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Dreams from My Father
Chapter 2
Chapter two describes Barack’s experience in Indonesia. Indonesia is located in the southern
hemisphere of the world, just north of Australia.
After Barack Obama senior left, Barack’s mother (Stanley) met a new student named Lolo from
Indonesia. He spent lots of time with Barack’s family and eventually Lolo and Stanley decided to get
married. Suddenly, Lolo had to go back to Indonesia. Stanley and Barack prepared to move. It is
difficult to move to a new country. They needed passports, visas (permission to enter the country),
shots, language lessons and more.
The chapter opens after the mother and son have been in Indonesia with an event that made a huge
impression on Barack. He is looking through old Life Magazines while his mother is at work and trying
to interpret the pictures.
Read pages 29 and 30 beginning with the 2nd paragraph beginning “Eventually I came across a
photograph….” through the third paragraph on p. 30 ending with “The room, the air, was quiet as
before.”
Vocabulary
Unnatural – artificial
Pallor – pastiness, whiteness, paleness
Hue - a color or shade of a color
Radiation - energy emitted in the form of particles by substances such as uranium and plutonium,
whose atoms are not stable and are spontaneously decaying. This energy can be converted into
electric power, but it can also cause severe or fatal health problems to people who are exposed to it.
Victim – someone who is harmed
Complexion - the quality and color of the skin, especially of the face
Regret – sorrow
Irreversible – impossible to reverse or undo
Assurance – making something certain or overcoming doubt
The next reading is a great description of Barack’s preparations to move to Indonesia and what it was
like when he got there. Barack’s grandfather mentions knowing about some of the Indonesian
Islands’ names from reading Joseph Conrad as a boy. Joseph Conrad was a famous author who lived
an adventurous life and often wrote about adventures in foreign lands.
Buddha at Kamakura
Djakarta, Indonesia
When Barack and his mother first arrive, she asks Lolo about Sukarno. Sukarno was the first
president of Indonesia who helped the country achieve independence. He had been overthrown right
before Lolo returned to Indonesia and the new president’s name was Suharta. Even though Lolo does
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not talk about it, many people were killed or imprisoned during this takeover. It takes Barack’s
mother a long time to understand what happened.
Hanuman – A favorite Hindu god – the monkey god – is a symbol of strength and perseverance.
The boys enjoyed kite battling. This is a game in which you fly a kite with a razor on the line and
attempt to cut the string of your opponent.
Lolo is an Indonesian. Most of Indonesian people are Muslims. Obama describes Lolo’s religion as a
mixture of Islam, Hindu and animist faiths. This means that he practiced a religion that was a little of
all three. An animist faith is one that believes that things in nature have souls or consciousness.
Vocabulary (pp. 30-41)
Temperament – quality of mind that characterizes someone
Imperturbable - not easily worried, distressed, or agitated
Endure -experience exertion, pain, or hardship without giving up
Plied – kept insistently supplying somebody with things
Tarmac - a material used for surfacing roads
Jovial - cheerful
Haunch - the part of the body comprising the hip, buttock, and upper thigh
Congested – packed, overcrowded
Sentry –lookout or guard
Mesmerize – absorb somebody’s attention
Solitary – apart from others
Puny – small and weak
Whitewash – white painting solution
Bungalow – in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, a simply built one-story house with a veranda
and a wide, gently sloping roof
Kampong - a settlement smaller than a town
Stucco – wall plaster
Tentative – uncertain
Baleful – threatening
Lolling – drooping
Grotesque – strange, unexpected
Tussle – have a vigorous fight
Aggrievement – distress
Bureaucrat – official
Remnant – small surviving group
Bounty – generous supply
Exorcism – driving out of evil spirits
Inexhaustible – unlimited
Scurvy - a disease caused by insufficient vitamin C, the symptoms of which include spongy gums,
loosening of the teeth, and bleeding into the skin and mucous membranes
Polio – disease affecting brain and spinal cord
Leprosy – tropical skin and nerve disease that can cause lack of feeling and loss of body parts
Contortionist – somebody who performs bending feats
Calibrate – measure
Moral –involving right and wrong
Calculation – estimation
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Ambition – desire for success
Tolerate – endure something
Idiosyncrasies – quirks
Compunction – regret
Baffle – confuse
Leech –blood-sucking worm
Inhabit – live in a place
Queer – odd
Stanley Ann, Barack’s mother, is very grateful for the kindness and attention that Lolo and his family
pay to her and Barack. Still, she is very lonely. Lolo seems very distant – not at all like he was in
Hawaii. She thinks it is because he has to support a new family so she finds a job teaching English to
Indonesian businessmen. Over time, she finds out a little more about what had happened in
Indonesia before she came. Before she arrived, Stanley Ann had known that there had been an
overthrow of the government - that the first president, Sukarno had been replaced by Suharto. She
had assumed this was a peaceful change of power, but it had not been. Many people had been
murdered and had disappeared. The new government was not honest and Suharto and his family had
taken over many of the businesses for themselves.
Finally, Stanley Ann confides in a relative about Lolo. He fills her in about what happened. After
Sukarno was overthrown, Suharto called all foreign students back to Indonesia. Lolo had been
drafted and spent a year in the army. He was lucky. Some students who had studied in Africa or in
socialist or communist countries “disappeared.”
Barack’s mother suddenly realizes how important her American citizenship is. She realizes that
Barack’s future will depend on his education and also his ability to fit in to the culture of the United
States. She realizes the huge difference between the chances for an American child to succeed in life
compared to an Indonesian child.
She enrolls Barack in extra classes and begins educating him in American culture. She tells him, “if
you want to grow into a human being, you’re going to need some values.”
Vocabulary (p. 49)
Ramadan – 9th month of Islamic calendar. During Ramadan, Muslims fast between dawn and dusk
Stanley Ann also teaches Barack about his African and African American heritage. She tells him about
his father – that he had grown up in a poor African village, but had worked hard and was able to go
to the United States to the best colleges. She insists that Barack will follow in his father’s footsteps –
be educated, live life according to principles. She also teaches Barack to be proud of his African
American heritage. He learns about Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement.
Vocabulary (p. 51 to the end)
Revelation – understanding
Humiliation – disgrace
Mortality- the certainty of eventual death
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Intact – whole
Alternative- other possibility
Irrepressible – unruly, disobedient, wild
Questions
1. Why does Barack’s mother think that his American heritage is important to Barack’s future? Is she
right? Why or why not.
2. Explain the importance of the Life Magazine picture to Barack’s understanding of the world. How
did it change him?