February 4, 2013
Word Count: 674
Summary
In the memoir, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, by Barack Obama, Obama writes his memoir in an autobiographical narrative form which discusses about his family and the lessons he has learned throughout his life from his childhood to his adulthood. He describes about how his father’s death affects him and being as a myth to him since his first visit to Hawaii to see Obama when he was young, about how both of his parents met and fell in love to each other, and about how he learns to love rather than to hate the people around him and the experiences he goes through his life. In the beginning of the story, Obama recalls his childhood being as a multicultural boy, who has an African father and an American mother. However, since his parents divorced when he was two, his mother met and married an Indonesian guy whose name is “Lolo” at the University of Hawaii. That’s when he recognizes another culture which is Indonesia the place where he grows up. After his come back to America, he finds out the reality about how the Americans treat his people. He tells that his mother’s mission has failed as he finds out the reality of being black in America among the white people. He has suffered so much from the racial discrimination and social disparities throughout his youth. How hard it must be for them to live among the whites. Throughout these entire things, he questions many things about how can these things happen to him as his people never do any mistakes to them and dreams to help his people in maintaining justice. At the end of the story, he tells about his family and tradition in Kenya. He learns so many things in his journey to Kenya such as there are still many poverty in Kenya as well as in Indonesia where spends his childhood in, how hard his father struggles to succeed in his life, and the reality about how his parents’ divorce. Throughout the