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Fatima The Biloquirst A Transformation Sparknotes

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How do we accept that we have multiple identities and that they must coexist in order to be our true selves? In the story "Fatima the Biloquirst: A Transformation" by Nafissa Thompson Spires, Fatimia goes on a journey, learning that no matter how hard we try to keep our two identities separate, nature will always lead them back together. Since Fatima doesn't feel accepted by either world, how do we learn to accept both of our identities and let them coexist in order to be our true selves? In this essay, I will prove that the coexistence of our identities is the most important. Fatima has to balance her white identity, which she is constantly surrounded by. Fatima is black but lives in a predominantly black area. Due to this, she feels that …show more content…

Her whole life, Fatima wanted to stay in her white world and not be part of her black culture. Now she feels that she needs to learn about her other world since she doesn't fit in or feel accepted in the white world. After spending more time with Violet, "Fatima absorbed the sociocultural knowledge she’d missed, not through osmosis or through more relevant literature, but through committed, structured ethnographic study" (Spires). If we choose to ignore one of our worlds, we still feel left out since it’s part of us. Our cultural identity cannot be one-sided and authentic. If we only focus on what is "socially acceptable," we will forever be miserable. Two worlds can only stay separated for so long until nature puts them together since they must coexist. Our two worlds cannot be separated from one another. The world relies on our personalities to exist as one and express everyone's uniqueness. For Fatima, it was her lip that tore her apart. "The thing about the brown lip and the pink lower one Fatima had learned after moving between Violet’s guidance and her school life was that you could either read them as two souls trying to merge into a better self, or you could hide them under makeup and talk with whichever lip was convenient for the occasion." (Spires). For Fatima, one lip was always in control while the other was a facade, putting on a mask for society. Fatima covered her dark lip since she felt like people judged her

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