Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Dreams from My Father, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Family and Community
Fathers, Sons, and Manhood
Race and Identity
Storytelling and Truth
Summary
Analysis
Johnnie is in one of his expansive moods one night as he and Barack finish dinner. He tells Barack about witnessing a teenager commit suicide as they hear a sudden pop. They look and see young teen boys chasing each other, the pursuers with a gun. Both Barack and Johnnie drop to the ground. It’s a year after the asbestos campaign. By this time, 1987, Barack notices a difference in the South Side. He watches boys snapping young saplings and sees other young men in wheelchairs. Barack realizes that what’s changed is that now many people believe that some boys are beyond help. Johnnie grew up on the South Side and remembers how adults used to step in, but drugs have destroyed that sense of community.
What both Johnnie and Barack see happening in the South Side is an erosion of the communities that used to thrive there. In the past, there would be adults to scold the boys and scare them away from getting involved with a gang—but now, seeing kids running around with guns makes those adults much less willing to step in. It’s telling that Barack notices a difference from only three or four years ago—the change is happening faster than he can organize.
Themes
Barack decides he’s not afraid of these armed boys like some people are. Johnnie insists that even the good kids think they have to look out for themselves, something that Barack thinks is wrong—to him, that seems to imply that kids can dictate their own futures. He also thinks about Kyle, who’s 16 and whose antics frighten Ruby. One day, Barack takes Kyle to play basketball and asks if he’s still thinking about the air force. Kyle insists that they’ll never let a Black man fly a plane; he’ll stay in Chicago. As one player starts to get the better of Kyle, Kyle punches him. The man is too embarrassed to report Kyle, so Barack leads Kyle out and lectures him. Kyle agrees to tell Ruby what happened.
The way that Barack sees it, kids aren’t in control of their futures. They face racism, adult meddling, and lack of opportunity, all of which dictates where they end up, at least to some degree. He sees in Johnnie’s declaration that the community is essentially giving up on the kids that they decide are too scary to help. It’s clear that Kyle is on the way to becoming one of these scary young men, but Barack hopes that by mentoring Kyle, he might be able to counteract some of the damage.
Themes
Barack sets his sights on the public schools, which are constantly in crisis. Teachers strike regularly and only half the students graduate. Few people are interested. Some, like Angela and Mary, send their kids to Catholic school. The most resistance to reform comes from the teachers and principals who attend church on Sundays. They insist there’s no money, that reform efforts are attempts to put white people back in control, and that the students are lazy—and the parents are worse. All of this makes Barack angry. He and Johnnie start with Kyle’s high school. They meet the principal, Dr. King, who introduces them to a counselor named Asante. Asante insists that inner-city schools are just mini jails and that education for Black youth is misguided. Black kids have to learn about white culture—the culture that oppresses them.
In the teachers’ and principals’ arguments as to why the public schools in Chicago are so bad, Barack sees that the teachers have also given up on the community. Their arguments seem to suggest that there’s nothing to do, so it’s not worth it to even try to improve the situation. In a way, Asante seems to echo this point. He makes the point that schools are, by design, not set up to serve Black kids. They consistently force Black kids to learn from curricula designed for white kids, which makes them feel even less willing to learn and think about the future.
Themes
Asante also says that the boys have it the worst, as few have fathers to guide them toward manhood. It’s no wonder, he suggests, that they have issues. This is why he introduces kids to Africa. That gives the boys a sense that they’re rooted in some tradition. A student knocks and Asante shows Barack and Johnnie to the door. Before they leave, Asante asks Barack about his heritage and talks about his last trip to Kenya. Barack admits he’s never been. In the car, Barack tells Johnnie that he’s afraid of what he might find in Kenya. Johnnie tells Barack about his dad, who raised him and his brothers; while he was a bit ashamed of his dad when he was younger, looking back, he realizes his dad never discouraged him. Barack notes that Johnnie’s dad was there for him and thinks that Asante’s presence in his students’ lives is probably more helpful than the posters of Africa.
