James and Ruth are two people who both had some difficulties and struggle in finding the meaning of their life. As Ruth tells her story of her past, James tried to do the same thing by retelling his childhood and his struggle in accepting the death of his stepfather and finding the answers to his questions regarding his mother, her family and her color.
Ruth as a Jewish kid didn't enjoy the way her family forced her to believe in the religion. She experienced abuse from her father and saw how cruel his Tateh was to her mother and her siblings.Aside from forcing her to work, his father whom they call Tateh was molesting her. His father is a strict rabbi who thinks that it’s a shame if his kids don’t know the bible. Few more years and her brother Sam ran away from home.
Even when she was young, she developed fondness among the black people. Her father who was a racist most of the time overcharges his black customers which Ruth strongly opposed. She was really sympathetic to those who are black and was never affected by the racism happening during those times.When she was 19, she ran away from home and from that day on, when she married a black man, she was forgotten by her family.
Ruth married Dennis and loved Christianity. She changed religion and fell in love with God. When Dennis died, she was at lost in raising her family. He left with her eight children who need a father.
She re-married again and this time, it was Hunter Jordan who was a black American too. They had four children but, Hunter also died leaving Ruth with 12 children to raise. Difficulty in raising the 12 kids could be seen in the story but Ruth did not give up.Instead, she worked hard and disciplined her daughters and sons. Although most of the time she uses a belt when they commit mistakes, in the end it resulted to better children.
It is not easy to defend Ruth’s way of disciplining her children but at some point, they turned out to be successful individuals. Her children learned from their mistakes and did not commit it anymore. 2 With regards to the hunger of the children, Ruth did not ask for assistance because at some point, she never actually had anyone to turn to.Her life as a kid was a life with low confidence and she doesn’t know how to ask for help. Although their life is as hard as what was said in the story, Ruth tried her best to provide everything the kids needed especially when it comes to their education. Aside from that, she brings home some food from the restaurant she was working.
Actually, Ruth tried to ask for some assistance from her family. When she called her aunt who was in New York, she asked for some help and her aunt denied it.Her aunt said that she is already dead in their family and cut the remaining ties between her and the Jewish family. From then on, Ruth decided not to ask for help from her family and it even added to her low self confidence.
She never talked to anyone except to those she to church with. Achieving Ruth’s success is still possible in our times if the person would be like Ruth. As tough as the only white woman in the black town and as God-fearing as she is, it is not impossible that someone can have those achievements and still be blessed.Her attitude towards life and her strong faith in God helped her survive the tragedies she had and with that, she had successful children in exchange. The life of Ruth is an example of how hood God is and at the same time, it shows that it is not in the color.
God don’t mind if a person is a black or white. What he cared for is you as a person and the strong you have for him. The belief that no matter what, by the end of the day, when you are tired and not strong enough to carry more baggage of life’s cruelty, he’ll lift you and make you rest when the right time comes.
