《Dreams from My Father》是一本由Barack Obama著作，Crown出版的Hardcover图书，本书定价：USD 25.95，页数：464，特精心从网络上整理的一些读者的读后感，希望对大家能有帮助。
《Dreams from My Father》精选点评：
●出乎意料的清晰有力，不愧是灯塔国老大。
●不是喜欢的类型，但是有趣的作品。
●写的不行啊。。。
●寫得不錯，文筆沉着細膩
●文笔很好，故事娓娓道来。以前知道他的家庭复杂，但是没有想过那么错综复杂。奥巴马在了解他的多元背景的过程中，也对自己的身份和大社会有了更好的认知。
●身份认同的追求过程，就算是总统也有所有人都有的问题。伟大与平凡的区别在于勇气和坚持。
●The book was written almost a decade ago, long before Barack Obama was even a politician. I have no interest in politics, yet I am devouring this book. I felt like he cast some sort of spell over me.
●Excellent writing...
●Briefly glanced some parts...
●为什么美国的总统可以动不动就写一本书出来，中国的“领导人”是太忙还是太庸？
《Dreams from My Father》读后感(一)：奥巴马是一个努力探索自己的命运人
这本书主要探索了他自己的命运。看得出他是一个勤恳，开明，体贴人性的人。有着无私的，奉献的特质。对于人性的了解直接和深刻，有着实际的善于妥协的智慧。
每个人都可以从他的自我探索中，找到生活和人生的一些智慧。
《Dreams from My Father》读后感(二)：关于父母及家庭的影响
我第一次读这本书的时候是十年前，国内媒体铺天盖地报道奥巴马竞选美国总统，很可能成为美国历史上第一位黑人总统。我那个时候只读过高中历史教材，对政治哲学跟民权运动几乎一无所知。不知道穆斯林意味着什么，对阶级、种族跟性别的理解也很匮乏。现在回过头去看应该是被他的演说天才打动，因为他打破种族天花板而受到鼓舞，也喜欢他母亲18岁怀孕，22岁离婚这件事。今年重读这本书，意识到自己受这本书潜移默化的影响可能比想象的还要多。
虽然书名是《我父亲的梦想》，除去通过不同人的视角与描述去了解他的父亲以外，其实有很大篇幅在写他与母亲及家人的相处。他在探索自我身份过程中如何成长的过程完美诠释了家庭如何塑造人格。
序言的最后说起母亲在这本书出版后几个月因癌症去世，并介绍母亲生前所热爱的生活。
“她去到世界各地，在亚洲和非洲的偏远地区工作，帮助那里的女性获得缝纫机、奶牛或者教育，使她们在世界经济的席卷下拥有立足之地。... ... 在写这本书的期间，她会阅读草稿，纠正我有误解的地方，小心翼翼不去干涉我对她形象的描绘，但是如果发现对父亲的正面形象表达不够到位，她会立即解释并为父亲辩护。她既优雅又愉快地去应对自己的病痛，在儿女退缩逃避生活的时候教会他们承受忍耐。
有的时候我在想如果我知道癌症会带走她的生命，我可能会写一本不一样的书——不去沉迷想象缺席的父亲，而是去赞颂一直在我身边的母亲。每一天我都能在女儿们身上看见她的影子，她的快乐与神奇。... ... 她是我所知道的灵魂里最善良最慷慨的那个，那也是她给予我最好的品质。”
这段话应该成为赞颂母亲的教科书范本，母亲作为家庭成员得到应有的人格尊重，子女感恩她在生命中留下的痕迹，并且感激她给予的家族特性。
奥巴马的母亲也值得被当成独立女性的范本。再婚后带奥巴马一起去印尼与继父Lolo生活，一个礼拜里有五天她会在4点叫醒奥巴马强迫他吃好早餐教他3个小时英语再送他去上学，然后自己再去上班。得知Lolo经济窘困，当机立断出去工作补贴家用。跟Lolo离婚后回国攻读人类学硕士，带着奥巴马和他妹妹玛雅住在一个小公寓里。奥巴马带同学回家，会被同学议论冰箱里吃的太少，家里卫生没搞干净。这个时候他母亲会拉他到角落里告诉他自己是继续回到学校读书并且抚养两个孩子单亲母亲，烤曲奇饼干并不在她的优先工作列表里，也不打算忍受来自任何人的冷嘲热讽。
从始至终，她都是积极面对人生的态度，坚守自己的价值观。不自怨自艾也从不责怪他人。离婚后继续跟奥巴马父亲保持书信往来分享儿子近况，奥巴马说母亲从来没有在自己面前说过父亲任何不好的地方，甚至是说到遗传也只是说奥巴马继承了自己的眉毛，其他优点诸如性格与才华全都来自父亲。奥巴马同父异母的姐姐奥玛后来与他取得联系聊起父亲在肯尼亚的生活，父亲从政坛陨落后几近众叛亲离，奥巴马母亲与他未曾间断的书信往来是他人生低估时期最大的安慰。甚至是奥巴马的祖父母，谈论起奥巴马父亲也是总是赞美颂扬，塑造出极富人格魅力的形象。多年后，奥巴马去肯尼亚见到父亲的血亲，他们口中描绘出来的父亲却又是另一幅光景。
我想每个人都在成长过程中探索自己的身份，那些怀疑与困惑可以是地域、种族、性别或阶级，也可能来自学校与家庭。奥巴马的故事同样是你我的故事，他在白人家庭里探索自己的黑人身份，以局外人身份在肯尼亚找寻归属感。我们与原生家庭难以割舍却又属个中异类，即使再融入周边社区也无法摆脱外来者的身份。奥巴马回肯尼亚探亲跟我们的生活简直如出一辙。目睹势力的亲戚争夺家族财富，被父权制拖拽或者埋没的女性、一系列丑陋而又无可奈何的误会与矛盾。这些也都发生在我们的生活里。然而我好奇，现在我们有多少人会像奥巴马那样去探索挖掘自己的家族史，那些历史也正是我们自身的组成部分。
奥巴马大学毕业后去芝加哥做社区工作，之后决定申请哈佛法学院的研究生。他告诉自己的同事兼好友Johnnie这一决定，对方一副理所当然的态度：如果能去哈佛没人会继续留在这里，并且希望奥巴马过上好日子之后不要忘记自己。然而奥巴马认为自己并不希望成为哈佛所代表的那类光鲜艳丽的都市精英，他去哈佛继续深造是为了能回到这个社区带来更实际的改变。他当然可以成为一个典型的的成功非裔男性代表：在黑人社区当组织者或者律师，住在市区的高层公寓，有一辆体面的车，定期给人权组织捐款，被当地的高中邀请去演讲。这样的成功有问题吗？大部分人都羡慕这样的成功，都屈服在实用主义的裙摆之下，在生活里挣扎以至于没有人去追寻抽象的理想。而他的父亲是一个充满理想主义情怀即使众叛亲离也不曾与现实妥协的人。我想这就是家族性吧，它塑造你成为什么样的人，引导你在一个又一个人生关口做决定。
奥巴马在书的后记里提到米歇尔，讲米歇尔影响了自己的性格，让自己变得更耐心。然而我觉得比影响对方性格更重要的关系部分是去理解对方的身份认同，包括家族、种族、地域与性别等等。这也是我目前所理解的关系里最重要的精神纽带。
《Dreams from My Father》读后感(三)：“我来这里，不是因为我需要一份工作”
买这本书是因为曾上过一门民族学和国家主义的课，教授推荐的读物之一，所以出发点便是ethnicity 和 self-identity。手上这本是2004年版的，当时奥巴马还是伊利诺伊州参议员。
以前一直会很疑惑好奇，写自传的人是如何将好几十年前的一幕幕如此详细地记录下来，细致到天气、人物和在某一场景中人物的穿着和进行过的对话。
等我读到最后一章，我才明白：一个人若有奥巴马这样的成长经历、种族背景，具备他这样的洞察力、反思能力、知识，以及同情心和社会责任感， 他的每一天都必然值得记录。
芝加哥
比较确信，他肯定会把每一天撞击心灵、拷问道德的事件记录下来，向自己提问。试想一下，他从哥伦比亚大学毕业以后，在华尔街做了一年便放弃，转而去做social worker直到身无分文，继而终于找到芝加哥的一份community organizer的工作 ，按他描述，当时他自己也不知道这工作到底要做什么，没人知道。他原本可以回到夏威夷去继续享受阳光海滩，却选择留在芝加哥南部最落魄的社区过冬。 那是1985到1988年。
