Recitatif Thesis

“Recitatif,” written by Toni Morrison, is a short story about Twyla and Roberta, two girls who are described as Black and White, and their lives as they cross paths over the years. Although readers are told that the two girls are of different races, Morrison makes a point of never specifying which girl is which race. They first meet at St. Bonaventure, an orphanage where they are roomed together, and during their time there, they discover the many differences between them. As they grow up and reconnect over the years, they realize that there is a distinct line that separates them, but the author leaves it up to the audience to interpret what creates the line. Maggie, the mute, disabled woman who the girls saw while at the orphanage, is also

The girls first meet at the orphanage when they are eight years old and Twyla expresses that she does not want to be in the same room as Roberta, “...it was something else to be stuck in a strange place with a girl from a whole other race…‘My mother won’t like you putting me in here’” (Morrison 102). Based on the time period, and the known discrimination that has been placed on African Americans, it can be assumed that Twyla is White and Roberta is Black. Later in the story, however, it is Roberta’s mother who does not want to shake hands with Twyla’s mother, which could make readers assume that Roberta is White and Roberta’s mother sees Twyla’s mother as inferior. It can be left to the audience to interpret each girl’s race, “Morrison challenges the ways writers rely on stereotypical racial codes to describe their characters, compelling readers to interrogate their own suppositions about racial signifiers” (Benjamin 1). By leaving out the race of each girl, Morrison leaves a lot of room for the audience to evaluate. Common stereotypes that would have been used at that time to discriminate against African Americans are not easily applied to this story because they could characterize Twyla or Roberta depending on the part of the story being analyzed. Therefore, the conflicting clues about the girls’ races cause the audience to form their own assumptions and prejudices about race, strengthening the author’s