Black and White

Black and White by Dani Shapiro

Stars: 4.5 out of 5

Genre: Realistic fiction

Age group: 14 and up



Black and White is about a woman, Clara visiting her mother, Ruth. Though the plot sounds plain, there is much more. If you didn't read the blurb on the back, you would never have found out about Ruth taking nude pictures of her daughter.



Black and White is heart-warming and sad at the same time. Heart-warming because of the ending. Sad because of the nude pictures Ruth took of Clara. Those pictures really bothered me. I'm not a mother, but I am a daughter and treating your child as if the world deserves to see her body in museums is wrong. I think those pictures weren't art, they were child porn.



The title, Black and White has so much effect on the story. I never noticed it before but the order of the title matters. If the title was White and Black, the story would sound entirely different. Think about it, say 'white and black' first then say 'black and white.' They both sound different.



To me, the title Black and White represents Clara and Ruth. Black is Ruth and white is Clara. Black can effect white the same way white can effect black. If you paint a black dot on a white paper and a white dot on a black paper, you would pay the same amount attention to each dot. So, back to the effecting. Ruth used Clara when she was young and that led to Clara running away for 14 years. Clara didn't forgive Ruth and as a result, Ruth gave all her photos to Clara.



Black and White was brilliant, sad, heart-warming, and so much more than it seemed.