As Barack starts to see Ann as her own person, separate from him, who has undertaken her own journey of growing up, he can finally develop perspective on his childhood and his parents’ marriage. Learning more about the circumstances surrounding his parents’ marriage also helps him piece together who his family members are. And next to Onyango, Gramps looks far more progressive than he did in earlier chapters, if only because he never vocalized any racist thoughts about Barack’s father. In Barack’s mind, this begins to situate Onyango as a very traditional African man who disapproves of white people at large—but it’s important to recognize that, at this point, this is all Barack knows of his grandfather.