Zami: A New Spelling of My Name

Audre is the author and narrator of the novel. She is a black woman and the youngest daughter ofWest Indian immigrants. Lorde grows up in New York City. Audre’s life is very sheltered from the beginning; her mother teaches her not to trust strangers, especially white people, and does not allow for her to play outside. In fact, her mother does not really allow for Audre to have any friends whatsoever, and so she grows up incredibly lonely, jealous of her two sisters for their presumed bond. Growing up in isolation from the outside world, Audre becomes obsessed with differences, both in her own perceived difference from other people and other people’s differences from her: “I had grown up in such an isolated world that it was hard for me to recognize difference as anything other than a threat, because it usually was” (81). Although she believes that it is she who is different, Audre believes that this difference represents a threat; that is, that the outside world is openly hostile to her. Of course, as a black lesbian growing up in the 1950s, this is not an unfair assumption. However, instead of placing the blame on the systemic injustices of American society, Audre believes that she is at fault because she is different.