In any religion, one is expected to put God before peers and oneself. One is told from a young age to trust and confide in God when life is not going how one would like it. In the novel, The Color of Water by James McBride, the main character, James goes down the wrong path, using various drugs and alcohol to cope with his feelings, and eventually turns to God for guidance. Although James did not change overnight and kick his bad habits to the curb right away, he gives credit to God and his sister for the advice that changes his life: "You have to choose between what the world expects of you and what what you want for yourself,' my sister Jack told me several times. 'Put yourself in God's hands and you can't go wrong. I knew Jack was right, and when I got back to New York in the fall of 1973 for my junior year in high school I resolved to jump back into my studies and rebuild myself. Like my own mother did in times of stress, I turned to God. I lay in bed at night praying to Him to make me strong, to rid me of anger, to make me a man, and He listened, and I began to change" (McBride 161) Choosing between yourself and the society is like asking someone to choose between dropping out of high school and graduating. The obvious choice would be to benefit yourself and in James' case, that is exactly what he does. James mentions in previous chapters how he would never listen to Jack when she would give him advice or tell him what to do, but in this quote it is apparent that James does benefit from listening to his older sister. Many questions arise in the situation such as, what would James be like if he had listened to his sister sooner? Would he have turned to drugs and alcohol to cope with the lack of attention from his mother? How would this have impacted James' studies and would have he made the same choices? When Jack says putting God in your hands cannot go wrong means it is always worth a shot asking God for help. God forgives al