Hawaii as imagery
For the Obama family, Hawaii presents imagery with two obvious facets: education and nature. Both play in integral role in the development of Barack's personality and point of view. For instance, his parents met while studying on the islands, and even when their educations are over, after Barack's father had left the family and returned to Kenya, still Hawaii is an imagery of nature and education braided together. Obama, while living with his grandparents, attends a prestigious local school in Hawaii, for example.
Fatherless-ness
Although Barack Obama honors his father's legacy, he mourns the experience of childhood that fatherless-ness left him with. In many ways, the absence of the father is an imagery that keeps on giving, unfortunately. Even after he has grown up, he explains that the influence of abandonment issues and fatherless-ness changed his psychology. In the end, this is a major source of his power, because the psychological crises of fatherless-ness push Obama to a breaking point where he must either accept his fate and strive for more, or succumb to the frustration he feels.
Recreation and drugs
Before long, Barack is doing drugs. Having long been removed from his mother and step-father, first by their relocation to Indonesia, and then by life's natural path away from the home and into a life of his own, Barack realizes that he is free to be his own master. This freedom comes with a season of experimentation. He reports that alcohol became a quick vice for him, and he admits to some drug usage in a collegiate party scene. The drugs and alcohol became such an important part of his daily life that he ended up leaving that institution to retry his education at Columbia.
Construction and growth
The imagery of tearing down defines the first part of the book. His family is torn down. He tears himself down with discipline to see what he can become. He is undone by temptations and vice. Then, a season of construction and growth follow. He decides to invest himself in the betterment of Chicago. The facets of this project are gang violence, paranoia in the community, and a lack of opportunity among the youth. This is the beginning of his political career, and he explains that by rooting himself in a religious community, he has the support and consistency to help his neighborhood to grow.
