Becoming

by

Michelle Obama

Michelle’s father Character Analysis

Michelle’s dad, named Fraser Robinson III. Michelle’s father had been diagnosed in his thirties with multiple sclerosis, but throughout his life he largely ignores his declining health. Instead, he works hard at a filtration plant in order to make sure that Michelle and Craig can get a quality education. Michelle admires his fortitude, but also tries to get him to see a doctor when it becomes clear that he is having trouble walking. After this development, he is quickly hospitalized, and passes away from a heart attack due to complications from M.S. when Michelle is twenty-seven years old.

Michelle’s father Quotes in Becoming

The Becoming quotes below are all either spoken by Michelle’s father or refer to Michelle’s father. 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
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

The issue was that I wasn’t used to flawless. In fact, I’d never once in my life encountered it. My experience of the piano came entirely from Robbie’s […] less-than-perfect upright, with its honky-tonk patchwork of yellowed keys and its conveniently chipped middle C. To me, that’s what a piano was—the same way my neighborhood was my neighborhood, my dad was my dad, my life was my life. It was all I knew.

Related Characters: Michelle Obama (speaker), Michelle’s father, Robbie
Related Symbols: Piano
Page Number: 16
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

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: 25
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“I’m just not fulfilled,” I said.

I see now how this must have come across to my mother, who was then in the ninth year of a job she’d taken primarily so she could help finance my college education, after years of not having a job so that she’d be free to sew my school clothes, cook my meals, and do laundry for my dad, who for the sake of our family spent eight hours a day watching gauges on a boiler at the filtration plant.

Related Characters: Michelle Obama (speaker), Barack Obama, Michelle’s mother, Michelle’s father, Suzanne Alele
Page Number: 132
Explanation and Analysis:
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Michelle’s father Quotes in Becoming

The Becoming quotes below are all either spoken by Michelle’s father or refer to Michelle’s father. 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
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

The issue was that I wasn’t used to flawless. In fact, I’d never once in my life encountered it. My experience of the piano came entirely from Robbie’s […] less-than-perfect upright, with its honky-tonk patchwork of yellowed keys and its conveniently chipped middle C. To me, that’s what a piano was—the same way my neighborhood was my neighborhood, my dad was my dad, my life was my life. It was all I knew.

Related Characters: Michelle Obama (speaker), Michelle’s father, Robbie
Related Symbols: Piano
Page Number: 16
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

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: 25
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“I’m just not fulfilled,” I said.

I see now how this must have come across to my mother, who was then in the ninth year of a job she’d taken primarily so she could help finance my college education, after years of not having a job so that she’d be free to sew my school clothes, cook my meals, and do laundry for my dad, who for the sake of our family spent eight hours a day watching gauges on a boiler at the filtration plant.

Related Characters: Michelle Obama (speaker), Barack Obama, Michelle’s mother, Michelle’s father, Suzanne Alele
Page Number: 132
Explanation and Analysis: