Genre
Nonfiction Memoir
Setting and Context
The book is written in the context of possibilities.
Narrator and Point of View
First-person narrative
Tone and Mood
Sanguine, inspiring, positive, optimistic
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is Barack Obama.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is that Obama Senior divorces his wife, Dunham, shortly after Obama Junior was born. Obama Senior wanted to return to Kenya to fulfil his promises to his homeland, while Dunham wanted to remain in America to chase her dreams. Obama Junior grows in conflict, fighting to understand his identity.
Climax
The climax is when Obama Junior visits Kenya for the first time to trace his identity and heritage to honor the legacy of his dead father. While in Kenya, he reunites with his grandmother and other family members, which was transformational in his life. All these events were significant because they prepared him to be confident to chase his political dreams.
Foreshadowing
Obama Senior’s visit to the USA foreshadowed the rise of the first black American politician to the highest political seat in the country.
Understatement
Marriage in westernized cultures is understated. When Obama Senior divorced his wife, Dunham, she remarried Lol Soetoro and continued with life but later divorced him. Consequently, marriage is not an institution that binds partners together for eternity.
Allusions
The story alludes to Barack Obama’s journey and the obstacles he had to go through before he became a significant political figure in the United States of America.
Imagery
The imagery of growing up without a biological father dominates the entire memoir because the narrator describes how he struggles with an identity crisis.
Paradox
The main paradox in the entire memoir is that Obama was proud of his black heritage despite being raised and educated in the best institutions in the USA. Barack Obama visit to Kenya after finishing college to trace his roots is something unimaginable. Most people born and raised in America by mixed-race parents rarely associate themselves with blackness.
Parallelism
Barack Obama Senior’s lifestyle parallels Dunham’s who wants her independence and personal development.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Party life is a metonymy for a spoiled lifestyle that sometimes involves drug abuse.
Personification
N/A
