Zami: A New Spelling of My Name

Audre’s family hears about Pearl Harbor from their father, who comes home and goes straight to the radio to listen. Her sisters are upset that their radio programs have been cancelled, and Linda checks on her sugar and coffee stores. Audre knows that something “real and terrible had happened from the smell in the living-room air” (53). Audre listens intently to the dramatic tales of death and destruction, and her parents are too distracted to notice her listening.

Later, after school, students are given bone discs with their information, including blood type, for them to wear at all times. The nuns tell them to pray that they will not be sent away to the countryside, like the English schoolchildren have been, but Audre hopes she will. They pray for the soldiers and starving children of Europe. They practice how to run safely during air-raid drills, and Audre is “impressed with the seriousness of it all” (54).

The mothers are asked to come to school to watch the skies for planes, which noone knew was a real threat due to media censorship. Audre feels proud of her mother when Linda comes to watch for enemy planes, as well as proud of her own silence, which she feels is patriotic.