Dreams From My Father

Barack Obama’s Memoir, Dreams From My Father is a tremendously interesting read. As one of the most famous people in the world, this book is a unique insight to Obama’s mind before he was famous. The book was written after he graduated from Harvard Law School and before his name was even recognizable. The book focuses on Barack’s attempts to view the world through his father’s lens.

 

The book recounts his life story. He was born and raised in Hawaii by his mother while his father lived in Kenya. His father was an exchange student studying at the University of Hawaii when he met his mother. While only three years old, his parents divorced and his father moved back to Kenya. This meant that Barack never had a chance to get to know his father. When Barack turned six, his mother remarried an Indonesian studying at the University of Hawaii, Lolo. He and his mother moved to Indonesia to live with his step dad. He describes in great detail what it was like to attend three different elementary schools as an American student in a foreign country. When he turned ten, he returned back to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents and attend the prestigious Panahou School, which he would attend until graduation. As a high schooler he had an array of cultural experiences and influences: an African father, Indonesian step-father, a mixture of Hawaiian friends, and grandparents from Kansas.

 

 

Similar to most high schoolers, his experience in school consisted of confusion and search for a personal identity. Being of mixed race was very challenging as he did not feel he fit in any particular social circle. Interestingly, this lead to years filled with ambivalence. This was most apparent with his tinkering with cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol while at school. This is hardly a case for presidential aspirations. That being said, one particular quote from the book stood out, “The opportunity that Hawaii offered—to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect—became an integral part of my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most dear.”

 



Barack Obama Sr



After graduation he attended Occidental College in Los Angeles and ends up transferring to Columbia University in New York as a junior. Majoring in Political Science and International Relations he did not know what his future held. However after graduating, he worked as a community organizer in New York City and eventually settled in Chicago working as an apprentice for a tenant’s right organization, Altgeld Gardens. Obama realized the system of bureaucracy within professional organizers and how effort was focused more on profits than real change. He talks of the plight of the citizens in a borough of Chicago living in horrendous conditions. He would organize and meet individually with hundreds of people living in the neighborhood. These intimate conversations and personal contact shaped his ability for compassion.

Near the end of the book, he has the opportunity to travel to Kenya for the first time to meet his father’s side of the family. He is filled with optimism before his trip, excited to learn more about his family and his father in particular. However he soon learns his father’s legacy, which had been romanticized from childhood. Although bright and intelligent, he learned that his family was disappointed that his father totally abandoned them while living in the United States. He also learned that his father had drinking spells, was arrogant, and stubborn. For a son that glamorized his father’s popularity, these realizations were a shock to all he had preconceived.

Barack with his mother and Grandfather

The book finishes with Obama heading off to Harvard Law School where he would become the first black editor of the law review.

In many ways I can relate to Obama’s upbringing. I grew up in a military family with parents from two different countries, the United States and England. I had the opportunity to grow up around different cultures including attending an International school for two years in Norway. However, there are many ways that I cannot relate to his upbringing. I have never had to reconcile my identity based on my parent’s race and know what it is like to be a part of a minority.

 

I believe this book offers tremendous insight into our Commander and Chief and is a must-read for anyone that wants to understand Barack Obama through an unstained view from the media.

 

Another good Book Review:

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/06/books/review/06obama-dreams.html