager’s baby as it is forbidden in the 1930’s, the constant fear she has of her secret relationship with a black teenager being discovered and him possibly being killed. This is why she has the belief of why tell her kids these terrible and heartbreaking stories about her childhood. Ruth’s childhood is not something she wants to bring up and relive, and she also does not want her children to see and witness her weaknesses as she has just be...

... middle of paper ...

...hildren to know, they will know. She suffered a lot of pain and she doesn’t want to relieve those moments, and break down to her children. The Parent of the home should never show weakness and I think that is the mentality she has as a mother. She probably thinks all this through, but not opening up could do more harm than good. Her children rebelled and maybe deep down they all don’t feel like part of a family because the children shared secrets with each other but Ruth would tell them nothing so they tell her nothing.
A home full of hiding and secrets is a home divided. “The bottom line: if you want a happier family, create, refine and retell the story of your family’s most positive moments and your ability to bounce back from the difficult ones. That act alone may increase the odds that your family will thrive for many generations To come”- Bruce Feiler