Dreams from My Father

by

Barack Obama

Roy/Abongo Character Analysis

Roy is Barack’s half-brother and the Old Man’s eldest child. He’s close with his sister Auma, but not as close with his brothers Abo and Bernard since they didn’t grow up together. Auma insists that Roy is much like the Old Man in that he doesn’t show his true feelings—and of all his children, the Old Man clashed most with Roy. When Barack first meets Roy, Roy has been living in Washington, D.C. with his wife, an American woman who served in the Peace Corps—but their marriage is struggling. Roy is a towering, heavy man who resembles the Old Man to an unnerving degree, though his laugh is infectious and bright. As Barack gets to know Roy, he discovers that Roy is a heavy drinker and is haunted by his unhappy memories of their father. As the oldest of the Old Man’s children, it’s traditionally Roy’s responsibility to make sure that all his younger brothers and Auma are cared for, but he chafes under this responsibility. When he returns to Kenya at the same time that Barack goes to Kenya to visit, Barack discovers that Roy is still drinking and has given up entirely on his American wife—in fact, he plans to marry an African woman, Amy. Though Barack fears that Roy is in trouble and isn’t doing well, within a few years, Roy turns himself around. He converts to Islam (making him give up alcohol), begins going by his Kenyan name (Abongo), and plans to start a business so he can employ his younger brothers. Barack sees that Roy is finally figuring out how to be at peace with himself as a Black man, and he’s proud of his brother.

Roy/Abongo Quotes in Dreams from My Father

The Dreams from My Father quotes below are all either spoken by Roy/Abongo or refer to Roy/Abongo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Family and Community Theme Icon
).
Chapter 13 Quotes

“I thought I could start over, you see. But now I know you can never start over. Not really. You think you have control, but you are like a fly in somebody else’s web.”

Related Characters: Roy/Abongo (speaker), Barack Obama, Barack’s Father/The Old Man, David
Page Number: 266
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16 Quotes

Without power for the group, a group larger, even, than an extended family, our success always threatened to leave others behind. And perhaps it was that fact that left me so unsettled—the fact that even here, in Africa, the same maddening patterns still held sway; [...] It was as if we—Auma, Roy, Bernard, and I—were all making it up as we went along.

Related Characters: Barack Obama (speaker), Barack’s Father/The Old Man, Auma, Roy/Abongo, Bernard
Page Number: 330-31
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

“Let me tell you, your father, he was a very great man. I was closer to him than to my own father. If I was in trouble, it was my Uncle Barack that I went to first. And, Roy, you would also go to my father, I believe.”

“The men in our family were very good to other people’s children,” Roy said quietly. “With their own, they didn’t want to look weak.”

Related Characters: Roy/Abongo (speaker), Billy (speaker), Barack Obama, Barack’s Father/The Old Man
Page Number: 385-86
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 19 Quotes

I realized that who I was, what I cared about, was no longer just a matter of intellect or obligation, no longer a construct of words. I saw that my life in America—the black life, the white life, the sense of abandonment I’d felt as a boy, the frustration and hope I’d witnessed in Chicago—all of it was connected with this small plot of earth an ocean away, connected by more than the accident of a name or the color of my skin. The pain I felt was my father’s pain. My questions were my brothers’ questions. Their struggle, my birthright.

Related Characters: Barack Obama (speaker), Barack’s Father/The Old Man, Roy/Abongo, Bernard
Page Number: 430
Explanation and Analysis:
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Roy/Abongo Quotes in Dreams from My Father

The Dreams from My Father quotes below are all either spoken by Roy/Abongo or refer to Roy/Abongo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Family and Community Theme Icon
).
Chapter 13 Quotes

“I thought I could start over, you see. But now I know you can never start over. Not really. You think you have control, but you are like a fly in somebody else’s web.”

Related Characters: Roy/Abongo (speaker), Barack Obama, Barack’s Father/The Old Man, David
Page Number: 266
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16 Quotes

Without power for the group, a group larger, even, than an extended family, our success always threatened to leave others behind. And perhaps it was that fact that left me so unsettled—the fact that even here, in Africa, the same maddening patterns still held sway; [...] It was as if we—Auma, Roy, Bernard, and I—were all making it up as we went along.

Related Characters: Barack Obama (speaker), Barack’s Father/The Old Man, Auma, Roy/Abongo, Bernard
Page Number: 330-31
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

“Let me tell you, your father, he was a very great man. I was closer to him than to my own father. If I was in trouble, it was my Uncle Barack that I went to first. And, Roy, you would also go to my father, I believe.”

“The men in our family were very good to other people’s children,” Roy said quietly. “With their own, they didn’t want to look weak.”

Related Characters: Roy/Abongo (speaker), Billy (speaker), Barack Obama, Barack’s Father/The Old Man
Page Number: 385-86
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 19 Quotes

I realized that who I was, what I cared about, was no longer just a matter of intellect or obligation, no longer a construct of words. I saw that my life in America—the black life, the white life, the sense of abandonment I’d felt as a boy, the frustration and hope I’d witnessed in Chicago—all of it was connected with this small plot of earth an ocean away, connected by more than the accident of a name or the color of my skin. The pain I felt was my father’s pain. My questions were my brothers’ questions. Their struggle, my birthright.

Related Characters: Barack Obama (speaker), Barack’s Father/The Old Man, Roy/Abongo, Bernard
Page Number: 430
Explanation and Analysis: