Recitatif By Toni Morrison: A Literary Analysis

Throughout the United States’ history, race and racism has been a prominent part of society and unfortunately may never go away. It is important to address these issues and make them heard and to educate people. In short fiction stories, it is a common theme, especially those authored by African American writers who have had experience in society. In one particular piece of short fiction, “Recitatif”, the author Toni Morrison explores the effect, usually the theme of her stories, of race and racism using the youth during the 1960s and all the way up to the 1980s, mainly by confronting the common act of making assumptions about characters using character traits and historical events. In “Recitatif” the readers are intended to make an assumption

about the characters using the clues given by the author, such as the character’s occupation, the character’s families and how the characters present themselves. There are four characters, two more prominent than the others, who Morrison leaves their skin color out of the story, but allows the reader to distinguish who is who using clues but the clues could go either way and the story is very controversial.
The narrator of the story is Twyla, her last name is not given, she is dropped off at St. Bonny’s a shelter in an unnamed city in New York in the 1960s. Twyla is left by her mother who, she says, “…danced all night...” (Morrison 139), which readers take as her mother is too busy to take care of her and does not care much for her. Mary, her mother does not feed her well and even when she is invited to St. Bonny’s to go to church and have lunch with Twyla, she dresses inappropriately and does not being an adequate lunch, all they eat is the jelly beans from Twyla’s homemade Easter basket. Throughout the story we learn that after her experience at St. Bonny’s Twyla goes on to work at a Howard Johnsons and she has to travel far, “Kind of a long ride from Newburgh, but okay once I got there.” (Morrison 144) from where she lives to get there. Then later we learn she got married to a firefighter named James Benson and has one son and ends up living in Newburgh, New York. Knowing this, readers think that Twyla has gone up in the socioeconomic latter but not by much.
Twyla’s friend who she meets at St. Bonny’s, Roberta, is who Morrison makes very clear is of a different race. Twyla at first does not like it, “… it was something else to be stuck in a strange place with a girl from a whole other race” (Morrison 139), but after they get to know one another, “… for the moment it didn’t matter that we looked like salt and pepper…” (Morrison 140). Roberta comes off as being in a better position than Twyla, the reason Roberta is at St. Bonny’s is because her mother is sick and cannot take care of her and when her mother comes to church and lunch, she is dressed appropriately and is obviously extremely religious and brings Roberta a plethora to eat, enough for her to have leftovers later. Throughout the story, Roberta is off seeing famous people such as Jimi Hendrix and is married to an IBM executive and lives in Annandale, New York along with her husband’s four children, her step children. They have a private driver and shop at the gourmet grocery store and Roberta goes to fancy hotel parties. Twyla is obviously jealous of Roberta and how her life has turned around since St. Bonny’s when she says, “I was dying to know what happened to her, how she got from Jimi Hendrix to Annandale, a neighborhood full of doctors and IBM executives. Easy I thought. Everything is so easy for them. They think they run the world.” (Morrison 147), this quote alone makes the readers think about weather Twyla is white and Roberta is black or vice versa.
Throughout “Recitatif” Morrison travels through the girl’s timeline of life after St.

Bonny’s. There are many encounters between Twyla and Roberta that give clues about who is what race with the use of character traits, but each are very controversial. The first one is when Twyla sees Roberta at Howard Johnsons, where Twyla works. Morrison has Twyla describe Roberta as, “Her own hair was so big and wild… had on a powder-blue hater and shorts outfit and earrings the size of bracelets.” (Morrison 144), and then herself as, “I was standing there with my knees showing out from under that uniform… my hair shapeless in a net, my ankles thick in white oxfords. (Morrison 145). With those two descriptions, in this encounter, readers would assume that because Roberta’s hair is big and wild and Twyla’s shapeless that Twyla is white and Roberta black. The second encounter is outside a Food Emporium and then at a coffee shop, Twyla notices that Roberta, “…her huge hair was sleek now, smooth… Shoes, dress, everything lovely and summery and rich.” (Morrison 146), and then notices she has limousine with a driver waiting outside for her. Twyla reflects on their past encounter, “… twelve years ago, we passed like strangers. A black girl and a white girl meeting in a Howard Johnson’s… having nothing to say… Now we were behaving like sisters separated for much too long.” (Morrison 147) and then when Twyla asks Roberta why she did not interact with her that day at that Howard Johnsons, Roberta

says, “… you know how it was in those days: black—white…” and Twyla responded, “…I didn’t know. I thought it was just the opposite… They roamed together… You got to see everything at Howard Johnson’s and blacks were very friendly with whites in those days.” (Morrison 149). This encounter does not have many race clues, but it does tell readers that Roberta has matured and is moving up in the socioeconomic latter. Their third encounter is during a time when the government is trying to integrate schools by busing children to different schools. There are not many character traits described here except for the fact that Roberta is against her step-kids being bused and Twyla is all for it and does not mind that her son is being sent to another school. In their final encounter readers learn a little bit more about Twyla and Roberta, Twyla is able to send her son away to the State University of New York at New Paltz, but her and her husband have to save money and not have two Christmas trees. Twyla is driving home after finding a tree and decides to stop at a café across the street from the Newburgh Hotel and sees Roberta, “In a silvery evening gown and dark fur coat.” (Morrison 154). During these encounters Morrison gives readers some clues as to who is which race, but nothing is set and ideas go back and forth.
Toni Morrison uses the theme of her stories, of race and racism in “Recitatif” by confronting the common act of making assumptions about characters using character traits and historical events.

Many readers have different opinions about who is which race in my case, I have reason to believe that Roberta is black, on account of her “big hair” and her mother, as Twyla describes her, “…was big. Bigger than any man and her chest was the biggest cross I’d ever seen… And in the crook of her arm was the biggest Bible ever made.” (Morrison 143) and that she wanted nothing to do with Twyla’s mother. This comes from knowing and having stereotypes of African Americans during this time. Twyla is white on account of her hair is shapeless and Twyla not even noticing that race was even an issue, like when she saw everyone as equal when they came to the Howard Johnson’s and meandered around together not seeing the difference. Morrison’s strategy of not ever revealing the race of the girls is important because the girls, when they were younger did not see the difference of their skin color and merely bonded over the fact that they were both dropped off by their neglectful mothers. Later on they face the troubles of being of different races but after many years are still best friends and even refer to themselves as sisters. Morrison leaves it up to the readers to determine who is who using the way she describes their looks and how they act, but also makes the point of that it does not matter

what race you are if you and that person connect on a personal level.