Michelle’s mother Character Analysis in Becoming

Michelle’s mom, named Marian Shields Robinson. Michelle’s mother works hard to make sure that her children get a good education. She teaches Michelle to read early, and when Michelle comes home from second grade and complains about her teacher’s incompetence, Michelle’s mother gets her placed in a third-grade class instead. Michelle’s mother also makes a great deal of sacrifices, not only for her kids but also for Michelle’s father. Sometimes Michelle’s mother does not work so that she can take care of Michelle and Craig; sometimes she works so that she can fund Michelle and Craig’s college education. Michelle’s mother also spends a good deal of time caring for her husband’s medical needs as he lives with, and ultimately passes away from, multiple sclerosis. Michelle’s mother’s support for her daughter extends into her time in the White House, as she moves to Washington with the family in order to help Malia and Sasha adjust to life there. She ends up staying all eight years they live in the White House.

Michelle’s mother Quotes in Becoming

The Becoming quotes below are all either spoken by Michelle’s mother or refer to Michelle’s mother. 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

Now that I’m an adult, I realize that kids know at a very young age when they’re being devalued, when adults aren’t invested enough to help them learn. Their anger over it can manifest itself as unruliness. It’s hardly their fault. They aren’t “bad kids.” They’re just trying to survive bad circumstances.

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

Page Number and Citation: 22

Explanation and Analysis:

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:

As I was entering seventh grade, the Chicago Defender, a weekly newspaper that was popular with African American readers, ran a vitriolic opinion piece that claimed Bryn Mawr had gone, in the span of a few years, from being one of the city’s best public schools to a “run-down slum” governed by a “ghetto mentality.” Our school principal, Dr. Lavizzo, immediately hit back with a letter to the editor, defending his community of parents and students and deeming the newspaper piece “an outrageous lie, which seems designed to incite only feelings of failure and flight.”

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

Page Number and Citation: 43

Explanation and Analysis:

“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 and Citation: 132

Explanation and Analysis:

Michelle’s mother Character Timeline in Becoming

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

Community, Investment, and Hard Work Theme Icon

...only a young girl at the time. Her family is “the center of everything.” Michelle’s mother teaches her to read early; her father teaches her and her older brother Craig to... (full context)

...ahead. Michelle, in turn, is stubborn, and asks why she can’t learn new songs. Michelle’s mother and father are amused by her feud with Robbie. Michelle explains that they usually don’t... (full context)

...a “class of bad kids.” Michelle goes home and complains about her teacher to her mother. (full context)

Michelle’s mother listens, taking her daughter’s frustrations seriously, and then goes to the school and gets Michelle... (full context)

As time goes on, Michelle’s mother starts to push Michelle to engage with more kids in the neighborhood, rather than remaining... (full context)

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

...her parents had attended community college, but had abandoned school before completing their degrees. Her mother decided to be a secretary; her father had simply run out of money and joined... (full context)

...finds that someone had keyed a gash across the side of his car, and Michelle’s mother wonders if anyone knew that the Stewarts were black before they visited. Her father gets... (full context)

...more social and spontaneous, more willing to explore the “messes of the wider world.” Michelle’s mother’s relatives gather mostly at Southside’s house, and Michelle enjoys visiting for the music, for the... (full context)

Michelle’s mother doesn’t buy into these fear tactics. But, she does become heavily involved in Bryn Mawr,... (full context)

Marriage, Parenthood, and Work Theme Icon

Michelle realizes (looking back) that she doesn’t know what her mother might have thought about being a homemaker. Her mother is the caretaker of the home.... (full context)

Michelle explains that her mother’s parenting style is an “unflappable Zen neutrality,” not quick to judge and not quick to... (full context)

...marriage. She takes the steadiness of her parents’ union for granted, but years later, her mother explains that every spring, she thought about leaving Michelle’s father. Michelle understands, as an adult,... (full context)

When Michelle begins high school, her mother goes back to work—a “welcome shift in routine,” but also a financial necessity, given the... (full context)

About once a week, Michelle calls home and tells her mother and father every detail of what’s happening at school. They, in turn, talk about their... (full context)

...money, and she saves money by living in the apartment where she grew up. Her mother and father moved down into Robbie and Terry’s old space after Robbie passed away and... (full context)

After a business trip to D.C., Michelle’s mother picks Michelle up from the airport and she confesses to her mother that she doesn’t... (full context)

...missing a shift at work despite his growing slowness to get ready. Michelle and her mother don’t know what to do—despite his assurances, they can see his exhaustion, weakness, and a... (full context)

...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 stay, he is... (full context)

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

...for no reason. The boy got a talking to, and adults discussed the situation. Michelle’s mother tells her, “that boy was just scared and angry about things that had nothing to... (full context)

...days. After a week, the girls feel comfortable enough to be escorted only by Michelle’s mother, which makes their ride less of a production. Michelle’s mother has come to Washington to... (full context)

Power, Privilege, and Responsibility Theme Icon

...feels like a form of confinement for Michelle. At dinner, they talk about their daughters, Michelle’s mom , and their new dog Bo. After dinner, they attend a show, and when they... (full context)

...in a room where Michelle likes to have tea. No one is hurt, but Michelle’s mother and Sasha were home. For weeks Michelle looks at the crater in the bulletproof glass... (full context)