一个同事曾问他，为什么要留在这里做这份社区工作，因为大部分人留下来，不是因为信仰，就是因为无处可去，而奥巴马，当时显然有更好的选择。
我丝毫看不出来他最后从政是为了权利之类的东西，更多的像是他在探索自我身份和试图解决美国黑人社会问题的道路上自然而然会选择的一个方向。这三年中，他在芝加哥遇到的人和事足以让他坚定一个信念：仇恨并不能解决问题；黑人长期的贫穷已经内化为一种近乎与生俱来的自卑感，对肤色和社会地位的自我否定让他们产生了极大的不安全感和不信任。但是将这种自卑感转移为对白人的愤怒似乎并未让问题好转。
(p. 195) I had to ask myself whether the bonds of community could be restored without collectively exorcising that ghostly figure that haunted black dreams. Could Ruby love herself without hating blue eyes？
(p.194) Perhaps with more self-esteem fewer blacks would be poor, I thought to myself, but I had no doubt. That poverty did nothing for our self-esteem. Better to concentrate on the things we might all agree on. Given that black man some tangible skills and a job. Teach that black child reading and arithmetic in a safe, well-funded school. With the basics taken care of, each of us could search for our own sense of self-worth.
肯尼亚
不过最吸引我的还是最后一部分---回到肯尼亚。就像所有寻根故事一样，我会习惯性地涂上浪漫主义的底色；只是每个人的故事，最后呈现的，都是不一样的细节。
其中一段，奥巴马初到肯尼亚，将此地的外国游客和夏威夷的游客进行了一番比较。
(P312) In Hawaii, when we were still kids, my friends and I had laughed at tourists like these, with their sunburns and their pale, skinny legs, basking in the glow of our obvious superiority. Here in Africa, though, the tourists didn’t seem so funny.
I felt them as an encroachment, somehow; I found their innocence vaguely insulting. It occurred to me that in their utter lack of self-consciousness, they were expressing a freedom that neither Auma (Obama’s sister) nor I could ever experience, a bedrock confidence in their own parochialism, a confidence reserved for those born into imperial cultures…..
从未去过非洲也不是来自发达资本主义国家的我，当然无从判断和争辩他的观察是否准确，只是这句”a bedrock confidence in their own parochialism, a confidence reserved for those born into imperial cultures”我会好好收着的，作为以后观察的一点参考。
之后奥巴马走访了许许多多亲戚，以至于到最后我也不太记得描写的人物和他具体是哪层关系。值得一提是，他描写了和马克、马克母亲（Ruth）第一次见面的经历, 也就是那位中国媒体曾今报道过的奥巴马在中国的弟弟。
Ruth是奥巴马父亲Barack取得第二位美国太太，生了两个儿子：David 和Mark. 但没过多久，奥巴马父亲得罪了政府的一些人，于是家境急转直下，开始酗酒并变得非常暴躁。Ruth带着两个儿子决定离开并改嫁，并给两个儿子改性。只是David极为叛逆，仍然时不时逃出来回到非洲亲戚那边，并强调说自己永远姓Obama，不幸的是他在一场车祸中丧生. 而Mark则决定和Obama家族一刀两断。
奥巴马和Ruth、Mark的那次见面，按书中描写，并不愉快。Ruth只是重复强调：奥巴马父亲是多么疯疯癫癫；而Mark，一位斯坦福的物理博士，是多么聪明而有成就。几天后，奥巴马单独约Mark出来吃饭。 他终于直截了当地告诉奥巴马，他不想去思考“who I am”之类的问题，他也不介意变得麻木，因为生活本身，已经够烦人了。
(p344) Mark: “Well, you’re right. At a certain point, I made a decision not to think about who my real father was. He was dead to me even when he was still alive. I knew that he was a drunk and showed no concern for his wife or children. That was enough.”
最后几章，奥巴马奶奶开始讲述他爷爷和他爸爸成长的故事，一片封闭的土地如何被外来者一步步“侵蚀”和改变。而奥巴马爷爷是部落中最早一个学会英文并为白人工作的，因此后来他对后辈家教极严，对奥巴马父亲寄予了极高的期望。
另一部分描写让我震惊，是因为仿佛前不久读的《动物庄园》的写实版。比如，第一个因好奇去看白人的部落成员回来时----穿着衣服、裤子和鞋子，这几乎让所有人都不敢相信自己的眼睛，小孩子被吓哭，大家都不知所措。奥巴马爷爷认定：“He is unclean”。几乎一摸一样的场景描写出现在乔治奥威尔的笔下，最后当那群猪穿着衣服站立着出现的时候，一样的恐慌。
随着更多的白人占领了土地，部落的年轻人不再尊重长者和古老的信条，他们开始尝试白人的生活方式，比如喝茶、喝酒。于是街头经常出现醉醺醺的年轻人，而这些都是以前不可能发生的。记得那群猪把七条动物守则的“不准喝酒”改成“不准喝过量的酒”？
忘记还是记录
并不是每个人都愿意如此清晰的记住自己的过去。事实上，我知道很多人都更愿意忘掉一部分，像Mark一样，因为那些被放映的画面让自己痛苦难堪。但我仍然感谢，像奥巴马这样的人，拥有足够的智慧耐心和洞察力，将人们不愿提及的情感和挣扎，写成文字。
《Dreams from My Father》读后感(四)：To be political: A choice. Really?
1.
olitics.
One should give it a rat's ass. And that's enough.
