But, of course, my life and Frankie's life are incomparable, and it is all relative. To him and to many, America is a dream come true, a seventh heaven; to me, it's just home. .
But home isn't always a safe-haven. In James McBride's Color of Water, for example, James suffers from the harsh reality of being the only black at a predominantly white school, a black with a white mother. Without a source of support at home, James feels very alone and confused. .
To further escape from painful reality, I created an imaginary world for myself. I believed my true self was a boy who lived in a mirror. I'd lock myself in the bathroom and spend long hours playing with him. He looked just like me. I'd stare at him. Kiss him. Make faces at him and order him around. Unlike my siblings, he had no opinions. He would listen to me. 'If I'm here and you're me, how can you be there at the same time?' I'd ask. He'd shrug and smile. I'd shout at him, abuse him verbally. 'Give me an answer!' I'd snarl. I would turn to leave, but when I wheeled around he was always there, waiting for me. I had an ache inside, a longing, but I didn't know where it came from or why I had it. The boy in the mirror, he didn't seem to have an ache. He was free. He was never hungry, he had his own bed probably, and his mother wasn't white. I hated him. 'Go away!' I'd shout. 'Hurry up! Get on out!' but he'd never leave. (Pelzer 90-91) .
Feeling trapped in himself and lost in misunderstanding, James' imagination runs wild and in a sense, allows him to escape on his own. As he grows up with these feelings of personal instability, it's particularly hard for James to go home to his mother's struggle with depression after her husband's death. In order to evade the reality, he goes into a state of complete rebellion and gets involved with hard drugs at a young age. His grades go down in school, he quits church, he shoplifts, he breaks into cars, starts smoking marijuana and taking LSD.