Unlike the other "state kids" in the shelter, they don't have "beautiful dead parents in the sky." This sense of an impossible-to-cross racial divide inhibits Twyla and Roberta’s friendship throughout the whole story. Twyla's husband, whom she describes as "as comfortable as a house slipper." Joseph. F. Throughout the story of Recitatif race division is a common theme. Works Cited. In the final words of Recitatif, “Oh shit, Twyla. “Recitatif.” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Twyla doesn't recall either of those things but Roberta insists it is true. He is very wealthy and is involved with computers. However, the author, Toni Morrison, leaves the race of the two main characters, Twyla and Roberta, completely hidden. They respect each other's privacy and don't pry. He is a fireman and comes from a large family, and he and Twyla have two children. Instead, they've been "dumped" -- Twyla because her mother "dances all night" and Roberta because her mother is sick. He has four children from a past marriage. Earlier, Roberta was angry and told Twyla that Maggie was black and helpless, and that Twyla kicked her. This inability to remember Maggie’s race parallels the racial ambiguity of Twyla and Roberta, and serves as one of the major morals of the story, which is that oppression, whether it be race or gender, is the ultimate underlying issue. Our narrator Twyla remembers being hostile and wanting to attack Maggie, and sees the big girls do it. Vol. That made me think of a white person refusing to shake a black person’s hand. Neither does well in school. He’s a widower”. However, this confession sheds light on the previous events in the story. Both Roberta and Twyla have been abandoned by the mothers and do not belong to a family. Morrison, Toni. 31). You kicked a black lady and you have … I had already decided, though, that Roberta’s mother was black, so it was confusing to have this doubt. In the beginning of “Recitatif” the author gives a hint, a very misleading one, that Roberta is the one who is black. In an earlier meeting between the two characters, Roberta states that the kids aren’t hers, “Step kids. At the same time, the orphans do not accept the girls because they are not true orphans since their parents are still living. Through Roberta’s claims, Twyla began to believe what Roberta believed, showing how easily influenced she was throughout the story. Twyla tries to tell her that they were just kids, and that's what kids did. Twyla and Roberta have been disowned in every aspect but have no outlet to express their pain. Twyla says that her mother told her … Roberta's husband. Twyla admits that she doesn’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing and only gets involved with the protesting to spite Roberta. Kenneth Norton. Therefore they both have a disconnect with their children’s lives. In “The Space that Race Creates: An Interstitial Analysis of Toni Morrison ’s ‘Recitatif’, Benjamin asserts that, “Roberta’s counterpoint … encourages Twyla… Shit, shit, shit. When Roberta’s mother meets Twyla’s mother, she refuses to shake Twyla’s mother’s hand (par. Roberta who has gone back to St Bonny’s several times says, “You kicked a poor old black lady when she was down on the ground. III ed. But she and Roberta, it turns out, has a lot in common. After having her readers conclude the race of Twyla and Roberta, Morrison allows her readers to rethink their racial conclusions by using Maggie to destroy the racial constructs that they have developed from racial stereotypes and signs.
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