The Color of Water: Chapter 23 Summary & Analysis

In 1942 Ruth and Dennis lived together like husband and wife, although they are unmarried. Some black people are critical of the union (a woman in their apartment building once punches Ruth in the face, and one night Denis and Ruth almost cause a race riot) but mostly they are accepted. After Ruth’s mother dies, she feels disconnected from her white past and commits to “the black side.”

Dennis brings Christianity into Ruth’s life, along with the struggle for equal rights, and Southern food. During the week Dennis and Ruth go to the movies and watch musicians perform, but on Sunday they go see Rev. Abner Brown preach at the Metropolitan Baptist Church. A few months after the death of her mother, Ruth decides she’s ready to join the church officially, and during that weekend’s service she commits herself.

Ruth eventually begins to work as church secretary, and as she gets more religious she becomes embarrassed that she and Dennis are not married. They get the paperwork at city hall (although no one wants to write up the license), and Rev. Brown marries them in his private office in the church. During their reception in their friends’ apartment, Dennis warns Ruth that people will gossip about them and try to break them apart, but they must remain strong.

In 1943 Ruth and Dennis have their first child and move to a one-room kitchenette. They live in that room for nine years, and have four children. In 1950 they move to the Red Hook Housing Project in Brooklyn, which, with its two bedrooms, feels luxurious. Ruth and Dennis continue to go to Rev. Brown at Metropolitan for a few years, but after Rev. Brown dies of a heart attack Dennis gets a divinity degree and they found their own church. They eventually find a building they like, but as the owner will not sell to Dennis, Ruth goes in and signs the lease. They name the church “New Brown Memorial” after Rev. Brown.

In 1957 Dennis gets what seems to be a bad cold. He gets worse and worse, and so Ruth takes him to the hospital. Once there, he continues to get sicker. The doctors do not communicate with Ruth because they disapprove of the relationship, and so she doesn’t understand how severe the illness is.

When Dennis in the hospital Ruth realizes she’s pregnant, and Dennis decides they’ll name the child James, if he’s a boy. Ruth feels in her heart that her husband is going to die, and she brings the children by to wave at him through the hospital window, because there are too many to come inside. On April 5, 1957 Ruth receives a call from the hospital—her husband has died of cancer.

Ruth buries her husband in North Carolina, where his family lives, and when she returns to New York she finds the mailbox full of checks, cash, and money orders from neighbors and friends. Jack and Aunt Candis come up to help, as do local family friends. Still, Ruth reaches out to her Jewish family for help. Aunt Betsy slams the door on her, and when she calls her sister Dee-Dee she just reminds Ruth that she asked her to stay, and Ruth broke her promise.

Luckily, not long after the death of Dennis, Ruth meets Hunter Jordan. She’s hesitant to marry him, but Aunt Candis tells her it’s the right thing to do, and Dennis’s parents give her their blessing to remarry. Hunter promises to help Ruth the rest of her life if she marries him, which she does, and he keeps his word.