2.
A mysterious thing happens to me and my girlfriend recently.
As she is climbing up on the corporate ladder, with me going down on the “doomed” freeway of nerdly pursuit with no conceivable exit, instead of having less and less in common, we are indulged by some curious dumb luck with a new common topic, --- oh, yes, not alien at all --- politics.
Although there is little doubt that most of the time we’re not talking about the same kind of politics, if it’s still the same thing.
More specifically, what intrigues her is the so-called nasty “office politics”, which, destined at the moment of this term’s coinage, involves backstabbing and cutthroat, while I’m attracted, trouble-invitingly, by the lofty notion of politics preached by ancient minds, to which her attitude has always been “I don’t think anyone gives a rat’s ass”
ometimes when our newly-found common interest quite predictably disintegrates into a deadlock, I would wonder: Is there really no common ground between these two kinds of politics？
Or what is politics？
While fully aware that a definition has been attempted by an endless supply of mortals, among whom there are even names that are immortal, I still would like to try my hands to twist the tail of this dragon, which must be as old as the time, at least as old as the time blessed to human being.
olitics, to me, is what is created by the situation when people from different places, with different beliefs (usually all it takes is just different people) have to work together and many of the problems this situation entails. 90% of the time politics means the problems it entails.
If one, such as me, trusts this definition, then to him, politics per se is neither ideal nor nasty. There is only good politics or bad politics, and more importantly there will always be good political environment or bad political environment.
Good political environment is when Steve Jobs quit his Big Brother job in Apple (pun intended), the water-cooler talk at your company, which has nothing to do with Apple except that everybody is using it, would not take that tone “See! I told you. He’s another sacrifice under the power redistribution warfare in big corporate giant”. And your “best buddy in the office” would not prolong this conversation into some did-you-hear-that-who-and-who-have-a-long-standing-beef-and-you-should-know-how-to-choose-the-right-side-and-whose-ass-to-kiss gossipy lecture.
Good political environment is when a skinny kid with a funny name like me walks into a classroom as a teacher, while inevitably being subject to the judgment “Oh, he’s so young” or inexperienced, maybe, he still gets the chance to be tried out solely based on the teaching skills, and the ability to help students achieve what they expect to achieve or even what they’ve never expected in the first place.
Good political environment is when someone who has, in his whole life, never got a chance to talk to any gay man, says “I don’t like gay and I think they are strange”, and you start to explain to him that being gay is no more a choice to that person than it’s a choice to be a man, he would listen to you with respect, even though not completely without doubt. In the end, both of you would agree that it’s still funny to laugh at some gay men for their lack of manhood and preference of girlie couture, but it would be downright wrong to say they are not decent human being just because of their sexuality, let alone to hate them.
Good political environment, put in one sentence, is when you say "Politics, I don't give a rat's ass", you mean it as a real option, instead of a mere 'throwing in the towel' gesture after constant frustration.
Unfortunately, chances are healthy political environment like these usually could not be afforded by the reality. Just like what they say about "not being political is a form of being political" actually means "No such thing as a ringside seat when it comes to choosing side."
And when that happens, instead of getting angry for a reasonable while and starting to find a solution, some of us would start to predict Armageddon, like one hardass problem can justify their disdaining of everything.
What's worse, sometimes they effectively turn into a kid suffering diarrhea, instead of going to the bathroom, he shits his pants and cries for revenge, glaring at anyone who dares to stand close as if they’re the maker of his own trouble.
It's one thing to bash your government for its absurdity. It's whole another thing, most of the time very dangerous, to use that as a disguise and pretend that's a license for peeing everywhere with your adolescence anger.
3.
Today during lunch I asked my girlfriend: some say when the system is corrupted and without remedy from within, you’ve got to learn to be the bad guy and work the system, taking advantage of it. And when you get to the very top, you can start to clean it inside out. What do you make of this mentality？
he said, while someone is working the system and rising up in the way you describe, he’s sending out a pretty strong and negative message at the same time: being corrupted works and one benefits from it handsomely. Even though he implements his plan perfectly, the ripple effect caused by him in his way up would lay down a de facto cost that is too insurmountable to cover. That’s before one even starts to factor in the cost of reformation.
Then I asked my fair lady, who is an in-house auditor: suppose two alleged frauds start to surface in your company. One could be disastrous to the whole company but the person responsible is the CEO’s protégé, while the other is slightly less dangerous but the person responsible has been a pain in the ass for the CEO (excuse me for the layman talk). Both cases need in-house auditors’ further examination. How would you decide？ Would you take one for the team and put the greater good before your career？ Or would you focus on the very survival of yourself in the company？
he said, well, let’s face it. It’s a problem caused by the design of the system as well as by men. We used to report to CFO, a practice which a lot of companies are still following, but now we report to the CEO directly. Although putting auditor under the control of CEO might not be the best move, it’s still better than throwing us at the mercy of CFO, who would have our hands tied before we even have the chance to touch the books, not to mention to collect evidence from some forefront as far away from the managing core as the operation department.
What she said instantly resonated with the feeling I have while reading 1984:
To construct a healthy political environment, it calls for in every one of us the very ability to see things as they’re getting better, rather than amplify dark side of everything and put on the rope of Savonarola instantly, every time something bad happens.
Merely 30 years ago our parents were still living under a government as oppressing as the one that watched Airstrip One.
Look at us now, the government is the same government, but we can walk the earth as free as any man in the world. Sure, they rip us off with taxation without representation. Sure, they fuck the housing market so they can set up charity for their trophy wives. But which country doesn’t have brain dead assholes one or two？ And morons stink the world, set us alarmed and start to work on the fixing, but morons don’t wipe out the world.
Out of control anger does.
Come on, the world could not afford another homophobia god who floods the earth whenever he gets upset. The laziness that gets satisfied by easy and comfortable solution might as well create a provincial mob-turned deity.
Call me naïve and stupid idealistic, but from where I sit, all I see is people with families to care, with children to raise, of whom they expect the best and to whom they'd like to give a better world, a world which they are building piece by piece with their own hands, a world which is hard to reach but as long as you are trying, it is sure to come. The last thing they want is social catastrophe.
They're people like our parents, people dubbed by Barack Obama as the "quiet heroes", people Jon Stewart called the "real people with real problems" and happy to find, if imperfect,solutions, "the 80 percenters" who have no time to care about politics because have f@*king jobs to do.
I believe all they want is not much, a little change would help. Namely, voice be heard and promise be delivered.
The government may not be good to us. But the nation, the men and women who build it, who shape it, have been good to us. We owe them one. We owe them one healthy political environment in which they can really ‘don’t give a rat’s ass to politics’.
