The Importance of Race : An Analysis of Recitatif
The story “Recitatif,” by Toni Morrison, challenges the question of whether or not race matters. The story follows the lives of two young girls, one black and one white, that are left in an orphanage by their parents. Twyla, one of the girls, is left there by her mother, who she says is always busy “dancing” (157 Morrison). Roberta, the other girl, always repeats that she is there because her mother is sick. Despite the immediate racial tension, the two establish a relationship of sorts that borders on a true friendship, or at least a mutual understanding. In a similar place from similar circumstances, they differ only by the color of their skin. Morrison makes a point by masking the true race of the two main characters to prove that although race is not important in the context of the story, it has importance to the reader. The reader will use their own stereotypes regarding race to attempt to determine Twyla’s and Roberta’s respective races. Throughout the course of the story, the actual race of either Twyla or Roberta is never clearly revealed or even hinted at to make the point that race is not important in the context of the story. Race is often seen as an obvious characteristic that can be extrapolated from t
he writing by picking up on subtle hints in the story. As the reader reads the story, a guess as to which girl is what race will undoubtedly change in the process. What’s important is that while this is happening, the story is still developing the two characters as they are growing up. One way the two develop a relationship is from their common fear of the older girls there, “They’d light out after us and pull our hair or twist our arms. We were scared of them, Roberta and me, but neither of us wanted the other to know it” (158). Their fear of the big girls also kept them from helping the mute kitchen lady Maggie, “Maggie fell down there once...And the big girls laughed at her. We should have helped her up, I know; but we were scared of those girls with lipstick and eyebrow pencil” (158). Roberta’s and Twyla’s relationship with the big girls and how they deal with Maggie shows that despite the racial tension between them, they still have a mutual friendship due to being stuck in the same situations. The relationship they have doesn’t deny that any racial issues are present, but just that they are not a contributing factor to the personality of the characters themselves. Early on Twyla identifies that racial tension, “-it was something else to be stuck in a strange place with a girl from a whole other race.” (157). She shows that race is a difference between them, but it is still not obvious to the reader which girl is of which race. Not once in the entire text is it ever directly stated what their respective races are, even in the mist of social unrest due to racial issues. What’s most important to recognize is that either character could be labeled black or white without changing the development of the story. The purpose of this racial masking then returns to the individual interp
Some topics in this essay:
Twyla Roberta,
Roberta’s Twyla’s,
Roberta Twyla,
Yoo-Hoo Hot,
Morrison Roberta,
Roberta Bible-free,
Toni Morrison,
Likewise Twyla,
Twyla’s Roberta’s,
black white,
respective races,
twyla roberta,
roberta’s mother,
,
racial tension,
race context story,
main characters,
reader reader,
race twyla,
race context,
context story,
black white story,
depending readers background,
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Approximate Word count = 1224
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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