Becoming: Chapter 20 Summary & Analysis

When people ask what it’s like to live in the White House, Michelle responds that it’s like living in a fancy hotel with no other guests. The rooms are big, the place is kept clean, fresh flowers are brought in every day. There are ushers, chefs, housekeepers, florists, electricians, painters, and plumbers. She understands how lucky they are to be living this way, particularly given the fact that her entire apartment growing up could now fit into her master suite.

Michelle understands that this luxury is afforded to them for one reason: to optimize the “well-being, efficiency, and overall power” of the president. Barack himself has fifty staffers reading and answering mail. He has a helicopter pilot standing by to fly him anywhere.

In his first month in office, Barack signs the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which protects workers from wage discrimination based on gender, race, or age. He orders the end of the use of torture and overhauls ethics rules governing White House employees. He manages to pass an economic stimulus bill through Congress. The change he had promised is becoming real.

The family starts to get into a routine, with Michelle constantly monitoring what’s happening in the White House and with her daughters. She tries to get to know some of the parents of the girls’ new friends, in part because she knows that a lot of the security concerns around her daughters can make things awkward with their friends or their friends’ parents.

Michelle is responsible for planning social events like the Governor’s Ball and the Easter Egg Roll, which she feels sometimes are distractions from more impactful work, but she tries to modernize them a little. The same goes for the White House, where Barack and Michelle try to hang more abstract art and works by African American artists on the walls. Barack swaps out a bust of Winston Churchill and replaces it with a bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. They try to make the place more accessible to outsiders.

Michelle also begins the project of planting a garden at the White House. On the surface, a garden feels apolitical, but she also plans to use the garden to start a public conversation about nutrition, which she knows could be controversial for corporations in the food and beverage industry. She and Sam Kass take the first steps to plan the garden.

Michelle’s optimism in these first few months is tempered by one thing: divisive politics. Republicans seem bent on preventing Barack from trying to stanch the economic crisis, refusing to support measures that would cut taxes or save jobs. At a joint session of Congress, Barack makes a speech that tries to balance the grim state of the economy and the wars alongside his trademark optimism. Michelle watches how the Republicans are obstinate and angry, their only goal is to see Barack fail, despite the fact that a Republican had governed the country into this dire state.

Michelle starts to understand the White House more and more—how the many people that work there are not so different from them. She tries to ensure that they never feel invisible. She grows friendly with the staff, who instinctively know when to chat and when to give her privacy. Interacting genuinely with each person gives the White House a little more humanity. 

In April, Michelle and Barack visit the Queen during the G20 summit (a meeting of leaders representing the world’s largest economies). They discover the true meaning of having an “over the top” home, as Buckingham Palace is fifteen times the size of the White House. They attend banquets in the ballroom, eating with gold forks and knives.

After the summit, Michelle and Barack attend a palace reception. Towards the end of the party, she finds that Queen Elizabeth has wandered towards her. She comments on how tall Michelle is, and how her shoes are hurting her. They commiserate with a laugh, and Michelle instinctively lays a hand across the Queen’s shoulder. Michelle later learns that this is an “epic faux pas,” reviving the speculation that she lacks the “standard elegance of a First Lady,” even though the Queen returned the gesture by placing a hand on Michelle’s back.

The next day, Michelle visits the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School for girls, an inner-city secondary school where 90 percent of the school’s students are from an ethnic minority. At the school, Michelle can see that the young girls “would need to work hard to be seen,” pushing back against stereotypes. Their faces, however, are nothing but hopeful. She recognizes herself in the girls.

Michelle gives a speech at the school, throwing away her prepared notes and explaining to them that she is much more like them than they know. She is also from a working-class neighborhood, raised in modest means. However, she explains to them, she realized early on that school is where she could define herself, and that education could spring her forward in the world. She hugs every girl she can.

Back in Washington, Michelle and Sam begin planting their garden, although the idea was initially met with resistance. Michelle hosts a group of students from a local elementary school and they do the planting together. They plant vegetables, berry bushes, and herbs. Michelle knows that in some way, the garden is a gamble, as they don’t actually know whether anything will grow. All they can do is hope that their effort will pay off.