Recitatif Toni Morrison Analysis

Without thinking twice race is often something most people use to identify and classify individuals by. In the short story, “Recitatif,” Toni Morrison provides us with evidence of how we unconsciously use race to identity, define, and categorize individuals, showing how prevalent the use of stereotypes are in a society. She uses different ambiguous encounters between the two characters of different race to convey her purpose. Her goal was to force the reader to stop and think about what truly defines someone in the end giving them a new perceptive on why judging an individual based upon stereotypical standards in usually incorrect. By Morrison making this conscious decision not to disclose which character was which race, she calls attention

to the issue that race does shape perception and is not an accurate way to classify someone.

There’s many different things that are used to classify people for example, education. A simple thing like education can tell a person a great amount of information about an individual. Morrison fails to mention race, but subtly drops class codes about education when explaining why Twyla and Roberta get alone so well. The author reveals this relationship through the personal narrative of eight year old Twyla, “We were eight years old and got F’s all the time. Me because I couldn’t remember what I read or what the teacher said. And Roberta because she couldn’t read at all and didn’t even listen to the teacher” (Morrison 132). Their education level is one of the first things the reader discovers about the girls. Morrison placed this piece of information there to immediately shape the way the reader thinks of each character. The author mentioned education because education and race are often linked

together. The two are often linked together because African Americans were once in time associated with not being educated and Caucasian were well educated. African American were typically less educated because they were lower class and didn’t have the resources meanwhile Caucasian were in the upper call and had the needed resources to be well educated. According to the class code given by Morrison the reader is to assume without thinking twice that Roberta is African American and Twyla is Caucasian. Morrison is slowly letting the reader come to their own conclusion and also gives the reader a chance to ponder on how exactly this conclusion defines them as a person. Allowing the reader to evaluate their conclusion gives them insight to the fact that they have a judgmental side and use stereotypes to define people which is inconsiderate.
As the first encounter continues and Morrison reveals more class codes that cause the reader to begin to reconsider their assumptions previously made, which is one of her goals. The altercation between their mothers reveals information about what race they could be. Before the reader comes across this they assume they Twyla is Caucasian and Roberta is African American based on education but after this altercation in the story Morrison wants the reader to question their conclusion. There’s many different ways the reader could interpret this situation. The way Morrison intended it to be seen was that the reason why Roberta’s mom rejected the hand shake was based upon Mary’s race. A simple rejected hand shake contains a countless amount of possible interpretations which allow the reader to come to this assumption. Morrison brings culture into this situation to call attention to the fact that culture plays an important role in how we perceive the little things in life. The action of combining culture and class codes, Morrison gave the reader an open opportunity to question how they came to an irrational conclusion based on another irreverent fact.
Years later, after Roberta and Twyla left the orphanage Twyla worked at the Howard Johnson’s Diner.

During Twyla’s shift one day she spots Roberta sitting in a booth with big wild hair, a powdered blue halter top, shorts, earrings the size of bracelets, a great amount of makeup while sitting next to two men (Morrison 136). Morrison picked this particular scene to purposely change the reader’s previous assumptions about the two characters that were formed after reading the first encounter. She paints Twyla as lower/working class by showing that in order for her to survive and make a living she had to work. This class code is perceived as lower class and the majority of people often associate this with African Americans. Meanwhile, Roberta was painted as an upper class member without any worries based upon her appearance, her attitude, and the fact that she was traveling to follow Jimi Hendrix. This description is supposed to cause the reader to immediately link Roberta with upper class which typically is associated with Caucasian. In this particular encounter Morrison chooses to paint Twyla and Roberta in the opposite light of what she painted them in during the first encounter. The purpose of presenting them at a different angle was to achieve a shift in the reader’s belief and show that often times you can’t jump to conclusions because they are not always necessarily

true.
Later in the future another encounter occurs. In encounter three fully grown-up Twyla and Roberta take a trip to the newly built grocery store on the same day. According to the information provide Twyla is married to a firefighter and living in a neighborhood where half of the population is on welfare is also provided. On the other hand the reader is provided with the information that Roberta makes an appearance in the grocery store with diamonds on her hand and dressed to kill in a smart white summer dress and married to an IBM executive that lives in a rich beautiful suburb (Morrison 138-139). This portion of information is relevant because Morrison’s goal isn’t to change the reader’s perception of the characters. The stereotypes are enforced throughout this part of the story because she is showing the reader that once you have your mind set on something it is hard to switch your beliefs or assumption even if they are irrational. Lastly, the first person narrative also plays a significant part in how each character is perceived. Morrison deliberately makes Twyla explain Roberta in the way that she does so that the reader will see her as a rich high maintenance person and feel sympathy towards Twyla. Doing this allows the reader to have an understandable perceptive of how a middle/lower class individual views an upper class member.
In the end the reader can’t for sure tell which character is which race because the class clues overlap, but they have a general assumption of which character is which race. Although the reader is positive by the end of the story on how the author wanted them to perceive Twyla and Roberta there’s still an unanswered question. Morrison purposely leaves the question of how exactly did they come to this conclusion in the air for the reader to consider. This question leaves the reader to think, is there a little racism in everyone. The story Recitatif proves that we have a set mind on how we perceive things without any effort. She opened our eyes to the fact that different races are stigmatized by having a set stereotype and that you can’t judge a person or situation without the whole picture.