Free Essay About Minding Racial Differences In Toni Morrison's "Recitatif"

Toni Morrison's "Recitatif" is a brilliantly written story that deals with the problems of racial discrimination and how spaces are created between two friends -- Twyla and Roberta -- owing to their respective races. Written during the times where the America was undergoing the African-American Civil Rights Movement, the changes in the psyche of the people and their behaviour is very well brought out within the story. While the author has written brilliantly, one of the key points to notice is the technique where "the author has cleverly avoided assigning any one race to the characters of the story. The author has left for the readers to decide about which character belongs to which race." The paragraphs to follow will assert and argue the few incidences mentioned within the story which might help a reader decide on the race of the characters.
According to me, Twyla is black, while Roberta is white. The reason I reached this conclusion is because of several incidences mentioned within the story which provide proof for the same. The very beginning of the story is where Twyla tells the readers that her mother would have been very angry had she known she was sharing the room with Roberta, a different coloured girl. While this establishes the fact that the two girls are different coloured -- one black and one white, it might bring to a reader's mind the fact that maybe Twyla is white, since her mother, Mary, is warning her against the other race. Twyla tells that her mother had told her that people like Roberta do not wash their hair and smell funny. Kindly note here that the author is careful to not mention which girl belongs to which race. However, simply drops subtle hints here and there so that the reader may form his or her own opinion with regards to the same.
At the point where the two girls have their mothers over to St. Bonny's, the incident when Roberta's mother refuses to shake hands with Twyla's mother establishes the fact that Twyla is a Black and Roberta a white. In those days, racial discrimination was abounded and the whites did not like to be treated as equals to the Blacks. This discrimination went to the height of the level that the whites did not even want to touch the blacks. This might be considered as the first proof provided by the author that might help the reader ascertain the racial identity of the two girls. However, on describing Roberta's mother who is mentioned to be huge and oversized, an image of an African American mother comes to one's mind. In contrast, description of Twyla's mother, Mary, is given as someone who would dance all night long. This image conjures an image of an American mother. But the reaction that Roberta's mother has towards Twyla's mother abhors these images, unless one might consider the fact that the psychological turmoil was ongoing on both the races. Therefore, the Blacks were behaving in a similar fashion as the Whites in that time.
Another incident in the story is the point in timeline when Roberta incidentally bumps into Twyla at the grocery store. Twyla sees Roberta as a rich lady, shopping fancy water. At this point on wondering how Roberta got so rich suddenly, Twyla thinks to herself, "Easy, I thought. Everything is so easy for them. They think they own the world." Her making this very statement enforces again the fact that Twyla is Black and Roberta white.
Further on within the story, while Twyla was thinking about the various times the two friends had crossed paths, she thinks -- "A black girl and a white girl meeting in a Howard Johnson's on the road and having nothing to say. One in a blue and white triangle waitress hat-the other on her way to see, Hendrix." The comparison and the placing of the phrases and situations are such that the inherent races of the characters can be very well deduced. The placement of the situations -- black girl, waitress hat and white girl, on her way to meet Hendricks -- is parallel, thus the conclusions can be made. On the other hand, this might be purely coincidental and a measure to confuse the reader about the true race of the characters.
Another time in the story where the white and Black conflict was highlighted, bring to front also the race of the characters was at the time when the students were being reshuffled to bring more racial equality in the schools. As Twyla drove her kid to another school, she sees Roberta agitating for the racial mixing. On asking why Roberta was doing it, Roberta answers that mothers have the right to decide where her kids would study. As Twyla replies that it doesn’t matter if the kids have to travel a bit afar for schooling, Roberta Reiterates saying that it is a free country. To this, Twyla replies, "Not yet, but it will be." This statement and Roberta's actions again establish the racial identity of the two characters while also working upon the confusion the African American movement created within people and their relationships with each other.
Again within the story as Twyla sat and wondered about Maggie, the kitchen lady in St.Bonny's, she could not recollect whether Maggie was Black or White. However, Roberta's assertion about the fact that Maggie was Black and that Twyla and Roberta had both kicked Maggie and called her names, Twyla could not decide if Maggie was pitch black. Nevertheless, she compares Maggie to her own mother and hence, it is again established that Twyla was a Black.
The incidents mentioned above are simply a few instances of where the author had dropped hints with respect to the race of the characters. The fact is that it is completely at the disposal of the readers to decide which character belong to which race because even if a racial reversal is made, the story would still make sense. Nevertheless, the instances mentioned above have such a strong appraisal for the races as I have mentioned above, that is, Twyla being a Black and Roberta being a White, that one proceeds with the same understanding towards the end. Even in the end, Roberta makes a revelation to Twyla stating that Roberta and her mother were brought up in an institution that wished Roberta could hit Maggie and make her suffer hard. While this statement by itself could have been true even if Roberta was a Black, the point where she mentions that she thought Maggie was Black ensures that any such confusion about Roberta's race is washed away, thereby establishing my point.