The 7 Stages of Grieving: Scene 11: Murri Gets a Dress Summary & Analysis

The Woman delivers a monologue in the style of a stand-up comedy routine. She describes waking up in the morning and, as if for the first time, realizing that she is black. She describes the “special treatment” she receives as a black woman, such as being followed around in department stores and harassed with racial slurs. As the Woman describes a trip to a shopping mall, she recounts the harassment she faces in each location: in the shop, in the elevator, in the parking lot, and even on the road far from the mall when her car breaks down. No one, she says, ever stops to help her when she’s in need. The only times people pay attention to her are when they are suspicious of her.

The Woman describes arriving home at long last after receiving an escort home from “policem[e]n, firem[e]n, army, [and the] fucken UN.” Once the Woman is back from the shopping mall and wearing her “deadly” beautiful new dress, her Auntie admires her new outfit. The Woman goes to sleep that night with the sounds of the sirens of police cars in her ears and the images of police sniffer dogs in her head. The next morning, when she wakes up, she looks in the mirror again and rejoices in the fact that she is still black. “NUNNA,” she shouts, which is the Gamilaraay word for “me.”