In Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, the main character, Lee Fiora, decides to go to the north eastern boarding high school called Ault. Though once an outgoing person when she lived at home, Lee begins closing up at Ault. As a result, Lee finds herself living in two worlds: her old life at home and her new one at school. However, she doesn’t adjust herself to either. Because Lee feels she is living in two worlds, she does not let herself fit into either of them, separating herself from both of them.
Lee notices herself changing from how she was at home to how she is at Ault. In reflection, Lee reveals how she acts before Ault. For example, in sixth grade she enters a pie eating contest where she eats “...using no hands,” throws up immediately
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On the one hand, when at Ault, Lee often secludes herself from her classmates on the premise of her background and home identity. When speaking to Dave, she thinks he has mistaken her for “...one of the true Ault students,” showing Lee to not consider herself to really be a member of the Ault community (235). Moreover, Lee feels particularly attached to her parents when she is talking to other Ault students. Despite sometimes not getting along with her own parents, Lee thinks that Nick should feel guilty for expressing happiness that his parents are not visiting him. By doing so, Lee distances herself from her peers in the conversation by suddenly considering “...it betrayal to insult people [she is] close to,” such as her family, to other Ault students (169). On the other hand, Lee separates herself from her family because of her Ault identity. For example, it was once Lee realized that her parents “...would not belong” at Ault that she recognized herself to be a “...part of Ault’s universe of privilege,” someone who “...spoke its language now” and “...knew its secret handshake” despite the distance she often put between herself and Ault (175). Here, Lee feels her belonging at Ault hit its peak suddenly when when her parents visit her at Ault. By caring about her home identity solely when she is comparing herself to other Ault students, Lee does not let herself accept into her Ault