My Father Chapter Summary

Throughout reading this book, many strengths were present. The first strength was that the authors either researched their father or had him write about his life and provided a chapter about it in the book. This provided us an in-depth answer as to how the authors’ fathers grew up and possible reasons as to why they treated their sons the way they did. For example, George’s father, George Jenkins Sr., starts the chapter out by saying that “If you would have told me when I was a young man that my son and I would have grown up to be this distant, I wouldn’t have believed you” (35). This helps show how he feels about his relationship with his son. This is a good point of view to offer, because we get to see both sides of the relationship. The view from the father’s perspective was different for Sampson, because as this …show more content…
Even though his father didn’t write his section of the book about his himself, Sampson still learned a lot. For instance, Sampson learned in the later parts of his father’s life after finding and learning about his ancestors on his fathers side, he realized there was no sense in holding on to “cancerous feelings” (138). He also learned that although his father’s lack of involvement through the years had caused his family to disconnect, but there was nothing stopping Sampson and his brothers from changing that legacy (138). The third doctor, Rameck, had his actual father tell his story. From reading through his chapter, Alim Bilal seemed like a good father who fell to the wayside due to drugs. I could tell that he truly cared for Rameck, because as he told his father that he wanted to be a doctor, Alim Bilal told him to go for it. After the fact, he was worried, because medical school was expensive and he had no idea where to find the money to help Rameck’s dream come true (215). This showed me that he cared for his son and wanted to best for him. This situation was complicated because he also had a daughter from a different mother