Becoming

by

Michelle Obama

Becoming: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
When Michelle begins high school, her mother goes back to work—a “welcome shift in routine,” but also a financial necessity, given the fact that Craig is soon to start college. He has been recruited by an expensive Catholic school to play on their basketball team, and by the end of his junior year, he is being courted by many Division I schools. But still, Michelle’s mother and father encourage him to keep his options open and get into the best school he can—letting them worry about the cost.
Michelle demonstrates how her parents’ investment in both her and Craig was not only an emotional one (instilling the value of hard work) but also a financial one. They want to make sure that money will not be the obstacle to prevent Michelle or Craig from getting the best education possible, even sacrificing some of their own needs in order to do so.
Themes
Community, Investment, and Hard Work Theme Icon
Marriage, Parenthood, and Work Theme Icon
Michelle tests into Chicago’s first magnet high school, Whitney M. Young High School, which has quickly become one of the best public schools in the city. The school was designed to foster equal opportunity, and about 80 percent of the students are nonwhite. The school is a long bus ride away, but it represents a new frontier for Michelle.
Michelle’s ability to place into a good high school already proves how the investment that her parents and educators have made has already paid off in giving her better opportunities.
Themes
Community, Investment, and Hard Work Theme Icon
Whitney Young High School makes Michelle feel like a small fish in a big pond. She worries that she might not be good enough. At Bryn Mawr, she had been known as Craig’s little sister, and he had created a strong precedent for her and enabled her to be confident. But here, she worries that she is in competition with the other kids, all of whom have been selected for their intelligence. She worries that being the best student in “a middling, mostly black school” might not have prepared her for this next step.
Michelle introduces a core tension that she feels throughout her life—the idea of not being good enough. This idea is also informed by the fact that she faces discrimination in many respects: based on her race, gender, and economic status. Yet it is also a testament to her character that, in the face of this discrimination, she simply works hard and keeps hope that she can achieve as much as those with more privilege.
Themes
Optimism, Growth, and Fulfillment Theme Icon
Race, Gender, and Politics Theme Icon
Michelle spends nearly three hours on the bus every day and observes how big Chicago really is. This is echoed by her experience in school. Most of her friends are black, but that doesn’t translate to the exact same background. Many of the black students knew each other through an African American social club called Jack and Jill, and had been on ski vacations and international trips that Michelle had never experienced. She describes how this gives her a glimpse of “the apparatus of privilege and connection.”
Becoming friends with black students of a different economic background opens Michelle’s eyes to some of the economic inequality in her world. This disparity in privilege is something that Michelle remains conscious of throughout her life, especially when she is given many privileges when she and Barack move to the White House.
Themes
Power, Privilege, and Responsibility Theme Icon
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Michelle gets good grades throughout her first year, and she builds up some confidence. She’s not a straight A student, but she’s close, and she understands that the more hours of studying she puts in, the more she can achieve. Craig, meanwhile, enrolls at Princeton. Michelle’s parents never talk about the stress of paying for college, but she understands it is there.
Michelle’s growing self-assurance can not only be attributed to her hard work paying off, but also the fact that she never gave up hope that she might be able to keep pace with the other students in her class, despite the fact that she wasn’t very confident about her situation at the beginning of the year.
Themes
Optimism, Growth, and Fulfillment Theme Icon
Michelle tries to relieve her parents of some of the burden by not asking for anything more than she needs. When her French teacher announces that there will be an optional class trip to Paris on a break, Michelle doesn’t bring it up at home. But when Michelle’s parents learn of the trip, they tell her not to worry about the money that it will cost. Michelle knows that her parents have never taken trips like this—all of their money goes into their kids. She feels guilty and unsure of what to say. A few months later, she takes the trip to Paris with her friends.
Even as a teenager, Michelle understands the sacrifices that her parents have made to give her opportunities and the fact that they always put her and Craig over themselves. Even when Michelle tries to alleviate some of their financial weight, they insist on giving her everything they can because they understand how valuable their investment in her future can be.
Themes
Community, Investment, and Hard Work Theme Icon
Marriage, Parenthood, and Work Theme Icon
Michelle becomes friends with a girl in her class named Santita Jackson, who is the oldest child of Reverend Jesse Jackson. He worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr. and was a mesmerizing political celebrity. He called for black people to “shake off the undermining ghetto stereotypes and claim their long-denied political power.” He preaches a message of hope, and wants communities to remain involved and invested in the future.
Michelle’s observations of Jesse Jackson bear striking similarities with the messages that Barack campaigns on, first as a Senator and then as a presidential candidate. In both of their campaigns, the crux of their messages is hope: retaining optimism and working toward a better future for the country in general and for black people in particular.
Themes
Optimism, Growth, and Fulfillment Theme Icon
Quotes
Being around the Jackson home gives Michelle an early glimpse into the world of politics: schedules and plans rarely seem to stick. She watches as Jesse Jackson enters a vortex of politics, as he is at this point only a few years from formally launching a Presidential campaign. This involves making connections, raising money, and laying a groundwork of support. He would be only the second African American to run a serious national presidential campaign. Michelle quickly understands, even viewing it at a relative distance, that this chaotic life is not one that she particularly enjoys.
Along with the hopeful nature of politics, Michelle is also introduced to some of the less pleasant aspects of political life—including the many sacrifices that one has to make in terms of time and money, and also the extra critical eye that comes with being a minority candidate. All of these remain important lessons when Barack runs for President in 2008.
Themes
Race, Gender, and Politics Theme Icon
Power, Privilege, and Responsibility Theme Icon
Michelle begins to look at colleges, and she and Santita both focus on schools on the East Coast. Michelle visits Craig at Princeton, and it quickly becomes her top choice without much thought—she figures that anything Craig can do, she can do as well. When Michelle brings this up to a college counselor at Whitney Young, however, the woman tells her that she might not be “Princeton material.” Michelle is disheartened by this dismissive statement. “Had I decided to believe her,” she writes, “her pronouncement would have toppled my confidence all over again, reviving the old thrum of not enough, not enough.”
Just as encouragement and optimism can lift a kid up, immediate and unfounded criticism can do just the opposite. For a kid less confident, who had less of a drive to prove the guidance counselor wrong, it is easy to see how someone else in Michelle’s shoes might have let this seed grow into feelings of doubt and failure that would have prevented Michelle’s illustrious future.
Themes
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Even though Michelle is disappointed by this presentiment of failure, she does not let it rattle her. Instead, she seeks help from an assistant principal who knows her well, who agrees to write her a recommendation letter. She gets back to work, focusing on getting good grades and telling her personal story in her college essay. Ultimately, she proves the guidance counselor wrong, as several months later, she gets an acceptance letter from Princeton. She doesn’t stop in to tell the college counselor she was wrong—she had only been proving her capabilities to herself.
Fortunately, Michelle’s optimism wins over the feelings of failure. She continues to work hard and seeks out the people that will lift her up, rather than focusing on the critiques meant to tear her down. In the end, she relies on her own drive and personal story when applying to college, and that story is a winning one: that of a person reaching to fulfill an achievement that others might think is beyond her, and succeeding anyway.
Themes
Optimism, Growth, and Fulfillment Theme Icon