Allured by the illusion of independence, Citizen originally rejects connection with fictive kin when he violently attempts to push past Eli (Wilson, 8), only seeking out Aunt Ester for a facile solution. What Aunt Ester provides, however, is far from a quick remedy. In fact, she does not give him any remedy at all. By transporting him to the City of Bones, a simulacrum, she and Solly provide Citizen with the tools to create his own solution for his lack of fulfillment. Citizen’s recognition of the power in the collective exemplified by the City of Bones motivates his empathy with and feeling of obligation toward his new family in 1839 Wylie. Citizen’s trust of Aunt Ester and Solly catalyzes his discovery of his power and purpose through its enactment of an ongoing interdependent connection with his fictive kin. 
    Trust serves as the foundation for Citizen's connection to his fictive kin because without belief in Aunt Ester, he has no understanding of his purpose. After Aunt Ester and Solly prepare Citizen for the Citizen of Bones by encouraging him to carry coins and a gold chain link, Citizen verbalizes his consent, exclaiming, “I’m ready” (Wilson, 63). Instead of asking for clarity about the nature of the journey, Citizen blindly agrees, and even shows enthusiasm, despite the good luck tokens’ implication that he will endure impending hardship. He reaffirms his trust for Aunt Ester and Solly when he gives up control of the situation by paradoxically taking action: “Citizen throws down the boat. Immediately a storm comes up… Citizen struggles against the storm to reach the boat” (Wilson, 67). Citizen embraces the inherent value of struggle because he creates a situation in which he has to search for the very item that he originally possesses. His pursuit of the boat represents his desire for connection with fictive kinship not only because the boat invokes the Middle Passage, but also because the distance he needs to traverse between himself and boat represents the struggle to connect with others of the African diaspora across time and space. Because Aunt Ester and Solly mediate this journey of struggle, Citizen’s eagerness to connect with them through the simulacrum highlights the role of trust in identifying his purpose. 
    Citizen’s connection to fictive kin provides him with purpose because his fictive kin paradoxically engenders his recognition of the inherent power of his being. For him to understand Black American fictive kinship, he needs to be stationary and give up his sense of control of the boat and his breath, objects that give the illusion of forward movement: “They all look like me. They all got my face! (Citizen is terror-stricken to the point where he cannot breathe)” (Wilson, 66). While “terror-sticken” is seemingly an adverse reaction, this phrase reveals Citizen’s experience of the sublime, illuminating the sheer force in collectivity. The “point where he cannot breathe” is a symbol of death, but also one of progression; he needs to die before he can be reborn. The explanation point located immediately after “face” amplifies the power of his physical image and the strength of his presence within the City of Bones community. “Face” is an outward display, but because it simultaneously reflects back at Citizen, this image invokes Citizen’s awareness of self and embrace of racial identity; to be Black is not only to be read by others as Black but also to understand oneself through Blackness. It is ironic that one has to work to understand their intrinsic power, but that is because white supremacy has stigmatized Blackness. As a result of both the force of the collective and the work Citizen puts in to connect with this collective, Blackness can act as a source of self-definition and power for Citizen. Reflection, after all, is the most literal form of connection. By recognizing the inherent power of his being,  Citizen discards the illusion of progress in favor of intrinsic power, which gives him a sense of agency and purpose.
    Only by embracing his inherent power does Citizen understand that to achieve success is to enact an ongoing, interdependent connection with Black Americans across time and space. When Caesar threatens to kill Solly, Citizen intuitively feels compelled to support Solly by putting his own life at risk: “I’ll go with you. He gonna have to catch both of us” (Wilson, 76). Whereas Solly sends Citizen off toward the City of Bones, now Citizen expresses agency in returning to Solly. Having discovered his purpose, Citizen’s idea of a destination is not a place, but a person, which represents his reorientation to the world. No longer moving for the sake of filling his own void, he could have gone anywhere, and he chooses to return the favor that Solly gives him. Citizen further demonstrates his understanding that his destiny is bound up with Solly: “Citizen takes off his coat. He puts on Solly’s coat and hat and takes Solly’s stick. He discovers the letter from Solly’s sister in the hat.” (Wilson, 85). While the audience has no idea whether Citizen ultimately succeeds as a member of his fictive kin, this concrete conception of success is besides the point; the ambiguous ending reveals the fundamentally continuous nature of Citizen’s connection to fictive kinship. Just as Solly does not completely die but lives on through Citizen’s enactment of his spirit, Citizen’s journey to contribute to his newfound community can never end. Rather than provide closure, which would emphasize connection as an outcome, Citizen’s action instead marks the middle of his journey, which signifies connection as a process. In short, Citizen’s relationship to others in the African diaspora is not a goal that Citizen can check off of a list. Yet, this does not mean Citizen’s engagement with fictive kin cannot be deep, powerful, and transformative. Through his connection with Solly, Citizen cultivates for himself a toolkit. The “coat” and “hat” represent the cultural resources, such as familial networks and ancestral wisdom, upon which Citizen can now draw to make a lasting impact.
    As Citizen carves for himself his own role into an interdependent community, he finds his family. In doing so, Wilson offers his own answer to a question invoked by scholar W.E.B. Du Bois in his 1903 essay Souls of Black Folk: “How does it feel to be a problem?” While Du Bois offers “seldom a word” to suggest his rejection of the question, Wilson, in his play about this time period, responds to the question by creating a play within a play. This simulacrum is a site where Citizen dismantles his internalized white supremacy and cultivates a vision for his future.