Zami: A New Spelling of My Name Lesson Plan

What kinds of things does Audre say her mother knows? Why do you think she starts with her mother's knowledge?

Much of the first two chapters are dedicated to Lorde’s mother and the early years of their relationship. Lorde takes care to talk about the things her mother knows. Part of this is to describe her mother to the reader. As a child, Lorde understood her mother through her deep knowledge of various things and the way other people treated her. Lorde says, “She knew how to look into people’s faces and tell what they were going to do before they did it. She knew which grapefruit was shaddock and pink, before it ripened, and what to do with the others, which was to...