Book Summary- Becoming

Ramya Raghavan

Published in

Writers Guild

9 min readApr 14, 2019

Me. Us. More

Title: Becoming

ISBN: 9781524763138

Author: Michelle Obama

The event of a transition from the civilian life to a first lady’s life experience is the eliciting stimulus for Michelle Obama to write an autobiography. According to the book, becoming, belonging is the quintessential American dream and also the tone of her memoir. Cleaved into three different timeframes of Michelle’s life, the book cascades through stages of life, introducing characters, milieus that led to her “Becoming”.

Me

Her childhood weaves into a very modest, south side, Chicago upbringing. A precinct residential belonged, to mostly black working-class families. These families were housed there to ease the post World War II housing shortage. Over the years, the place deteriorated due to the grind of poverty and gang violence. It also led to the community deprived of proper education and equal job opportunities. Michelle grew up with her terminally ill but high-spirited father, a “free-range” mother and an endearing brother(picture below). Their immediate families lived in the same neighbourhood. Michelle like any child goes through a rigmorale of schooling, music lessons amidst parents who put their children forefront. She belonged to an age where the previous generation had grave concerns about inclusiveness and racial discrimination. Her dad worked as a city water plant employee, and her mom took care of the kids up until Michelle entered high school.

While Michelle describes that she took the union of her parents unassumingly for granted and highlights that even marriages can be a vexation unless enough efforts are made to keep them alive. It also reflects on how Michelle will treat her marriage with Barack Obama much later in the book.

Michelle’s childhood in the book doesn’t overtly cast an opinion on the subjugation or the tyranny of the black community. It is only an undertone. Michelle, as a part of selective enrollment initiative, happened to be one the few privileged in her society to have gone to Whitney Young(Magnet school) which almost becomes the tipping point of her life sowing a seed to most rewarding experiences that she would experience much later in her life. She followed the suit of her brother to study Sociology from Princeton University and there on Law from Harvard Law School.

On the contrary to her childhood, stepping into adulthood, Michelle seemed to be caught in cross currents. She always had to prove the entrenched societal attitude wrong. It pushed her to fight her own battles. She were present there because of merit and not because of her belonging to certain social strata. She ardently followed her studies, and the financial aid package in schools required her to take up a work-study job. She did odd jobs from being an office assistant to babysitting the staffers’ children after school.

The education from such institutes paved the way for her to get a comfortable job in a law firm Sidley & Austin in Chicago. It helped her stay with her parents in the same home, and this was also the phase where Michelle Obama endures the loss of her loved ones.

Us

Michelle and Barack’s encounter is not something like the one you would expect out of a Mills & Boon. Michelle felt secure about the relationship more because he was affectionate. She comes from a very similar upbringing felt drawn to Barack’s ways of expressing love. The Obamas are a man and a woman of God, and they had a ceremonious Church Wedding. Obama, as Michelle explains, seemed to be a “Unicorn”. He was devoid of any affinity to material things and instead loved being swarmed by books ploughing through history and biographies. Barack willingly accepted Michelle’s passions and voice. He was someone who could handle his woman have her dreams, being successful. Marriage to him was a union of individuals who had separate ideas and conquering those dint come at the expense of the wedding itself.

Michelle was often confused and had revelations that fancy academia never guaranteed a fulfilling work. Barack stood by her like a rock and bolstering up when it was the most required. This timeframe is when Valerie Jarrett makes a foray into her life. Valerie over the years becomes a trusted friend to the Obama couple. Leaving the safest and well-paid job at Sidley & Austin, Michelle holds a position at the Mayor’s office and over the years serves several non-profit organisations. Michelle’s calling indeed was in the community services, and this comes from the hardships that she faced in the growing up years and the community she lived.

Michelle spearheaded initiatives like widening the horizon for young people to think about careers. What stood out exemplarily was Michelle just dint preach about inclusiveness but also went ahead in equalising opportunities for meritorious people from weaker socio-economical strata.

As a couple, Obamas are highly goal-driven with Barack wanting to be active in politics, Michelle giving back to society. Amidst, hustles Obamas plan to start a family. Barack is setting strong foot into politics succeeding the earlier Democratic Illinois State Senator. It was galore of reforms during this period right from health care, an increase in childcare subsidies which were widely appreciated and welcomed. His first and the following stints as State senator had a compounding effect during his Presidential run.

In the meantime, they welcomed their first child Malia a doe-eyed baby into their lives with Michelle’s career taking a back seat. Barack Obama re-elected to the state Senate, and this time he was more popular, plate spinner for the Democratic Party. The opportunity for running the presidential elections was also dangling around this time.

