Dreams from My Father: Chapter 13 Summary & Analysis

Johnnie is in one of his expansive moods one night as he and Barack finish dinner. He tells Barack about witnessing a teenager commit suicide as they hear a sudden pop. They look and see young teen boys chasing each other, the pursuers with a gun. Both Barack and Johnnie drop to the ground. It’s a year after the asbestos campaign. By this time, 1987, Barack notices a difference in the South Side. He watches boys snapping young saplings and sees other young men in wheelchairs. Barack realizes that what’s changed is that now many people believe that some boys are beyond help. Johnnie grew up on the South Side and remembers how adults used to step in, but drugs have destroyed that sense of community.

Barack decides he’s not afraid of these armed boys like some people are. Johnnie insists that even the good kids think they have to look out for themselves, something that Barack thinks is wrong—to him, that seems to imply that kids can dictate their own futures. He also thinks about Kyle, who’s 16 and whose antics frighten Ruby. One day, Barack takes Kyle to play basketball and asks if he’s still thinking about the air force. Kyle insists that they’ll never let a Black man fly a plane; he’ll stay in Chicago. As one player starts to get the better of Kyle, Kyle punches him. The man is too embarrassed to report Kyle, so Barack leads Kyle out and lectures him. Kyle agrees to tell Ruby what happened.

Barack sets his sights on the public schools, which are constantly in crisis. Teachers strike regularly and only half the students graduate. Few people are interested. Some, like Angela and Mary, send their kids to Catholic school. The most resistance to reform comes from the teachers and principals who attend church on Sundays. They insist there’s no money, that reform efforts are attempts to put white people back in control, and that the students are lazy—and the parents are worse. All of this makes Barack angry. He and Johnnie start with Kyle’s high school. They meet the principal, Dr. King, who introduces them to a counselor named Asante. Asante insists that inner-city schools are just mini jails and that education for Black youth is misguided. Black kids have to learn about white culture—the culture that oppresses them.

Asante also says that the boys have it the worst, as few have fathers to guide them toward manhood. It’s no wonder, he suggests, that they have issues. This is why he introduces kids to Africa. That gives the boys a sense that they’re rooted in some tradition. A student knocks and Asante shows Barack and Johnnie to the door. Before they leave, Asante asks Barack about his heritage and talks about his last trip to Kenya. Barack admits he’s never been. In the car, Barack tells Johnnie that he’s afraid of what he might find in Kenya. Johnnie tells Barack about his dad, who raised him and his brothers; while he was a bit ashamed of his dad when he was younger, looking back, he realizes his dad never discouraged him. Barack notes that Johnnie’s dad was there for him and thinks that Asante’s presence in his students’ lives is probably more helpful than the posters of Africa.

Barack, Johnnie, Asante, and Dr. Collier begin to develop a counseling network to provide tutoring and mentoring. Barack leaves Johnnie in charge one weekend so he can visit his brother, Roy, in D.C. Barack and Roy first connected during Auma’s visit, when she and Barack called Roy. He’s been in America since marrying a woman who served in the Peace Corps. Auma warned Barack that Roy is a lot like the Old Man—he doesn’t show his true feelings. When Barack lands in D.C., Roy isn’t there. When Barack calls, Roy reveals that he and his wife are fighting and asks Barack to stay in a hotel. Roy picks Barack up later for dinner, shocking Barack with his size and his resemblance to the Old Man.

Roy is a horrible driver, but he manages to get them to a Mexican restaurant overlooking a marina. After several drinks, he admits that he and his wife might divorce; she believes that he’s becoming just like the Old Man and that he drinks too much. Roy says he doesn’t like himself and he blames the Old Man for this. He tells a similar story to Auma’s; that their father descended into poverty and Roy escaped by finding success at university. Barack admires Roy’s tenacity, but he also sees that Roy still seems haunted by his memories of their father. Roy recounts how their father would drive them to get the best grades while “living like a beggar.” He talks about organizing the funeral in Alego and the family fights over the Old Man’s estate. After David’s death, he decided the family was cursed.

Roy says that he decided to move to the U.S. because he believed that he could start over. But he discovered that he doesn’t have control at all. His voice slows as he says that it’s his responsibility as the oldest to care for Auma and all their brothers. Barack offers to share the load, but Roy seems to not hear him. The next day, Barack flies home. He worries that Roy is in danger.

Back at work, Johnnie says he met with Dr. King, who’s thrilled to support their program—but King also offered up the resumes of his wife and daughter as candidates to work for the program. Barack and Johnnie dissolve into laughter, mocking the principal for supporting the program merely for his own ends. That night, a car pulls up in front of Barack’s building, blasting music. Knowing the neighbors have a newborn baby, Barack asks the boys to leave. The boys say nothing and suddenly Barack feels exposed. The boys look like they could be Johnnie, Roy, or even Barack himself. Barack thinks back to when he was that age and thinks of how he would’ve seen his adult self. He realizes that he grew up in a more forgiving time. These boys see no order in the world—there’s a world of difference between himself and the boys. He’s afraid as they drive away.