Father and Sons

The major conflict in the memoir is driven by Obama's attempts to live up to and eventually exceed the expectations of Obama Sr. As Obama comes to learn more about his father, he learns that the struggle between fathers and sons is one that spans generations of the Obama family.

Obama's conflict over his relationship with his father is one that he engages in within himself rather than with his father directly because his father is absent for much of his life. Obama recounts in the memoir that although he spent his very toddler years with his father and mother in Hawaii, he spent just a month with his father when he was ten years old. This early visit reveals the dynamics of their relationship, including his mother's attempts to create a father worthy of respect by telling Obama stories about his father, Obama's admiration of...