Twila and Roberta are the two main characters in “Recitatif,” by Toni Morrison, and the author created them beautifully for the purpose for which she wanted to use them. In addition to Twila and Roberta, Maggie also plays a big part in the story, and though we are never directly introduced to her, Morrison tells us about her indirectly. Each of these three characters is unique and important to the story’s plot and purpose. “Recitatif” uses the characters Twyla, Roberta, and Maggie to teach us to see past physical differences.
First, Twyla plays the part of the protagonist in “Recitatif.” When we first meet her she is very judgmental towards her new roommate, Roberta, which is made evident when she says “Roberta sure did. Smell funny, I mean” (Morrison 239). She is shown to be a very static character throughout the story, as her naivety never seems to go away, and she
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On one of the many times the two girls meet up, Roberta explains that Maggie reminded her of her mom, and that she was afraid of becoming like her: “And because she couldn’t talk—well, you know, I thought she was crazy. She’d been brought up in a mental institution like my mother was and like I thought I would be too” (251). Roberta disliked Maggie, not because Maggie had done something wrong to her, but because Maggie represents what she detests. Maggie cannot speak, perhaps in the same way that Twila and Roberta felt unable to talk about their struggles to the other children in the orphanage since their mothers were still alive. Throughout the story they are trying to figure out what happened to Maggie, and they never figure it out. In the same way, as we read the story we are probably trying to figure out who’s the black woman and who’s the white woman, yet we are still left wondering at the end of the