《Dreams from My Father》读后感(五)：奥观海是一名好的散文家
千万别读中译本，有条件要读原文。这本传记完全可以当做散文来读，文笔极好。奥巴马虽然是政客，内心却是一名真挚的思考者和写作者。这么好的文字，让带有官方色彩又懂政治的译者一处理，便丢掉文字本身的美感，让真挚的地方变得幼稚。不是译者功底不行，而是翻译的风格甚至是译者的选择不对。就好比译者在翻译完了之后的译后感中居然是在感叹奥巴马是如何成功的，感叹他的父亲和母亲给了他怎样的好的教育。这是现代人的思考方式，务实直接，而极度浅薄。看他人经历，只看成败，像是还在看动画片的男童。而至于书中传递出来的那些更悠远和深沉的议题：种族，家庭，寻根，以及当代美国，才是书中的真正精华。
奥巴马的文字很干净，体现在其选词，精准，而又尽量简单。这也许和奥巴马的从政之路分不开，如何他在自传中提到，他对讲稿的写作很讲究用词，如何让每个词起到应有的作用？如何在有限的时间打到人的心里去？这些都是用功夫磨出来的。他提到第一次演讲的经历，在向所有人提出了几个问题之后，他感到听众都安静了，“they are with me now”。在他看来，写东西，一是“convery information”，二是“support the idea”。“The right words can make everything changes”。这和中式写作似乎是不同的，且不谈官样八股对中文的迫害，中文本身就带有阴柔属性，似乎更适合抒情或描述宏大的虚无，而不适于讲理。这也许又和民族的理性习惯是有关的，在这不再展开。
第一部分 童年
在夏威夷
奥巴马谈父亲，说到他“worked with unsurpassed concentration”。又提到他父亲在酒馆中被当众羞辱后不瘟不火，而是在酒馆中对着所有人谈人权，谈人人生来平等，谈美国梦，最后让那名口出厥词的白人给全酒馆付了酒钱。“The roon fell quiet and people turned to my father, expecting a flight. Instead, my father stood up, waled over to the man, smiled, and proceed to lecture him abou the folly of bigotry, the promise of the American dream and the universal rights of man”。奥巴马的父亲，老巴拉克，在奥巴马的笔下那种自信，勤奋的神态全然涌现了出来。奥巴马的父亲也不是普通人，他生于非洲的某部落，一路能辗转能去哈佛大学读经济学硕士。
奥巴马提到自己的白人祖父年轻时期时美国的样子：“...so you had to listen carefully to recognize the subtle hierarchies and unspoken codes that had policied their early lifes, ... and although you didn't have to be rich to be respectable, you sure had to work harder at it if you weren't.” 一百年前的美国阶层分化，弱肉强食，而又勤劳致富。这恰好也是今天的写照。
奥巴马谈到他的祖父，“one typical in his generation, men who embraced the notion of freedom and individualism and the open road without always knowing its price.” 自由和个人独立的壮丽的，却也蕴含着其代价。
种族，根源，这是始终围绕奥巴马青年时期的问题。源于它带来的思考，引领他做出一个又一个的选择。选择堕落，选择重生，想要流浪，选择读大学，选择去哥大交换，选择离开华尔街的工作，选择一年一万美元的社区工作者工作。如果奥巴马是白人，他也许会选择所有人所选择的路：体面的工作，妻子，家，孩子。但因为他有黑人的血统，所以他一直在寻找关于根源可能的解释。
Unspoken codes。书中提到种族问题时不止一次用到这个词。黑人该如何，白人该如何，黑人不该如何，白人不该如何。种族歧视不仅仅是源自白人那么简单。
奥巴马发现他的生父照片，是在一篇剪下来的杂志报道上，
“I discovered this article, folded away among my birth certificate and old vaccination forms. It is a short article, with a photograph of him.”
这几句文字里完全没有提到奥巴马的母亲，而她对于前段婚姻隐秘又动人的一面被展现了出来。
“I was too yound to realize that I was supposed to have a live-in father, just as I was too young to know that I need a race”。
奥巴马小时候第一次感觉到作为黑人的特殊性和自卑感，是在一篇杂志上偶然看到一张照片，是一名黑人试图把皮肤洗白，结果看起来皮肤完全被毁了，全是褶皱和色斑。这个男人表达了他的后悔，而结果却是不可逆的。过错不能全部怪罪给这个男人，因为这些洗白皮肤的广告确实吸引了很多黑人，“that promised as a white person”。奥巴马看到这篇文章后，“felt my face and neck get hot, stomach knotted, the type began to blur on the page”。
在印尼
奥巴马有了继父，叫做Lolo，是一名印尼人。奥巴马四岁到六岁，Lolo在两年里花了数不尽的而时间陪奥巴马的祖父下象棋，以及陪奥巴马玩摔跤游戏（为了获得女方家庭的认同）。
当奥巴马的母亲告诉小奥巴马，Lolo提出要把他们母子俩带回到印尼生活时，小奥巴马没有惊讶，也没有反对，只是问她是否爱他。奥巴马的母亲Ann听到后，“My mother chin trembled, as it still does when she’s fighting back tears, and she pulled me into a long hug that made me feel very brave, although I wasn’t sure why”。
奥巴马的用词实在精确。文中提到他们刚到印尼Lolo的新家，发现Lolo在家里养了一只猩猩，猩猩被皮带绑住了脖子，看起来很凶狠。小奥巴马看向母亲后，“she gave me a tentative smile”。tentative一个词，就把那种尴尬的感觉体现出来了。也预示了他们今后的婚姻，不会太顺利。
印尼的生活对于一个美国孩子来说，有些太生猛了。迷信的驱魔，街边的暴力，无助的贫穷，让小奥巴马感觉“The world was violent, unpredictable and often cruel. My grandparents knew nothing about such a world, I decided, there was not point in disturbing them with questions they couldn’t answer.” 奥巴马有时会向母亲诉说那些他不理解的那些事情，“she would stoke my forehead, listening intently, trying her best to explain what she could.I was apprectiated the attention - her voice, the touch of her hand, define all that was secure.“然而印尼的一切对于她的母亲来说也是全新的，她无法解答全部的问题，比如洪水，驱魔，和斗鸡，以致于小奥巴马感觉他的问题只是给他的母亲带来了无谓的担忧。
每日都有穷人来家门口讨钱，Ann会给。但“When it became clear that the tide of pain was endless, she gave more selectively, learning to calibrate the levels of misery. Lolo thought her moral calculaation endering but silly”。苦难变得普遍，以致于被人忽略。不同的社会体系里苦难的程度是完全不同的。
Lolo参加过战争。曾跟着军队在东南亚全是蚂蟥的泥水里跋涉，以致于腿上全是蚂蟥留下的伤疤，奥巴马问，不疼吗？Lolo说：“Of course it hurt, sometimes you can’t worry about hurt, sometimes you worry only about getting where you have to go.”。那时的落后国家所呈现的贫穷，混乱和面对乱局时人们心中真正的坚韧，是小奥巴马在美国感受不到的。苦难在苦难之地。
Lolo那时从美国回到印尼，其实是收到了来自祖国的感召。印尼刚从荷兰殖民者的手中独立，要建立一个新的国家。具体来说，吸引他回国的是“the promise of something new and important, helping her husband to rebuild a country in a charged and challenging place beyond of parents’reach.”。Lolo曾多次对奥巴马的母亲说自己想要回到祖国，成为一名大学老师。
