Color of water book review

Co-cultural theory This theory looks at the strategic and proper ways that co cultured people communicate. In this case, people of color - Ruth McBride. She being a white lady and getting married to a black man and learning their ways of life to the extent of them having 12 children, proves that this theory stands. Stranger theory This theory states that at least an individual in an intercultural encounter is a stranger. Relating this to the story, we see that Ruth fleeing to America and even living there. This is seen in events like where one will decides to learn another person’s culture language and traditions and stick to using them in their day to day lives. This book is about a woman by the name Ruth McBride Jordan, who has a Jewish heritage deciding to change into a Christian and embracing the Christianity ways.

She again, at the age of 18, she fled from Poland where she was born and went to America where she settled at Suffolk, Virginia. Four years down the line, she was married to a black man by the name Denis McBride. They then had 12 kids. The transition from one scene to another is well laid out. This in essence gives the story reader the feel of wanting to know what will happen next, that is suspense. For example we see that, James McBride, a journalist who really wants to know about the heritage of his mother and his own is ready to gather information by asking his mother about it even against her own will. The element of suspense at this instance can be seen where the reader will be left with the question of “in what way was he to get the information” and “did he really get information at the end of reading the story”.

In addition to this the characters in the book felt real to me. This helped enhancing intercultural communication. In addition to this, the fact that James McBride was so bent on finding out what his mother’s heritage entails and how it related to him, shows that there was a feeling of him wanting to belong. Overall reaction My overall reaction to the book is that we should embrace intercultural communication and not forget entirely where we have come from, that is our heritage. From intercultural perspective, there are more advantages related to one embracing intercultural communication to the disadvantages. This can be seen from the book where Ruth McBride associates herself with the black community despite her being white. This enhanced good communication in the family.

In the world today, the best known way of solving conflicts in societies is by people knowing about each other and discussing various ways and means of resolving the conflict to the extent that no particular partner is left out of the equation. This will mean a particular community being ready to listen to what the other community has to say about their way of resolving conflict and then offering to tell them how they themselves resolved their own conflicts and then later the two parties discuss and arrive at a formidable conclusion. This conclusion must have advantages on both parties (both parties should gain from the conclusion arrived at). We can also conclude that to achieve world intercultural communication, people have to be willing to learn more about other people’s cultures and traditions.