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James sees Ruth’s bicycle as “typif[ing] her whole existence.” Ruth marches to the beat of her own drummer, and doesn’t care what people will think of her — a white middle-aged woman riding a bicycle in a black neighborhood. In most areas of her life, Ruth is an outsider, but acts as though she belongs. In her black neighborhood, she comfortably raises her mixed family, and in her black church, she happily attends every Sunday. As long as they aren’t attacking her or her children, she doesn’t seem to care what people think of her, and her bicycle is an apt representation of this fact.
The bicycle is also a way for Ruth to escape her circumstances. All her life she’s liked to run to clear her head and to escape. As a child she would literally run around Suffolk to temporarily escape Tateh’s abuse, and when she graduated high school she ran away to New York City to try and start a new, free life. After the death of her first husband she was able to keep herself busy enough that she never fully mourned, but after the death of Hunter, she enters a deep depression. Unable to move to a new city or start a new life because of her massive family, getting out of the house and riding her bicycle is as close to running from her sadness as Ruth can get. Riding the bicycle helps her stay in a state of constant motion, which gives her less time to think about her unwelcome emotions.
Ruth’s Bicycle Quotes in The Color of Water
The The Color of Water quotes below all refer to the symbol of Ruth’s Bicycle. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 2 Quotes
The image of her riding that bicycle typified her whole existence to me. Her oddness, her complete nonawareness of what the world thought of her, a nonchalance in the face of what I perceived to be imminent danger from blacks and whites who disliked her for being a white person in a black world. She saw none of it.
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After the death of her second husband, Ruth becomes depressed. She lets her already disorganized household fall into disrepair, fails to pay the bills, and struggles to discipline her rebellious children. For much of her life Ruth has coped with tragedy and heartbreak by mentally (and sometimes physically) distancing herself from pain, and locking the memories away in the back of her mind. Now, however, after so much tragedy, she has difficulty moving on. As a child Ruth had been a runner, meaning she would run to try and clear her mind and escape her troubled home life. Now, as Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui d
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Ruth’s Bicycle Symbol Timeline in The Color of Water
The timeline below shows where the symbol Ruth’s Bicycle appears in The Color of Water. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2: The Bicycle
...is fourteen his stepfather Hunter Jordan dies, and his mother (Ruth), unable to drive, starts bicycling around the neighborhood. James misses his stepfather, who he thought of as “Daddy,” and who...
(full context)
...James is embarrassed to come home and see his middle-aged mother on her old blue bicycle, which he sees as an indication of how different Ruth is from the other mothers...
(full context)
Chapter 16: Driving
...to her. To keep from losing her mind completely, Ruth remains in motion, riding her bicycle, taking bus rides, and walking around the neighborhood. James explains, “She ran, as she had...
(full context)