我也希望Lolo的梦想可以得以实现，而1965年的印尼刚爆发一场军政府叛乱，而后军事强人掌权，并长达三十余年。小奥巴马1966年来到印尼，而Lolo正是为军政府服务。现实与理想的撕裂让Lolo变得抑郁，进而影响了他和妻子的关系。“He didn’t talk that way anymore. In fact, it seems as though he barely spoke to her at all.”而他的妻子也发现了，这一切和Lolo的工作有关系。
Ann在美国大使馆找到了一份教英语的工作，也在那里认识了一些美国人。“These men knew the country. Over lunch or casual conversation they would share with her things she couldn’t learn in the published news reports… about the corruptions, the shakedown by police and military, entire industries carved out for the presidents’family and entourage”。听到这些，奥巴马的母亲会问Lolo, 这是真的吗？Lolo总是会避开谈话，或闭口不提。直到有天，当奥巴马的母亲和Lolo的侄子聊天时才得知，Lolo回国并不在计划内：军政府上台后， 收回了所有留学生的护照，要求全员立刻征召回国。
从Lolo的侄子家中离开时，Ann带着困惑，没有坐计程车，而是选择步行回家，途径一片富人区，那里是外交官和将军们住的地方。别墅环绕于铁栅栏之内，一群男人在清洗一列奔驰和路虎，而另一个男人正在门口大声训斥门口的女人，女儿瘦骨嶙峋，男人最终甩给女人一个铜板，女人用惊人的速度向那个铜板奔去。
ower。这个词在Ann的心中显现出来，像一句脏话。在美国，它经常被隐藏地很好，直到你选择去探寻。 “But here power was undisguised, indiscrimimate, naked, always fresh in the memory”。正是Power，让“Lolo make him feel its weight, letting him know that his life wasn’t his own. That’s how things are; you couldn’t change it, you could just live by the rules, so simple once you learned them”。所以Lolo习得了遗忘的智慧，与Power可以和谐相处。
那时印尼与美国的差异，不仅是贫富差距那么简单，而是社会形态的撕裂。在印尼的美国人，每天谈及如何与政府秘密合作拿到开采油田的新合同，换言之，只要懂得降服power并与之合作，就能换得想要的生活。这与美国式的价值观是大相径庭的，也让Ann知道， “the true life of his son is not here”。
Ann最初的努力，立足在给孩子的教育上。一周五天，Ann会每天早晨四点来到他的床前，“forced fed him breakfast”，然后上三小时的英语课。逐渐的，Ann的教育不再关注于成绩单，“if you want to grow into a human being, you are going to have some values”。这些values包括：
诚实—— Lolo不该在收税官来的时候躲进冰箱里。
公平——孩子有钱的父母不该给老师送电视机，就为了让孩子拿到更好的分数。
坦诚——如果你不喜欢我生日送你的衣服，你可以直接说出来，而不是在柜子里收成一团。
独立判断——不能因为别的孩子嘲笑另一名孩子的发型，你就跟着嘲笑他。
那时Ann的教育更注重于对小奥巴马人格的培养。那时的印尼有那么多不公平的，坏的现象：腐败，不公平，恃强凌弱……为了不把孩子带偏，Ann只能用这种方式去给孩子举生活中的反例。虽然在Lolo甚至是小奥巴马看来她在那个环境显得有些不切实际。后来奥巴马分析，她的母亲拥有那样的价值，是因为“she owns a faith I didn’t process, a faith that she would refuse to describe as religious, that, in fact, her experience told her was sacrilegious, a faith that rational, thoughful people could shape their own destiny, in a land where fatalism remained a necessary tool for enduring hardship, where ulyimate truths were kept separate from day-to-day realities, she was a lonely witness for humanism. ”
在荒谬的环境下，坚持人性是孤独的事。Ann有也只有一名精神上的盟友，就是奥巴马的生父。“He was diligent and honest, no matter what is cost him”。
回到美国 小学
在Ann的坚持下，小奥巴马回到美国接受美国的教育。小奥巴马无忧无虑的童年结束了，因为他要开始去进入白人为主的社会，哪怕这个社会只是小学。对于孩子来说，来到学校首要的目标就是找到年龄相仿的朋友。
开学第一天，老师介绍每个孩子的时候，念到奥巴马的名字，老师善意地说，巴拉克是一个美丽的姓，她曾经去过肯尼亚……却招来同学的不是恶意的笑，让小奥巴马难堪。直到老师训斥课堂才让课堂安静下来，好让“we could mercifully move on to the next person on the list”。
开学第一天是让小奥巴马充满困惑的。一名红发的小女孩问能否摸他的头发，被拒绝后好像受到了伤害。一名圆脸小男孩问小奥巴马自己的父亲是否吃人。当天回家后，小奥巴马的祖父问他过得是否好，小奥巴马跑进房里，关上了门。
相比他的同学，小奥巴马觉得他的祖父为他挑选的衣服款式太陈旧，印尼穿的凉鞋在美国的课堂上显得脏兮兮的。更别提，他大多数的同学自从幼儿园就已经在一起了，他们住在一起，“in split-level homes with swimming pools, their fathers coached the same League teams, their mothers sponsored the back sales”。这种不同，让小奥巴马感到愈发孤独。“ten-year-old nightmare”。
在小学的日子孤独且乏味，每日放学后便是和祖父开车去接祖母，晚上十点， “I would fall asleep to the sounds of Top 40 music on the radio”。
某天，小奥巴马得知，远在肯尼亚的父亲要来美国看他们。他的母亲对他说：“You will become greatest friends”。为了了解肯尼亚，小奥巴马从图书管理员借了一本关于肯尼亚的书，书上讲肯尼亚的传统服饰，是羽毛盖住私处。看到这里，小奥巴马“left the book open-faced on the table and walked out without thanking the libraraian”。
在那时，肯尼亚的血缘于小奥巴马看来也许像是诅咒。因为它为小奥巴马带来的，只有生活上的困扰，而从没有某种力量。
小奥巴马的父亲，老巴拉克来到美国看他的这一段描写很感人。这应该是父子的唯一一次，也是最后一次见面。那唯一的一次见面，让小奥巴马感受到他的父亲带来的某种魅力，“his effect on other people, his voice deep and sure, cajoling and laughing”。 “For the first time I began to think of my father as something real and immediate, perhaps even permanent”。
然而，人性的真实比童话所表现出来的要复杂。老巴拉克在家里住了几个礼拜后，奥巴马的祖父开始抱怨他的椅子总被占，而祖母洗盘子的时候开始抱怨自己不是谁的仆人。老巴拉克会训斥奥巴马不够努力，在平安夜还在看电视，于是，小奥巴马开始算父亲回到肯尼亚的时间还剩几天。
某天，Ann告诉小奥巴马，他的父亲被老师邀请去课堂上演讲，讲关于肯尼亚的故事。小奥巴马一开始“couldn’t image worse news”。因为他曾和同学吹牛自己的父亲是酋长，是勇士。谁知，老巴拉克在课堂上进行了一场精彩绝伦的演讲，关于人类的起源，关于那里的美德，对自然的保护，以及肯尼亚人民对自由的渴求：“how the British had wanted to stay and unjustly rule the people, just as they had in America; but that Kenyans, like all of us in the room, longed to be free and develop themselves through hard work and sacrifice”。
关于和父亲重逢的这一章，在父亲带着小奥巴马随着jazz的音乐跳舞做结。很明显，虽然小奥巴马和父亲只见过一面，父亲给他带来的影响和冲击是无可比拟的，这次见面甚至给他带来人格上深层的自信。
中学
