Chapters 3 and 4, Kosher, Black Power Summary and Analysis

This chapter is written in italics, in Ruth's words. She says that her parents' marriage was arranged and that her mother had the class and money. She doesn't know anything about her father's family or background, however. She thinks he married her so he could have enough money to get to America, and once he got there, he was done with her. Ruth arrived in America when she was two years old and her brother four.

When Ruth's family first arrives in the United States, they live with her grandparents in Manhattan. They are strictly Orthodox and do everything in the kosher way. Ruth describes the meals, the tablecloths, the prayers, the sitting tight during the Sabbath.

Ruth's grandfather dies while they stay there. She remembers worrying that he isn't really dead after...