Three Reason Argument Olivia Coxon

There are both good and bad memoirs in the world. A good way of deciding whether a memoir is good or not is by reading Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir by William Zinsser and asking yourself if a memoir that you have read follows the criteria. “The Color of Water” by James McBride is clearly a good memoir because it is meaningful, carefully constructed, and is not just complaining.

“The Color of Water” is not just complaining. In the memoir, both the mother and son have extremely hard lifestyles, growing up in bad neighborhoods. The mother is molested by her father, the son does drugs, they face many issues in regards to their skin color, and they don’t have a lot of money. The mother's hard life is shown on page 42 when it says, “My father did things to me when I was a young girl that I couldn’t tell anyone about. Such as getting in bed with me at night and doing things to me sexually that I could not tell anyone about.” However, these facts are listed not just because it makes the reader know that their lives are bad, but because it shows the reader how much they had to overcome. This provides a deep message of getting through terrible times, and in “The Color of Water,” they turned to God, as well as their family and friends, to do so. Therefore, “The Color of Water” has a dark side to it, but is not just complaining.

In addition, “The Color of Water” is very carefully constructed. The order in which events occur and the significance of each one is crucial to the lessons learned throughout the story. There could probably be an infinite amount of events listed that add on to the evidence suggesting that the characters have bad lifestyles, but instead, only the most important events are chosen from the characters’ crazy lives. These events shape the memoir and show that the writer isn’t just saying things with no purpose, but are telling the events that mean the most to him. Many of these events have to do with the constant struggle with the color of the characters' skin, which is extremely an important topic. An example of the struggles that the family face due to the color of their skin is on page 89 when it says, “Being the token Negro was something I was never entirely comfortable with. I was the only black kid in my fifth-grade class at P.S. 138 is the then all-white enclave of Rosedale, Queens… someone in the back of the class whispered, ‘James is a nigger!’ followed by a ripple of tittering and giggling across the room.” This embarrassment was just one of the many struggles that the family had to face in regards to the color of their skin. Therefore, “The Color of Water” is very carefully constructed with many important events.

Finally, “The Color of Water” is a very meaningful memoir. Throughout the story, both the reader as well as the boy discover the dark past of the mother. The mother overcomes this dark past by turning to God and thinking positively, and this idea is shown in the last chapter of the book. The mother says a speech in a church at the end of the book, moving the people in the church as well as the readers. This speech shows how much she had overcome and how God really changed her life, giving her a different perspective in life and encouraging her to push through the pain. The moving speech is shown on page 258 when it says, “‘God bless you all in the name of Christ!’ she shouts, striking at the air with her fist and sitting down, her face red, nose red, tears everywhere, in my own eyes as well.” Therefore, “The Color of Water” is very meaningful and moving.

In conclusion, “The Color of Water” is a great memoir because it isn’t just complaining, is very well put together, and is very moving and meaningful.