Craig Character Analysis in Becoming

Michelle’s older brother. Craig and Michelle are very close growing up, and he often breaks ground for her in school because he is a very good student, as well. Craig is also a great basketball player and is recruited to Princeton, which is what inspires Michelle to attend Princeton, too. Like many of Michelle’s other relatives, Craig has experienced discrimination from an early age: when he got a new bike, a policeman stopped him, disbelieving that he could have acquired the bike in “an honest way.”

Craig Quotes in Becoming

The Becoming quotes below are all either spoken by Craig or refer to Craig. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Optimism, Growth, and Fulfillment Theme Icon

He’d been promptly picked up by a police officer who accused him of stealing it, unwilling to accept that a young black boy would have come across a new bike in an honest way. (The officer, an African American man himself, ultimately got a brutal tongue-lashing from my mother, who made him apologize to Craig.) What had happened, my parents told us, was unjust but also unfortunately common. The color of our skin made us vulnerable. It was a thing we’d always have to navigate.

Related Characters: Michelle Obama (speaker), Michelle’s mother, Michelle’s father, Craig

Page Number and Citation: 25

Explanation and Analysis:

Craig Character Timeline in Becoming

The timeline below shows where the character Craig appears in Becoming. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Community, Investment, and Hard Work Theme Icon

...Michelle’s mother teaches her to read early; her father teaches her and her older brother Craig to love jazz and art. Michelle and Craig are about two years apart, and they... (full context)

...to make it work. There is sometimes friction between the upstairs and downstairs: she and Craig are noisy and young, while Robbie and Terry are older and a little grouchy, Michelle... (full context)

...to Michelle, as she comes from a very musical family. Her grandfather, whom she and Craig call Southside, is particularly influential, introducing her to the music in his vast record collection.... (full context)

...with more kids in the neighborhood, rather than remaining at home and playing with dolls. Craig is an example for Michelle: he is a “growing sensation” on the basketball court. Basketball... (full context)

Michelle’s mother and father treat Michelle and Craig very maturely, almost like adults. As they grow, they speak about drugs and sex and... (full context)

...to the south called Pill Hill; Michelle thinks this was meant to show her and Craig what a good education could yield. Both of her parents had attended community college, but... (full context)

Each year in elementary school, Craig and Michelle find fewer and fewer white kids. “For Sale” signs pop up often, at... (full context)

...family to visit their new neighborhood. The two families have a pleasant day together, with Craig playing basketball, her parents having a catch-up with the adults, and Michelle following the Stewarts’... (full context)

As Michelle grows up, Craig starts to accumulate a variety of unfounded fears: going blind, going deaf, losing an arm.... (full context)

Now teenagers, Michelle and Craig get separate rooms in their house, including their own phone extensions. Michelle arranges her first... (full context)

Marriage, Parenthood, and Work Theme Icon

...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... (full context)

...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... (full context)

...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,... (full context)

...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... (full context)

...and crew. She also has an advantage in that, once again, she is known as Craig’s little sister, and she quickly fits into his communities. (full context)

...not mention his own deterioration, however. But when Michelle’s parents visit Princeton for one of Craig’s basketball games, she sees the reality: her father in a wheelchair. He always insists, however,... (full context)

...of her heritage—a “deep familiarity that sat atop a deeper and uglier legacy.” Michelle and Craig visit Aunt Sis a few times a year for dinner on the other side of... (full context)

...smokers, even though they knew that it was bad for them. It bothered her and Craig so much that they would try to hide or destroy their cigarettes. Barack smokes the... (full context)

...the hospital. The doctors tell him that his endocrine system is going “fully haywire.” Michelle, Craig, and Michelle’s mother visit him. When Michelle visits her father ten days into his hospital... (full context)

Michelle, Craig, and her mother reel from her father’s death. Losing her father makes Michelle realize even... (full context)