In Chapter 5, Obama mentions that while he was in high school, he stopped writing to his father. Why do you think he stopped writing? Why did he begin again? In the letter Obama reads, his father advises him to come to Kenya to meet his family and to

Obama is torn as to his identity. He admits that if he'd grown up in either Kenya or an immigrant community, it would have reinforced his father's much praised Kenyan values.... something Obama had difficulty accepting based upon his past. In essence, Obama couldn't find his niche and was confused. He began corresponding with his father again in order to understand his Kenyan roots, and he even planned a trip to Kenya to spend time with his father, meet his family, and to find his roots.

"My identity might begin with the fact of my race," Obama realized, "but it didn’t, couldn’t, end there" (111).