Zami: A New Spelling of My Name Essay Questions

How does Lorde's upbringing contribute to her early feelings of isolation?

As an infant, Lorde was declared "legally blind"; although she was not completely blind she nonetheless could not see well. This was an isolating experience in and of itself because it meant that she could not see what was going on around her, and it also delayed her sensory development because none of her family went the extra mile to include her—in fact, quite the opposite. There was much discipline meted out in Lorde's family, but there does not seem to have been much emotion or affection. Lorde's sisters were extremely close to each other but not close to her at all. They seemed to go to great pains to exclude her from their own bond, and consequently this meant that Lorde did not ever really get to know them, or they her. Lorde knew that if she wanted a family she would have to make her own, which is why she cultivated deep and meaningful relationships with other women, whether they were friends or lovers.

Why is Lorde surprised when she and her family are not able to eat ice cream at the ice cream parlor counter on their trip to Washington D.C.?

One would imagine that Lorde witnessed racism all around her every day in the city. After all, she saw her mother lose her job because of her ethnicity and she knew their landlord killed himself because he was so ashamed of having rented his property to a Black family. However, Lorde didn't comprehend any of this because her mother shielded her from the reality of their situation. Lorde's mother wanted her to feel powerful, and to feel that she could be anything she wanted in her life; she wanted to instill in her daughter that the only person stopping her from achieving her goals would be herself. Had she allowed Lorde to see the limits that racism put on a young Black woman this teaching would have been pointless, so for that reason she hid racism from Lorde, explaining situations as something else entirely. This is why Lorde was so surprised to experience racism in Washington; she had not realized that it existed to that extent.

Why does Lorde and Muriel's relationship not work out?

Lorde and Muriel love each other intensely, but there are several signs even in the beginning that their relationship may be doomed. First, Muriel had experienced bouts of mental illness that had a lasting effect; in particular, she was paralyzed with fear of being rejected for a job, so she could never bring herself to apply for one. This meant Lorde had to take care of them both, which was expensive, and that they were not on the same page in life, which was something Muriel noted in her New Year's journal entry. Second, Muriel seemed much more interested in a non-exclusive sexual relationship than Lorde, and also did not respect Lorde enough to stop herself from sleeping with Jill. Third, Muriel was white, and could not reach that part of Lorde that experienced the world differently because she was Black. And finally, and perhaps most importantly, Lorde knew that "Each one of us had been starved for love for so long that love, once found, was all-powerful" (209). They wanted to believe love could really conquer all, that it was all they needed, that it was powerful enough. Unfortunately this was not true, and all of the other issues began to show the limitations of that love.

How is Zami a "quilted discourse," according to Heather Russell?

Quilting is a traditional artistic medium of Black women as well as an art form that requires the stitching together of disparate pieces to make a harmonious whole. Critic Heather Russell sees Zami, with its collage-like amalgamation, as similar to quilting: "Lorde’s aesthetics quilts together stories, myths, history, memory, and the imagination. Such womanist stitching works creatively to capture complexities and multivalences attending black female subjectivity..." Her narrative is not designed teleologically; it does not build toward one seminal moment. Rather, it is a continual process of "becoming," with every stage equally important. She interrupts chronology, which "[forces] readers to experience viscerally the abrupt halt of readerly linearity." Just like a quilt, every section is in dialogue with every other section, and there is no hierarchy.

What is the importance of the "angelic orchestration" Lorde hears on the bus?

Lorde steps onto a bus and has an auditory experience—a choir of angels "singing the last chorus of an old spiritual of hope" (238). She wrote that it "felt rich with hope and a promise of life—more importantly, a new way beyond the pain" (239). She then felt like she "suddenly stood upon a hill of an unknown country, hearing the sky fill with a new spelling of my own name" (239). Thus, there is both the sense that she is strong enough to move on from Muriel, as the song is one of rebirth and renewal and power, and that she knows who she is becoming—Zami. Anh Hua writes that the incident on the bus is one where "Lorde incorporates the merging of Afro-Caribbean spiritual culture and black women’s sexuality and historical memory...Here Lorde draws on and rewrites the black gospel tradition to depict the erotic embodied memory of Zami, the name for a new lesbian collective memory and history, a new spelling of her name. Individual and collective memories then break into a spiritual song that lifts the spirit outside the body to arrive at a new wholeness, inspiration, and sacred embodied activism. Here Lorde reminds us to make a deep connection among the female erotic, the female sublime, and spiritual forces of unification, as a site for healing and a search for selfhood, acceptance, and wholeness. Witnessing the presence of a spiritual song, whether when one hears it, creates it, or imagines it, allows the spiritual self to take wings beyond the ordinary space to extraordinary moments of hope and hopefulness."