Compare And Contrast Twyla And Roberta In Recitatif

Time changes all people. We grow, we learn, and we understand, and then we begin to shrink, forget, and lose who we were. In Recitatif we move through the story with Twyla and Roberta. We follow them from their shared troubled childhood to their melancholy elder years. We observe how they change through the ages and their ages.

The exact year we meet Twyla and Roberta is blurry and vague. It is a time of thick racial divide, as seen by Twyla’s defiance when first seeing she would be sharing a room with a girl of a different skin color. We additionally see that they live in an orphanage, which is now harder to come by with the rise of the foster care system. We also notice it is a time with more ignorance towards disabled people, seeing as

Maggie, the young woman who works in the orphanage, is teased by the children for her strange crooked legs and young style of dress. At the end of the first act we leave the girls in spring, and meet them again in act 2 during the summer of their young adult years. Roberta is smoking in the diner Twyla works at, and is on a road trip to see her idol Jimi Hendrix, who is at the top of his game in the 1960s. Roberta is freer, as are racial lines drawn shown by Hendrix being a leading black man with a majority of white fans. Leading into act 3 we learn that Twyla and Roberta’s lives have stabilized as they’ve grown into married adults with children in a time where stay-at-home mother is the desired “career” option for women. This economic period in the later 1900s reflects off of Roberta and Twyla. Roberta married into a comfortable Upper class life, while Twyla is found straying from her normal small town grocery store that she can afford on her family’s budget. The class divide in this decade is a further driving force hammered in between the women’s relationship with one another, and the strife between them in act 4 is another blow to the stake. Racist and classist barriers are placed within school districts, and protests are born from them. Roberta totes a sign that declares “Mothers have rights too!” Twyla counteracts with a similar sign saying “How would you know?” The two hatefully go in rounds until they are exhausted. Finally, Roberta returns to Twyla’s life in glamour, while Twyla’s family is facing economic burden. They make amends and reflect on the times. They’ve grown stronger through the times from the turmoil they’ve gone through and caused in each other’s lives.

Usually we grow wiser as we age.

Twyla and Roberta carry their childhood innocence and eventually exchange it for a grown life. We are introduced to them at the age of eight, childish, scared, and ashamed. We say goodbye to them in their later years where they have settled into their more stable older adult years. They reflect on their brief connections to each other throughout their lives and attempt to make sense of everything. Twyla grew into maturity first. She worked a miserable diner job for money while Roberta bounces across the country with friends to see a musician. They’re barely out of adolescence and snap at each other for their differences. Roberta dismisses her for her seemingly boring lifestyle and Twyla snaps back about her mother’s health. Their pettiness reflects their young adult age well in this act. In act 3 they transition to mid adult life; with marriage and children. They discuss how they’ve settled down and Roberta has even learned how to read. With filled homes and security in themselves, they have a touching meeting. They talk about the disabled kitchen worker, Maggie, and how one of the “gar girls” pushed her over. Twyla can’t recall this. Roberta assures her that she’s just “blocked it” from her memory. They leave each other on an emotional note and return to each other again in act 4 on a more unpleasant one. They’re older now, and fierce about their children. Roberta advocates for her children, a large and important job for a mother her age. Twyla also advocates for her children, though, in a different way. They pick a fight with one another carried out via protest sign. This war was ignited through a recollection Roberta had about who actually pushed Maggie, who she describes as a black girl: Twyla. The two theories to this is first – Roberta’s mind has twisted the memory as she’s grown older or second – Roberta has enough immaturity left in her that she lied to Twyla to make her feel guilty. In the last act they meet each other once

more as aged adults. Their social maturity shines through as they make amends with each other. We discover that Roberta in fact did lie about Twyla kicking Maggie, and they both make peace with the knowledge between them.

Time shapes what is important to us. Our priorities change as we change. In act one the most important thing to Twyla is fitting in at St. Bonny’s. Her mother embarrasses her during Easter by her display of affection and she feels like she doesn’t belong because she isn’t a real orphan like the other children. Roberta’s priority is seeing her mother and looking nice during the Easter service. Both girls just want to belong to somebody at this age. In the next act, Roberta and Twyla’s priorities become a split path. Roberta is traveling the world and taking charge in her free youth stage, Twyla works at a diner and stays stationary in Newburgh. Roberta now cares more for fitting in with the two men she is traveling with as seen by her dismissal of Twyla when she doesn’t know who her idol, Jimi Hendrix, is. In the third act the women’s priorities cross again.