Just a mere nine years before the Senate campaign that made him one of the most compelling and influential voices in American politics, Barack Obama published powerfully affecting memoir. Dreams from My Father reveals the story of Obama’s struggle to deal with his racial identity being that he is the son of a white American mother and a black African father. His struggle takes him from America to the African village of Alego where his great-aunt resided.
The story begins in New York, where Obama discovers that his father, a man who was not present in his life has died in a car accident. The discovery triggers mixed emotions along with a chain of memories. Obama reflects on his family’s strange history: the migration of his mother’s family …show more content…
The first one being the month Obama was able to spend with his biological father, Dr. Barack Obama. He gives us a recollection of their time together in the last nine pages of Chapter Three. Throughout the book he reflects on that monumental month on multiple occasions. The month he spent with him would be the only face to face contact he would ever have with his father. Obama tells readers he didn’t know his father which made it difficult to interact. Even with that being said he still observed his every move. Whether it was his charismatic way of speaking, the way he spoke to the youth about Kenyan life, or the way he applauded at a jazz concert. In the future Obama would incorporate stories about his father from relatives with his prior knowledge of him to gather a complete image of his father. He began to understand what his father’s dreams and aspirations had once been. Secondly, Obama writes that he found ways that enabled him to resist racism. While working as a community organizer he realized that helping others is a great mechanism to withstand racism. Instead of becoming a product of a reoccurring cycle in regards to racism, Obama decided to make a change and assist other people who are victims of it. Obama goes into detail about his involvement with Trinity United Church of Christ. While being a member of the church he embarked on a spiritual journey that he used to resist racism. The
The story begins in New York, where Obama discovers that his father, a man who was not present in his life has died in a car accident. The discovery triggers mixed emotions along with a chain of memories. Obama reflects on his family’s strange history: the migration of his mother’s family …show more content…
The first one being the month Obama was able to spend with his biological father, Dr. Barack Obama. He gives us a recollection of their time together in the last nine pages of Chapter Three. Throughout the book he reflects on that monumental month on multiple occasions. The month he spent with him would be the only face to face contact he would ever have with his father. Obama tells readers he didn’t know his father which made it difficult to interact. Even with that being said he still observed his every move. Whether it was his charismatic way of speaking, the way he spoke to the youth about Kenyan life, or the way he applauded at a jazz concert. In the future Obama would incorporate stories about his father from relatives with his prior knowledge of him to gather a complete image of his father. He began to understand what his father’s dreams and aspirations had once been. Secondly, Obama writes that he found ways that enabled him to resist racism. While working as a community organizer he realized that helping others is a great mechanism to withstand racism. Instead of becoming a product of a reoccurring cycle in regards to racism, Obama decided to make a change and assist other people who are victims of it. Obama goes into detail about his involvement with Trinity United Church of Christ. While being a member of the church he embarked on a spiritual journey that he used to resist racism. The