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Zami

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Zami
Fitting In

In the biomythography, Zami, by Audre Lorde, Lorde uses specific scenes to highlight arguments running throughout the text. The epilogue is Lorde's reflection on her life and emphasizes many of her struggles and ideals about life. Lorde uses this final place in the book to show the reader how her journey throughout life gave her the ability to define a home. This passage emphasizes that Lorde faced many hardships, especially the challenges of self-integration. Lorde, was a minority in every group that she belonged to. Because of this, Lorde had trouble with both fitting in and defining herself; it was not until Lorde became confident in being different that she could find a true home.
The fact that Lorde faces so many hardships throughout the novel, results in her inability to gain self-confidence and therefore integrate. In the beginning of the novel, the reader sees Lorde as a loner; it is not until she meets women who influence her life that she begins to self-integrate. As a child, Lorde does not have many friends. She is isolated and feels that she is very different from those around her. She spends a lot of time with her mother, who she feels does not understand her, or allows her to meet a support network. Lorde's mother's isolation is one example of someone does not understand her lifestyle and therefore cannot giver her support. This is a form of discrimination, and one of the hardships that Audre faced her in adolescence and will continue to face for the rest of her life. It is not until see meets women that can relate to her life style that she feels she become a more complete person: "Recreating in words the women who helped give me substance" (255). As Lorde begins to meet friends and lovers alike she has a support network where she begins to feel as though these women influence her life and therefore give her substance. Lorde even states that these women are somewhat of providers for her: "Their names, selves,

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