Friendship Exposed In Recitatif By Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison is a famous American author who used to write about racial segregation in the United States. In this perspective, she wrote "Recitatif". In this short story, she talked about the particular story of Twyla and Roberta, two girls from different racial origins. She shown that their friendship faced many rebounds depending on their age and the place they were. The goal of this essay is to analyze their friendship during each period of their lives. The first part will discuss about their relationship when they first met at the orphanage. The second part will be about their meeting at the Howard Johnson's restaurant. The third one will look at their meeting at the new shopping mall. Then, on the picket lines and the last time they met

There, Twyla did not want to get along with the other girl. In fact, when "the big bozo" introduced them each other, she said "My mother won't like you putting me in here." (Morrison, 1983, p1). With those words she meant that she did not want to share the room with Roberta. She used very aggressive words toward her like "The minute I walked in and the Big Bozo introduced us, I got sick to my stomach" (Morrison, 1983, p1) or even "If Roberta had laughed I would have killed her" (Morrison, 1983, p1). The main raison that she did not want to share the room with her was because she is "a girl from a whole other race" (Morrison, 1983, p1). At this time, there was a particular conflict between people for different races, more precisely black and white peoples. That is why Twyla judged her without even knowing more about her personality. Twyla's mother also told her bad things about people from Roberta's race. But after spending sometimes together, they were closer because they had similarities. In reality, they were the only girls having bad grades, they had their parents alive, and they were afraid from the "gar-girls" living on the "second floor". Their relationship remained safe at the shelter until Roberta