A low blow for Barack’s political rove, was around the time the Obama’s were welcoming the millennium in Hawaii at Barack’s ancestral home. The holiday seemed a perfect way to unwind. In the meantime, the “World Wide Web” was going berserk with buggy networks unable to register the new millennium. Back in his state, the most anticipated “crime bill” failed to pass the state legislature losing by five votes. Barack earned brickbats for choosing to stay back in “Hawaii” during the electoral poll as Malia was down with the terrible flu. He perhaps was a doting father who put his daddy responsibilities over everything else.

The next notable event in Obamas family was Sasha, their second daughter. Michelle Obama is the woman of dreams, wanted a full-time job with a competitive salary. Her salary not tied to raising her workability quotient in the market. It was going to help them afford childcare and housekeeping help and be able to spend more time nurturing her girls. Barack’s political conquest brazenly took a toll on their lives as a family. It resulted in the couple resorting to counselling, and it was a revelation for both parties.

This is indeed a good take away for anyone who is married, how “not to” tie all one’s happiness to their partner’s existence alone. As if to be married is the only existential and sole purpose of one’s being. This was her pivot point, she devoted more time to taking care of mental well being, her needs and her body. And inturn this led to the Obamas “becoming us” in the true sense.

While Barack’s senate run was unanimous most due to his opponent was conservative Republican who clearly wouldn’t win the support of his party. The most defining moment of all his political speeches is his Keynote address in the Democratic National Convention for, John Kerry.

It was a game-changer more so, looking back what made the Obamas what they were? Was it because they are the first black family to have inhabited the white house? There was never a morsel of conceit and insincerity in his and Michelle’s hyperbolic speeches.

Their life changed; being surrounded by paparazzi became the new normal for Barack. Media, people and the political pundits all are vaulted over the one question “Would Barack run for President in 2008”? The family was not quite prepared to handle this transition. As running for elections would disrupt their lives for a good two years which means that it was a family affair. Around the same time, Barack’s book (The_Audacity_of_Hope) published in 2006 was making waves, and Michelle also quotes in the book when she quizzed Barack on how to make funds for the campaign, “I will write another book”. He was an embodiment of optimism and had the audacity of hope, just like the book he wrote.

Life wasn’t easy for the Obamas; they had an airport life during the campaign days running from coast to coast. Their staffers engaged in community activities and encouraging people to vote. The grounds weren’t new to Michelle as part of several community initiatives that she spearheaded going pillar to post urging people to vote was one that stood out. This timeframe interlaces in bringing out difficulties that they had from campaign blows to Michelle seen as aggressive. It was also around this time that Michelle’s mom moved with them to be closer to the girls. Little did she know that this move was not temporary and long babysitting hours would transition into days.

During the big day, as it turned out by the pundits, Barack won the elections by huge margins. It is a historic feat like Michelle stated much later in a speech, how proud she felt to be in a home which was built by the slaves(her community), her beautiful black daughters waving to their dad who is the coveted president of the United States of America. The first-ever black family in the white house.

It was a whirlwind for the Obamas and Michelle also mentions that it took a while for them to understand the magnitude of the position. It was not just a transition for Barack but the whole family itself. The nine years saw the right uplifting moments for the USA. During the inauguration of Barack, the country was going through “Great Depression”, soldiers losing lives in the war in Iraq. Barack’s manifesto included bringing back military forces from overseas and thereby reducing the lives lost. On the other hand, Michelle was beautifully transitioning into the role of the First lady with poise and elegance. Clothes, choice of words everything caught attention in the media and anywhere she went.

The White House became more accessible for people from all walks of life. They opened up the White House garden to cultivate vegetables and encouraging people to garden and consume more home produce. Reduced war casualties, the hospitals saw a reduced number of cases. — the post-war care and assistance to people in helping them find jobs.

They indeed broke traditions and never really worried about doing things that the other first families would think as violating the dignity and reverence of the office.

Indeed they are the first of firsts family in every sense, to have made the transition with grace and dignity with the ideals and their composure intact in the White House. Their term had made progress to a vast majority of the Americans and was confident that any new presidential rule wouldn’t negate the progress made so far.

The Obamas left an endearing legacy that the highest office like the White House could be accessible to an ordinary American. It is a dream that anyone can become the President of the United States and the Obamas’ just gave a face to it :-)

Some videos to watch,

Barack at the White House correspondent dinner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxFkEj7KPC0

An emotional speech by Michelle, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc5v97_sPR

Some key events in Michelle Obama’s life are represented well in this link, https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/the-life-of-michelle-obama--4