Asante also keys in on something that Barack returns to again and again throughout the memoir: that boys need father figures to guide them toward adulthood. Asante believes that connecting students to culture and community, as represented by Africa, will compensate to some extent for their lack of father figures. Focusing on father figures, however, ignores the difficult jobs of the single mothers who are trying to raise their children in an inhospitable city. But within Barack and Asante’s understanding of the world, a male authority figure of some sort is absolutely necessary for young boys.
Themes
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Barack, Johnnie, Asante, and Dr. Collier begin to develop a counseling network to provide tutoring and mentoring. Barack leaves Johnnie in charge one weekend so he can visit his brother, Roy, in D.C. Barack and Roy first connected during Auma’s visit, when she and Barack called Roy. He’s been in America since marrying a woman who served in the Peace Corps. Auma warned Barack that Roy is a lot like the Old Man—he doesn’t show his true feelings. When Barack lands in D.C., Roy isn’t there. When Barack calls, Roy reveals that he and his wife are fighting and asks Barack to stay in a hotel. Roy picks Barack up later for dinner, shocking Barack with his size and his resemblance to the Old Man.
Barack’s shock when he’s confronted with the fact that Roy looks just like the Old Man comes, in part, from the fact that Barack has always thought of his father as an island, disconnected from everyone and everything else. Before meeting Auma, he’s never really thought about who his siblings actually are and how they might look or act like the Old Man. As Barack makes these connections and gets to know his siblings, he then gets to know his father in a broader sense—he gets to know the people who grew up with the Old Man.
Themes
Roy is a horrible driver, but he manages to get them to a Mexican restaurant overlooking a marina. After several drinks, he admits that he and his wife might divorce; she believes that he’s becoming just like the Old Man and that he drinks too much. Roy says he doesn’t like himself and he blames the Old Man for this. He tells a similar story to Auma’s; that their father descended into poverty and Roy escaped by finding success at university. Barack admires Roy’s tenacity, but he also sees that Roy still seems haunted by his memories of their father. Roy recounts how their father would drive them to get the best grades while “living like a beggar.” He talks about organizing the funeral in Alego and the family fights over the Old Man’s estate. After David’s death, he decided the family was cursed.
While Auma seems to have been able to move past the Old Man’s mistreatment for the most part, it seems to still haunt Roy. This may support Barack’s belief that male role models and father figures are important for young men especially—as a woman, Auma may simply not need as much from her father as her brothers do. But in any case, Roy seeming haunted by the Old Man’s abuse suggests that men can choose to step up and guide young men in their lives—or, whether through mistreatment or neglect, they can do long-term harm.
Themes
Roy says that he decided to move to the U.S. because he believed that he could start over. But he discovered that he doesn’t have control at all. His voice slows as he says that it’s his responsibility as the oldest to care for Auma and all their brothers. Barack offers to share the load, but Roy seems to not hear him. The next day, Barack flies home. He worries that Roy is in danger.
This is a very important moment for Barack, as Roy gives voice to the idea that one can’t escape the past. This definitely holds true for Barack: even if he doesn’t know the Old Man’s whole story, he still feels like he can’t escape or make sense of what happened to the Old Man.
Themes
Back at work, Johnnie says he met with Dr. King, who’s thrilled to support their program—but King also offered up the resumes of his wife and daughter as candidates to work for the program. Barack and Johnnie dissolve into laughter, mocking the principal for supporting the program merely for his own ends. That night, a car pulls up in front of Barack’s building, blasting music. Knowing the neighbors have a newborn baby, Barack asks the boys to leave. The boys say nothing and suddenly Barack feels exposed. The boys look like they could be Johnnie, Roy, or even Barack himself. Barack thinks back to when he was that age and thinks of how he would’ve seen his adult self. He realizes that he grew up in a more forgiving time. These boys see no order in the world—there’s a world of difference between himself and the boys. He’s afraid as they drive away.
Dr. King’s attempts to get family members hired in Barack’s program impresses upon Barack that self-interest exists everywhere, even in noble pursuits like this counseling program. These teen boys, meanwhile, drive home for Barack just how much he’s grown up and how different the world is now. While Barack had plenty of people around to forgive his antics and point him in the right direction when he was a kid, Barack now sees that these boys might be beyond his help, given the economic issues and fractured community in Chicago.
Themes
