Self Expression

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Warren Susman describes it as a shift from the importance of “character” to the importance of “personality” (Ewen, 411). Audrey Lorde incorporated this theory throughout her book “ZAMI a New Spelling of My Name” Lorde takes us on a journey through her life starting with her early childhood years. As a young black girl being raised by a strong, independent homosexual mother living a hetrosexual lifestyle, Lorde shows us how she secretly takes on many of her mother’s characteristics. Audrey Lorde uses her mother’s sexual identity as a foundation in developing her own sense of sexuality while struggling to express herself as a young, homosexual black woman in an extensively critical society.
Audrey Lorde paints a picture throughout this book of how her mother’s sexuality played a major role in allowing her to come to terms with her own sexual identity. Lorde allows us to see that her mother lead a hetrosexual lifestyle only ...

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are you doing getting yourself involved with so much foolishness? …What-the-france do you need with election?…Don’t bother me with that nonsense. I don’t want to hear any more of it” (Lorde, 61). This is just one example of how Lorde’s mother controlled and dominated her every decision. By putting negative ideas in to her head, her mother was basically able to brainwash her in to becoming exactly like her in many ways. I feel this happened because her mother never allowed her to grow as her own individual person. Her thoughts and ideas were all molded in the shape of her mothers. This is a perfect example of Ewen’s theory: “the old ...

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