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Chapter 11
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
Rafiq fusses over the refreshment table and the photo of Harold Washington hanging in the new MET center in Roseland. Washington is coming to cut the ribbon. Barack reminds Will and Angela that they must get the mayor to commit to coming to their rally in the fall, too. A murmur goes through the crowd as Washington arrives. He smiles as he approaches Angela and greets her by name; Angela looks ready to pass out. The ceremony is quick. After photos, the mayor zooms away, and Barack finds Angela, Shirley, and Mona twittering about meeting him, but they failed to invite him to the rally in the fall. Barack is angry, but Will reminds him that meeting Harold Washington will be the highlight of Angela’s life and he suggests that Barack will never be satisfied.
Given Barack’s status as a newcomer to the city, Harold Washington doesn’t hold the same star quality for him as he does for people like Angela and Rafiq. Barack is so upset with Angela in part because he’s unwilling to acknowledge and celebrate just how amazing of an event this was for her. To him, Harold Washington is just another politician; to Angela, he’s an almost religious figure and proof that change is coming for Chicago. Will’s chat reminds Barack to be gentle with others and acknowledge their experiences.
Themes
After a year in Chicago, Barack is getting results, but he knows that Will is right: he’s not satisfied. He wonders if it’s because, since Auma’s visit, he feels like he has to make up for the Old Man’s mistakes. Barack also has issues with Marty, though they parted ways in the spring. Finding that the suburbanites he was organizing cared more about white flight and property values than about jobs, Marty started organizing in Gary, Indiana instead. He invited Barack to come work with him, but Barack refused, realizing that Marty wasn’t tied to the Chicagoans they’d been working with and that he’s fueled more by ideas than by people. While Marty insisted that Barack couldn’t create “real” change in Chicago, Barack reflects that change is more complicated than he once thought. Instead of fighting evil racists like Bull Connor, he’s struggling against something much more ordinary: cynicism, petty greed, and entrenched bureaucracy.
Even though, for all intents and purposes, Barack is an adult, the revelations about his father make Barack feel again like he’s a child. And because he sees his work as a way to try to atone for his father’s mistakes, Barack throws himself even more fully into his work. Barack refuses to go with Marty in part because he recognizes that Marty isn’t part of the community that they’re serving in Chicago, but Barack—even though he’s a newcomer—does feel connected to the people and places he’s been working with. And since Barack is part of the community now, he can also see that their antagonists aren’t who Marty thought they were—the obstacles to change are more complicated and ordinary than he previously thought.
Themes
Barack finds that most people in Altgeld feel weary, believing that they can’t fix the issues that plague them. This makes them feel cynical and lose all notions of personal responsibility or hope for the future. In a way, Barack knows that he has to prove that what he’s doing matters. Once, when Barack tries to explain this to Will, Will chuckles that Barack wants Harold Washington’s job. This, however, isn’t true. Barack recognizes that Washington makes the city look more equitable, but not much actually changes. Barack wonders if Washington feels just as hopeless as he does. Dr. Collier, the principal of an elementary school, pulls Barack out of his funk. She asks Barack what he’s going to do for the mother of one of their students, a junkie who can’t make bail for her boyfriend. She explains how they try to help students and their teen mothers, but they can’t help what goes on at home.
Given Barack’s emphasis on the importance of community, it’s no surprise that he feels like he has to prove that his work is meaningful and successful. What he’s trying to do, in essence, is give the Altgeld community the sense that they really are a community—but he’s fighting an uphill battle. Since so many residents don’t feel as though they have a responsibility to the collective, it’s much harder to harness people and rally them around a common cause. But Dr. Collier suggests that Barack should essentially focus on the children, a group that many will care about.
Themes
Dr. Collier invites Barack to a parents’ meeting and shows him into the hallway, where a class of five-year-olds stands. Barack notices how happy they seem, despite the poverty they face at home. Dr. Collier says the change comes in about five years, when the children’s eyes stop laughing. Barack spends a lot of time with those kids and their parents. Many of the mothers are in their late teens or early 20s. The women know how to survive but are ambitious and not cynical. Barack is struck by two sisters, Linda and Bernadette, who work together to care for their two children and one on the way. They dream of going to college and living in a house. They seem innocent—but Barack realizes how innocent he must look to them.
