Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

The first instance of dancing in the novel occurs when Obama Sr. dances with his son just before departing from Hawaii during a visit when Obama is ten. Obama Sr. plays records of African music and encourages his son to dance with him. The joyful manner in which Obama Sr. dances and his invitation to Obama to join him represent the very attenuated connection between father and son and as well as between Obama and hisKenyan family. Obama later learns during his visit to Kenya that dancing was a favorite pastime of the Obamas but most especially of his father during his youth.

In addition, as a pre-teen and teenager in Hawaii, Obama frequently listened to African American music and watched Soul Train, a popular American show that featured African American musicians and popular dances from the 1970s through the 2000s. Dancing in these contexts represents African-American identity and Obama's desire to assume an African-American identity.

Obama Sr. gives a basketball to his son at the end of his trip to Hawaii when Obama is ten. Although Obama never plays basketball with his own father, he does eventually become a basketball player on the team at Punahou and watches with some gratification as the 1971 powerhouse University of Hawaii team that included several talented African American players brings greater visibility to African Americans in Hawaii. Obama explains that playing basketball allowed him to have social contacts with African-American men during a time in his life when he desperately needed mentoring in order to navigate the difficult passage from adolescence to adulthood. Basketball is therefore associated with black, masculine identity in the memoir. 

Granny gives Obama his grandfather's servant registry book as one of two physical items that have survived the man. The registry includes a record of Hussein Onyango's employment with the British. The impersonal descriptions of Obama's grandfather as well as the official, authoritative language included in the registry book illustrate in specific detail British colonial authority over Kenya and Hussein Onyango's understandable but troubling collaboration with these colonizers.

Ruby Styles is a volunteer with DCP during Obama's tenure as executive director and the mother of an angry teen, Kyle, whom Obama attempts to mentor. Ruby, an African American woman, comes to a meeting with Obama one day in blue contact lenses that cover over her brown eyes. Obama is disturbed by this unusual cosmetic change and takes it to mean that Ruby views physical traits typically associated with whites as more attractive than her natural brown eye color. Roby's blue eyes represent the impact of internalized racism on the black psyche.

During his trip to Kenya, Obama receives two physical representations of his father's legacy, one of which is a stack of typed letters that Obama Sr. wrote to American colleges and universities. These letters ask for help in attending school and include letters of recommendation that praise the intellect and work ethic of Obama Sr. The letters represent Obama Sr.'s dreams of success in America.

Home Square, located in Alego, Kenya, is the Obama family compound that Hussein Onyango Obama built with his earnings as a worker for British colonials. Hussein Onyango and Obama Sr. are both buried at Home Square. Roy tells Obama that explained to Obama that “'[t]here’s your ordinary house in Nairobi. And then there’s your house in the country, where your people come from. Your ancestral home'" (369). Home Square thus represents the Obama family and Obama's Kenyan roots.