I am not sure how I messed up that key sentence. The idea is 'I want to find <em>me. </em>I want to find this person that is me--from scratch." He doesn't yet know who he is which is why "can" in the previous sentence is important. He is looking for himself, for his own identity and he finally realizes that he has to do that without reference to any parents or roots. It's probably not a perfect sentence gramatically, but that's what he said: "I want to find this person that is me." I also wonder if "<em>who</em> the roots are" is better  than "<em>where</em> the roots are" considering that he equates roots with his absent parents. Thank you.