情况逐渐好了起来。小奥巴马交到了朋友，做了美国青少年都会做的事情，汉堡店打工，驾照，青春期的躁动，这种融入让他感觉到了自己的位置。然而，内在的，“I was engaged in a fitful interior struggle. I was trying to raise myself to be a black man in America, and beyong given apperance, no one around me seemed to know exactly what they meant”。
同时，奥巴马开始打篮球，“I decided to become part of that world… The respect came from what you did and not who your daddy was… It was there that I would make my closet white friends, on truf where blackness couldn’t be a disadvantage.”。
“White folks. The term itself was uncomfortable in my mouth at first… I would suddenly remember my mother’s smile…” 奥巴马结交了黑人朋友，他发现他的黑人朋友由于被歧视，也开始歧视白人。这让他开始思考，“the term white was simply a shorthand for him, a tag for what my mother would call a bigot”。
结交了一些黑人和白人朋友后，“I learned to slip back and forth between my black and white worlds, understanding that each pocessed its own language and customes and structures of meaning”。
奥巴马第一次带白人朋友参加黑人的聚会，白人朋友很尴尬， “They nodded self-consicously to the beat of the music and said Excuse me every five minutes. After maybe an hour, they asked me if I’d be willing to take them home”。在车上，他的白人朋友尴尬地说，“You know, man, that really taught me something. I mean, I can see how it must be tough for you and Ray sometimes, at school parties… being the only black guys and all.”
虽然嘴上说着“是啊”，奥巴马心中的某个部分想在那里把他揍一顿。也开始意识到： “I begun to see a new map of the world, one that was frighteningin in its simplicity”。
心中痛苦，就在书中找寻答案，对于奥巴马来说也是一样。“Over the next few months, I looked to corroborate this nightmare vision, I gathered up books from the library - Baldwin, Ellison, Hughes, Wrights, Dubois… trying to reconcile the world as I’d found it with the terms of my birth. But there was no escape to be had. I kept finding the same anguish, the same doubt… but all of them in the same weary fight…”。
真正给奥巴马带来冲击的，是来自亲人无意的伤害。他偶然从祖父口中得知，最近祖母上班路上都会害怕，因为有一个“black”总跟她要钱。祖父觉得这样说不好。祖父说完以后也感觉到内疚， “before my eyes, he grew smalll and old and very sad, I put my hand on his shoulder and told him it was all right, I understood. We remained like that for several minutes… Never had they given me reason to double their love… ”
奥巴马感到震颤，就连至亲都对黑人有偏见。他跑去找一名祖父的黑人朋友寻求解脱，他的黑人朋友说：“He(your grandfather) is basically a good man, but he doesn’t know me. He can’t know me, not the way I know him. That’s why he can come over here and drink my whisky and fall asleep like a baby. See, that’s something I can never do in his house, never. No matter how tired I get, I still have to watch myself, I have to be vigillent, for my own survival.”奥巴马从那位朋友家中出来的时候，“the eatch shook under my feet, ready to crack open at any moment. I stopped, trying to steady myself, and knew for the first time that I was utterly alone”。一种绝对的孤独。
高中
奥巴马开始更频繁地参加黑人的聚会，在宿醉中找寻解脱。奥巴马学会了，作为一名黑人，“people were satisfied so long as you were couregous and smiled and made no sudden moves. They were more than satastifed, they were relived, such a pleasant surprise to find a well-mannered yound black man who didn’t seem angry all the time.”
Ann和奥巴马谈话，觉得他最近成绩下滑，结交的朋友因为藏毒被抓起来了，觉得他“a little casual about the future”。Ann问奥巴马对以后有什么打算，奥巴马说：“A good time Charlie, A loafer(游手好闲的人).” 他试图让母亲感到挫败感，“letting her know that her experiment with me had failed”。而后，“The comparison caught my mother by surprise. Her face was slack, her eyes wavered. It suddenly dawned on me, her greatest fear”。“你害怕我最后像祖父那样吗？”奥巴马进一步刺激Ann后，“She shook her head quickly: ‘You are already much better educated than your grandfather’. But the certainty had finally drained from her voice”。
青年奥巴马因为种族所产生的挫败感让他试图丢掉所有正向的东西，包括母亲给他的期待和教育，因为在他看来，无论如何都没有意义。问题太大了，大到超过他能理解和控制的范围。
又一次，他去找寻黑人大叔，想要询问为什么要读大学。黑人大叔对他说，读大学并不仅仅为了学习，而更是与他自己有关：
“You are not going to college to get educated, You are going there to get trained. Leaving your race at the door, leaving your people behind. They will train you to want what you don’t need. They will train to to manipulate words so they don’t mean anything anymore. They will train you to forget what it is that you already know. They will train you so good, you will start beliving what they tell you about equal opportunity and the American way and all that ship. They will give you a corner office and invite you to fancy dinners, and tell you you are a credit to your race…”。
