Dreams of My Father Essay

Barack Obama in his first book Dreams from my Father – A story of Race and Inheritance takes his readers to a beautifully crafted journey of self-discovery. His first book was published over a decade ago and is recently re-published by Random House. It is a compelling story of not only race and culture inheritance but also of personal growth, human experience, life lessons and human nature. Obama tells his fantastic life story in a very thoughtful and reflective way. I feel this is a story of a very wisely examined life. The fact that readers, regardless of social background, cultural heritage or skin colour could find themselves in the story reminds me that as human beings as well we all share plenty of similarities and differences.

About a few months ago in a very strange incident when the Republican presidential and vice presidential candidates stood on stages around the nation asking who was Barack Obama? They had a very easy access to their own question if they would have read “Dreams from my father”. If they would have read the story they wouldn’t have enough knowledge about the man who would serve as 44th president of the country but more about themselves as well.

The autobiography tells the story of the life of Barack Obama up to his admission in the Harvard Law School.

He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Barack Obama Sr. Of Kenya, a black African and Ann Dunham of Wichita, Kansas, a white American, who met as students at the University of Hawaii at Minoa. Obama’s parents separated from each other and got divorced in 1964, when Obama was just two years old, and the reason behind the divorce was Obama’s father went to Harvard to pursue his PhD but did not have money to take his family with him. Obama’s father later on returned to Africa to fulfil his promise to the continent. A kid without his father, Obama formed an imaginary image of his absent father from the stories told by his mother and his grandparents. He could see his father one more time in...