Obama's Values

As individuals, we don’t tend to take action unless it’s for self-interest; however, in Dreams from My Father, Obama spends three years, after college, as a community organizer in Chicago. Obama goes through tribulations, disappointments, and even complete failures organizing meaningful events, decisive meetings, and humble gatherings but he keeps working toward achieving any possible change in the community. Even though results give him every reason to give up, he learns that every individual has a life-changing story that shaped him or her profoundly. He also learns to value education and to strengthen his faith toward the organization in making changes to the community. He doesn’t want to just talk about how wonderful it could be, he actually wants to take action transforming unfavorable to favorable. Barack Obama is determined to help people fight for what is just and deserved.

First, Obama learns that behind every face, there is a story that affected each individual. Specific detailed stories play a big role in Obama’s journey as a community organizer. He was learning “day by day that the self-interest [he] was supposed to be looking for extended well beyond the immediacy of issues . . . people carried within them some central explanation of themselves . . . Sacred stories” (Obama 190). Furthermore, Obama realizes that everyone has a specific story to live up too and that inspires him to keep challenging people to better their situations. Obama doesn’t want people to let significant problems slide by, he wants the people to stand up together as a whole and confront the problem. Every individual has gone through obstacles that have only made him or her stronger to the cause. As Obama became more involved in organizing he dis...

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... for the youth, but he also took into consideration any individual with a rough past. Overall, the central points that made a change in his life were mainly stories of individuals with different backgrounds and different outcomes in life. In addition, Obama saw the value of education in the youth and consequently took action with the school boards to improve the quality of education. Third, he learned to strengthen his faith within improving communities and spiritually. Barack always saw himself, or people he had came across in his life, in these individual stories. Barack knew that the education was poor and lacked quality. Barack learned that with faith many more things were possible. Ultimately, Barack Obama, too, had “the audacity of hope”.

Works Cited

Obama, Barack. Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. New York: Three Rivers, 1995. Print.