大学
奥巴马在继续阅读，一次他在阅读十九世纪末讲述黑奴的小说《黑暗的心》，被黑人同学看见，嘲笑说他在种族主义的书。奥巴马说，我是在学习白人究竟是如何看我们的，究竟是什么令他们恐惧，以及种族歧视的起源。
奥巴马遇见了一个黑人女孩儿，女孩儿和她讲自己的家庭，小小的公寓，家人，独属于黑人家庭的悲欢，“that filled me with longing - a longing for place, and a mixed and definite history.” 奥巴马对黑人女孩儿说，他羡慕她。女孩儿笑了，说：“世界真有意思，我从小都想在夏威夷长大”。（奥巴马的童年在夏威夷）
评价这次谈话，奥巴马说：“strange how a single conversation can change you”。奥巴马感到进入大学二年级的他，比以前更自信，对自己更诚实，也更有力量。
第二部分 芝加哥
书中第二部分“芝加哥”，描述得更多的是别人的故事。这些人，大多是奥巴马做社区工作中接触的底层黑人。
奥巴马毕业后，选择在一个黑人社区协助主持非盈利计划。美国式的扶贫，与中国不同，美国没有深入到国家毛细血管的官僚系统去解决问题。中国式的扶贫是从上到下的，而美国式的扶贫是从下到上的。如果是没有这些社区工作者的组织，向上层与掌握钱的机构去呼吁和宣传，贫困社区永远都看不到未来。破碎的路面，糟糕的校舍，空荡的房屋，这就是芝加哥郊边黑人社区的现状。芝加哥在50年代，由于全球化的冲击，无数工厂停业，造成失业潮，失业潮击碎了还在背负房贷的家庭。社区破败，白人都纷纷离开。愈发糟糕的财政导致愈发糟糕的环境。枪支，毒品毒害当地的青少年。奥巴马选择的正是在这样一个社区服务。财政预算永远有限，而且会向更有话语权的地方倾泻。如何让上层注意这个被遗忘的黑人社区，让他们拨款修复学校，改善治安，提供培训或者工作机会，就是奥巴马志愿工作的核心。要钱，永远都不是一件容易的差事。
奥巴马文中形容他工作的流程：“Once I found an issue enough people care about, I could take them into action. With enough actions, I could start to build power”。
破败的芝加哥边缘社区： “The stores and banks had left with their white customers”。整个社区经历了“collective decline”。哪怕在社区之内，贫富差距也在增大。 “Distinctions between neighborhoods, then blocks, then finally neighbors within a block”。
失业后的黑人家庭，用两份甚至三四份工作供给孩子上大学，“On the strength of two incomes. they had paid off house notes and car notes, maybe college educations for the sons or daughters whose graduation pictures filled every mantelpiece”。这一段令人动容，美国大学的学费昂贵众所周知，美国不全是富人。让子女上大学，对于普通美国家庭来也有经济上的负担，所以子女学成也是让人很骄傲的事情。然而，“the better these children did, the more likely they were to move away. ”能干的，有出息的年轻人远离了这个地方，而更落魄的家庭则搬来了这里。大街上，“不知是哪家的青春期男孩在街上大摇大摆，大呼小叫，而青春期女孩给还在学步的要吃奶的弟弟妹妹喂薯片”。
工作实在是太难展开了，向上兜售想法，无人买单。向下试着获得众人理解，却没有人在乎。整个团队陷入低迷，有几个人想退出。奥巴马听到有人想退出的消息，看着窗外集结游走无所事事的黑人男孩，奥巴马感到愤怒：“Who’s going to make sure they get a fair shot ？ The alderman ？ The social workers？ The gangs？ ”。除了我们之外，还有谁能帮助他们，帮助他们走上正确的路？
Mary是黑人社区里少见的白人。她曾嫁个一名黑人，因此众叛亲离，谁知生了两个女儿后她的丈夫就离开了她。不得已她沦落到这个社区，而且她已经回不去那个她曾经熟识的世界。即便在黑人社区，“unspoken boundaries to the friendships that Mary could make with the women - specially the married ones.”。
社区组织人们开会，一个环节要大家陈述自己在社区遇到的问题。看无人回答，组织者之一Will说：“And you know, I don’t see kids smiling around here no more. They seem worried all the time, mad about something. They got nothing they trust. Not their parents, not god, not themselves. And that is not right. They just ain’t the way supposed to be… kids not smiling.”。
奥巴马提到做社区工作给他带来的影响：“They’d offered a story to match or confound mine, a knot to bind our experiences together, that they gave me the sense of place and purpose I’d been looking for.”。即便是在底层，“a luminous world always present beneath the surface, a world that people might offer up as a gift to me”。
“…process some sort of immunity from the onslaught of images that feed every American’s insecurities, the slender models, the square jawed men…”。向着统一的model靠近，原来是源于某种insecurities。
奥巴马曾谈了一个白人女朋友，女朋友家中的老宅坐落在郊外，是她的父亲从祖父手中继承的，这片土地的历史可以追溯到印第安人时期。家中“the library was filled with old books and pictures of the grandfather with famous people he had known…” 这让奥巴马意识到，自己与女朋友其实是在两个世界。“Between the two of us, I was the only one who knew how to live as an outsider”。两人有次看完戏后，白人女友问他为什么黑人看起来总是很愤怒，奥巴马说，“maybe it is a problem of remembering.”两人因此争吵，最终分手。“Is that enough？” “Sometimes”。
奥巴马同父异母的妹妹年轻，似乎有时候“keep the burden of all the world”。老奥巴马回到非洲后过得并不开心，人生际遇随着政治风向大起大落，终日酗酒，被车撞死。奥巴马听到此处，动情地回忆唯一的一次见到父亲时，父亲给他留下深刻的印象。如今得知父亲后半生的故事，才知道原来父亲也并非完人。 “because I hadn’t seen what perhaps most men see at some point in their lives: their father’s body shrinking, their father’s best hopes dashed, their father’s face lined with grief and regret. Yes, I’d seen weakness in other men. White men and brown men whose fates didn’t speak to my own. It was into my father’s image, the black man, son of Africa, that I’d packed all the attributes I sought in myself.” 从逝去的父辈身上，奥巴马找到了自己的归属。然而，逝者已逝，奥巴马永远都不可能知道是什么塑造了自己的父亲。然而，他也在质疑自己是否会踏上父亲从走过的失败的道路，“I would find myself, at random moments in the day, feeling as if I was living out a preordained scirpt, as if I were following him into error, a captive to his tragedy.”。父辈给子女的影响是不可估量的。
听完妹妹的诉说，奥巴马看着妹妹，“Now, fifteen years later, I looked into Auma’s sleeping face and saw the price we had paid for that silence.”
