Dreams from My Father- Part II (pages 77-152)

Obama, Barack. Dreams from My Father. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press, 2004.



As a recap, in the first section of this book we learn about Barack's feelings about his father's death, and about his solitary attitude in his earlier years. In the next section, we see a little more insight to his growing up years. He learns things that a lot of teenagers learned, too. One thing he learned was particularly relevant. He writes that the kids on his basketball taught him "That respect came from what you did and not who your daddy was. That you could talk stuff to rattle an opponent, but that you should shut the hell up if you couldn't back it up. That you didn't let anyone sneak up behind you to see emotions- like hurt or fear- that you didn't want them to see. (79)" I found this very interesting, because I hear from parents and sometimes teachers that kids don't seem to care about things, and that's really not true. But a good number of teenagers do conceal their emotions, like pain or fear, because those emotions aren't accepted in their societies or groups. I know my parents tell me they often can't tell what I think about something they've said, because I have grown used to not using very much emotion. This is true for many teenagers, it seems. This quote is also a good representative of the idea of respect, in that in modern times it has to be earned, not simply given. You generally don't respect someone until they have given you a good reason to. That reason can be a talent they have, or a position or office they hold. It could even just be the way they treat you. But there is always a reason you respect someone. Obama is learning these things from the kids his age that he hangs out with, which shows us that he isn't very solitary at this age. He doesn't become solitary until later in his life. Another example of his maturing is the description he uses to describe the way teenagers decide what they want to do or be. He explains "so that how to live is bought off the rack or found in magazines, the principal difference between me and most of the man-boys around me- the surfers, the football players, the would be rock and roll guitarists- resided on the number of options at my disposal (79)." By this he means that the only difference between him, who wanted to play basketball, and all the other kids who did other things, was that they had different options to take, different possibilities based on their families, their friends, and all the other things that influenced them. And, not to be racist, but a young African American boy sees African American men playing basketball and he might decide that's what he wants to be, and the people around him will support that, because it makes sense and it goes along with the stereotype.