Chapters 10 - 12 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 10

Chapter 10 describes Audre's visit to DC, and about her first experiences with segregation. She becomes conscious of American racism for the first time. The nuns discover she cannot stay in the same hotel as the white girls. Her parents are so angry that they decide to take her to DC themselves. But even then Audre felt alienated from her country's political institutions and history.

Chapter 11

Audre explains how much she learned to love pounding spices and cooking and the beauty of her mother's mortar. She describes her mother as hating to make souse, but Audre loved to make souse because it gave her the chance to pound Garlic. She uses the story to transition into describing her years in Hunted High School. At 15, she had just finished her first year and decides to read some books about menstruation...