书中有一段内容，是关于奥巴马带着学校的父母去向什么部门的领导会谈请愿，要求调查家中装修是否有石棉。这一段叙述特别向美式喜剧，是小人物挑战大人物的喜剧故事，虽然结局并不好笑。
一众家长来到部门的等待大厅，被大楼的气派给吓到了，奥巴马说：“They build these big offices to make you feel intimidated. Just remember that this is a public authority. Folds who work here are responsive to you. ”。
内在的恐惧，“fear of belonging.”。
经历了上次失败的社区经历后，奥巴马试着和学校建立联系，帮助那里的孩子。校长和奥巴马谈及现在的孩子没有底线，没有顾忌，没有恐惧，这令人害怕，有谈及对这些黑人孩子的教育：“Just think about what a real education for these children would involve. It would start by giving a child an understanding of himself, his world, his culture, his community. I expose students to African history, geography, artistic tradictions. ”。
Johnnie是奥巴马认识的黑人朋友。Johnnie的父亲是一名运输司机。谈及父亲，Johnnie说：“I realized that my old man never laughed when I talked about wanting to go to college. He always made sure me and my brother got up for school, that we didn’t have to work, that we had a little walking-around money. The day I graduated, I remembered he showed up in a jacket and tie, and he just shook my hand. That’s all… just shook my hand, then went back to work…”
奥巴马和哥哥谈话时，他的哥哥说：“I am the oldest, you see. In tradition, I am now the head of household. I am responsible for you, for Auma, and for all the younger boys. It’s my responsibility to set things right. To pay the boys’ school fees. To see that Auma is properly married. To build a proper house and bring the family together.”。
一天半夜，楼下来了一群年轻人，放着吵闹的音乐。奥巴马下楼和他们理论，看到他们仿佛看到了年轻的自己。“One of them could be me. Standing there, I tried to remember the days when I would hve been sitting in a car like that, full of inarticulate resentments and desperate to prove my place in the world. The feeling of righteous anger. I suspect these boys will have to search long and hard for that order_in deed, any order that includes them as more than objects to fear or derision.”。
社区的工作让奥巴马看到了自己的局限性。“And I had to learn things in law school, things that would help me bring about real change. I would learn about interest rates, corporate merges, the legislative process, about the way businesses and banks were put together. The knowledge I could bring back to where it was needed, back to Roseland, back to Altgeld.”。
拿到哈佛法学院录取信的那一天，奥巴马想到“the summer fourteen years earlier, I remembered Gramps had stayed up the whole night reading from the catalog about music lessons and advanced placement courses, how he had waved that catalog and told me it would be my meal ticket.”。但那时的奥巴马只想在印尼的土地上玩耍，不想进入美国的小学。“And I feels the same thing, right now.”。
第三部分 肯尼亚
哈佛入学前，奥巴马回了一趟肯尼亚，去看望他素未谋面的亲人。看到他书中描写的肯尼亚，让我想到中国的乡村，一切都是如此相似。祖辈植根于土地，土地上存在宗族势力。德高望重的长者在村中拥有权威。要为他人裁断事情。非洲大陆，和中国的乡村在某种程度上也共享了类似的历史：非洲遭遇白人殖民，中国卷入战争。殖民和战争最终改变了社会形态，也改变了人的记忆——那些年的仇恨是集体记忆的重要组成部分。这让历史变得沉重，也让我们难以看清那些事发生之前的非洲和中国。
回到肯尼亚，奥巴马第一次感受到自己的姓存在的意义。“For the first time in my life, I felt the comfort, the firmness of identity that a name might provide, how it could carry an entitre history that a name might provide… My name belonged so I belonged, drawn into a web of relationships, alliances, and grudges that I did not yet understand”。读到这一段有些悲哀，因为奥巴马虽然在美国长大，他的祖辈仍在非洲，所以无法给他家族的温暖和力量。这种属于家族的温暖和力量是人的一部分，让人知道自己属于哪里。
奥巴马描写非洲乡村里看到早起去农作的人们，每天对他们来说好像都相同，没有期待，只要把这一日熬过去就行了。“The same look on peoples’faces as they made their way into a new day, with few expectations other than make it through”。耕作的生活，真的苦。
回到故土的感觉：“For a span of weeks or months, you could experience the freedom that comes from not feeling watched, the freedom of believing the your hair grows as it’s supposed to grow… Here the world was black, and so you were just you; you could discover all those things that were unique to your life without living a lie or commiting betrayals”。在表面上，they are your people。
奥巴马叙述了他丢掉行李又失而复得的故事，失而复得的转折点是托了一些关系。奥巴马的妹妹对他说，“That’s where it all starts, the big man. Then his assistant, or his family, or his tribe. It’s the same whether you want a smartphone, or a visa, or a job. Who are your relatives？ Who do you know？ … That’s Oldman never understood.”。Oldman是奥巴马的父亲，从哈佛毕业后回到非洲，因为太耿直得罪了人被解雇。故乡的规则和在美国的规则不同。
奥巴马对于勤劳的外来移民的评价：“outsiders who knew how to trade and kept to themselves, working the margin of a racial caste system, more visible and so more vulnerble to resentment”。他们勤劳，懂得规则并利用规则去保全自己人，以致于容易招致怨恨。
集体对个体剥夺的一个例子：Kenyan Coffee Union. “They are thieves, they regulate what we can plant and when we can plant it, I can only sell my coffee to them, and they sell it overseas. They still get one hundred times what they pay for me. Where is the rest？”
一位非洲朋友和奥巴马抱怨同胞的短时和缺乏远见，奥巴马说，我在美国人身上看到的也一样。他的朋友说：“You are probably right, but you see, a rich country like America can perhaps afford to be stupid”。
奥巴马和妹妹去郊游，同团出行的还有一名白人，是当地援助医生，篝火下他们谈起肯尼亚的现状，以及那名白人为什么会来这里。医疗物资根本不够，一半政府采购的物资都进了黑市。而那名医生，原来是在殖民地时期时出生在这里的，而后肯尼亚独立后，他随着家人回到伦敦，学医。在伦敦的他感到孤独，“here is my home, I suppose. The people, the land… It’s funny, you know. Once you’ve lived here for a time, the life in England seems terribly craped. The British have so much more, but I felt a foreigner there.”。他顿了顿，又说：“maybe I can never call this place home, sins of the father, you know. I learn to accept that. I do love this place, though”。被欺负的一方，后代长大了在记忆里携带者仇恨。而曾经欺负人的一方，后代依然也承受着某种沉重。虽然后者承受的沉重和曾经的苦难相比不值一提，后者承受的沉重也常被人遗忘。
奥巴马去探访父亲的亲兄弟，一个眼睛已经看不见的老先生。老先生说，按照肯尼亚的习俗，背井离乡的人死去之后会成为无家可归的幽灵，“no one will be there to mourn them, no ancestors will be there to welcome them…”当奥巴马离开他的茅草屋时，他回头看，“I could still see the dim light of the old man’s window, and sense his blind eyes staring out into the darkness.”。
白人开始殖民非洲的时候，奥巴马的祖父决定离开故乡，走路去内罗毕找工作。他做过白人的管家，厨师。当他回到故乡时，成了部落里第一个穿裤子和鞋子的人。他从白人学到现代人的生活方式，学到收规矩，学到保持好的卫生习惯。“To him knowledege was the source of all the whilte man’s power”。然而，即使白人比黑人更富有，他从不觉得白人生来就比黑人高贵，因此，他从不允许白人雇主欺负他。如果被欺凌，他会选择离开。而后，他带着赚来的钱， “built large huts. He had brought back a crystal on a shelf, and on his gramophone he played strange music late into the night. In the cooking hut, he built an oven in which he backed bread.”。
“Standing before the two graves, I felt everything around me.”。
奥巴马谈及他的祖父：“He will have to reinvent himself in this arid, solitary place. Through force of will, he will create a life out of the scraps of an unknown world.”。
“Your grandfather might have told your father that he could never escape himself, or re-create himself alone. ”，“The pain I felt was my father’s pain. My questions were my brothers’ questions. Their struggle, my birthright.”。
关于非洲被殖民的历史，奥巴马遇到的历史学家告诉他“Truth is usually the best corrective.”
离开非洲之前，奥巴马又去了一趟内罗毕坐旅行大巴，看着窗外的树，他感到“it was true, each tree seemed to possess a character, a character neither benevolent nor curel but simply enduring”。
回到美国，在哈佛的那几年，对奥巴马来说“less a time of discovery than of consolidation, of doing the things that we tell ourselves we finally must do to grow up”。