Though the wider community may not function cohesively, Barack nevertheless seems to come upon smaller instances of community. Linda and Bernadette offer the hope that there are others like them, with dreams and children to care for, who might be willing to work together to achieve those ambitious dreams. Dr. Collier also makes it clear that the stakes are high. She paints a grim picture of the future when she talks about the kids getting to the point where they’re not laughing anymore—pointing to the devastating effects of fear, neglect, and poverty.
Themes
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Barack decides to focus on improving basic services in Altgeld, like repairing toilets and windows. First, he asks the women to canvass their blocks to discover what needs to be fixed, but a woman named Sadie approaches him with a legal notice. It announces that Altgeld is hiring contractors to remove asbestos, and Sadie is concerned that there’s asbestos in the apartments, so she sets up a meeting with Mr. Anderson, the property manager. Barack tells himself that a cover-up will generate lots of publicity—and publicity will help. He fights the urge to tell Mr. Anderson that he knows the problems precede him and they can work together. Mr. Anderson assures Sadie there’s no asbestos, but sputters when she asks for the test results.
The possibility of asbestos in the Altgeld apartments provides Barack with the kind of narrow issue that Marty encouraged him to focus on. And indeed, though it seems at this point as though Sadie is the only one concerned, Barack recognizes that this has the potential to create waves all throughout the city. A refusal on the part of the city to properly handle asbestos would send the message that they don’t care about the health and safety of the Black residents in the projects, the kind of publicity that the city doesn’t want.
Themes
After a week, Sadie calls Mr. Anderson’s office. As the weeks wear on, Barack helps her contact the CHA and the mayor’s office. When they hear nothing, they plan to go downtown and demand information. Sadie, Linda, and Bernadette only manage to find eight people willing to go. Once at the director’s office, Barack reminds the women that this office is here to serve them. As the secretary tries to shoo the group out, a news crew arrives. Barack cajoles Sadie into giving a press conference. As Sadie speaks, a harried woman—the director’s assistant—takes everyone into a conference room. They learn thatthe apartments haven’t been tested for asbestos and secure a promise to begin testing immediately.
The events of this afternoon begin to impress upon Sadie, Linda, Bernadette, and the other parents in attendance that when they work together to raise a fuss, they can get things done—and as they work together, they can create a sense of community that will carry them forward. They also confirm that Mr. Anderson lied about the asbestos. With this, it’s easy to see how Mr. Anderson said what he thought was going to help him most in the long run—but he underestimated the power of this community.
Themes
Barack buys everyone caramel corn for the ride home and tries to conduct an evaluation, but Mona forces Barack to sit and eat. This moment changes Barack, as it shows him what’s possible. The city erupts as the press discovers more asbestos in South Side projects, but even better, Barack sees the parent group developing new campaigns and drawing in more parents. Even their adversaries begin to come around as they plan an event. The leaders arrive at the event an hour early to discover that their sound system is dead. The maintenance man offers them a small amp and microphone and Barack warns Linda and Sadie to not let the director drone on. More than 700 people arrive for the event—but the director is late.
Barack’s desire to conduct an evaluation and turn this into a learning experience for everyone reads much the same way as his annoyance with Angela when she met Harold Washington. Barack doesn’t entirely understand the emotional impact of moments like these—and that allowing people like Angela and Sadie to feel victorious, special, and useful is possibly more meaningful than an evaluation. Those emotions will make them more willing to work in the future when things inevitably get hard again.
Themes
The director arrives an hour late. Sadie and Linda welcome him and ask if he’s willing to commit to working with them to make basic repairs to Altgeld’s apartments. The director asks to respond “in his own fashion,” and a tug-of-war over the microphone ensues. Finally, the director bolts and pandemonium breaks out. Several people accuse Barack of embarrassing Altgeld by getting young people involved. Linda sobs and Barack assures her that this was his fault. Dr. Collier comforts him that this will blow over. But though crews do take care of the asbestos, the fallout is substantial and momentum wanes. Eventually, a government official informs the group that many of the repairs they want aren’t federal priorities. Sadie drops out so she can focus on saving money to move away.
It’s important to note that Barack didn’t necessarily do anything wrong here. Young people, for one thing, were the only people to get involved—he’s working with a parents’ group composed entirely of very young women, after all. And despite the gains the group might have made with the city, they still have to contend with the much larger issue of federal grants for public housing projects. Sadie’s departure from the group, meanwhile, reminds Barack that concerns haven’t changed much—people still want to get out more than they want to improve Altgeld.
Themes
