Summer Reading

The Color of Water explores the idea of identity: how we become who we are. Choose TWO important events in EACH of the narrators’ (Ruth’s and McBride’s) lives. Your description of each event should be one paragraph (six paragraphs altogether), explaining why the event is important in terms of the character’s identity. In your response, for each conflict please explain what the narrator learns about his/her identity from the experience.

When Ruth describes the abuse she faces from her father, we understand the depth of her hatred for her life in Suffolk. She says, “My father did things to me when I was a young girl that I couldn’t tell anyone about.” (McBride 42) As a result, Ruth develops an intense dislike of her family life and looks for every opportunity to escape. She dates a Peter, a young black man, which was a dangerous thing to do at that time. She runs away to New York, and most significantly, she rejects her identity as a Jew. All of these can be seen as a reaction to her father’s abuse. Ruth must reinvent herself in order to survive. She must create a new identity in order to effectively shed the old one.

Keep in mind: The work should be done on a computer, not hand-written, and should be saved. Use normal margins and the 12-point font of Times New Roman. On the first day of class, please give your teacher a hard copy of the assignment. In addition, the first week of school, you will submit the assignment to turnitin.com, so you should have an electronic copy as well, either on a USB or saved to your email account. Remember that this is your first assignment (and your first grade for the school year), and your first opportunity to show your English teacher the level of your investment. Make sure to give these assignments adequate time and thought.

**Preston High School stresses the importance of “textual evidence” when writing any assignment. This means that a high school student supports her opinions with specific passages found in her book. As you do the Summer Reading assignment, you should include references to specific passages, including the page numbers.