"Recitatif" by Toni Morrison - Reading Response to my own questions

Insoo Cho
Prof. Raquel Corona
English 102

Question: What caused Twyla & Roberta to have such contrasting memory of what had really happened to Maggie? How does setting affect the plot of a story?

In the story author portraits the conflict formed by segregation and stereotyping – generalization between Black and White during 1960’s through an interracial friendship and the conflict between Twyla and Roberta. Throughout the story the author repeatedly throws hints of the background and the race of two main characters and also adds a tool, the memory error, to lead the readers to build their case on it. And by leaving an open ended conclusion the author enforces the reader to draw a conclusion upon their opinion, cleverly forcing the readers to reflect their own perspective and generalization to ratiocinate the race of two main characters of the story.

The story is about two main characters, Twyla and Roberta, who are sent to a shelter for orphans called St. Bonny for both different reasons. From the beginning of the story, where two met, the author clearly specifies their racial differences. However, story explains, although they were racially different like “salt and pepper” and had different backgrounds, “my mother dance all night and Roberta’s was sick”, they were able to get along well due to their common adversaries, the “gar girls” and the “real orphans with beautiful dead parents.” Their eight-year old society was them against their adversaries.

The issues from their racial differences begin to surface as they are separated and placed back into a real world. When the society forced to turn against one another, the conflict between them emerged.  Their conflict is very well presented throughout the progresses of story where the main characters thoughts and attitudes towards each other changes upon their situation and circumstances.

"Were you on dope or what that time at Howard Johnson's?" I tried to make my voice sound friendlier than I felt."

“Maybe, a little. I never did drugs much. Why?"

"I don't know; you acted sort of like you didn't want to know me then."

"Oh, Twyla, you know how it was in those days: black-white. You know how everything was." (135)

And the contracting memory of Meggie represents the way their relationship evolved with the society.

"Maggie didn't fall," she said."

Yes, she did. You remember."

"No, Twyla. They knocked her down. Those girls pushed her down and tore her clothes. In the orchard." (115)


"She wasn't black," I said.

 

"Like hell she wasn't, and you kicked her. We both did. You kicked a black lady who couldn't even scream."

 

"Liar!"(175)

 

Although in the end Roberta finally realizes she was hindered by her perspective and influence of the segregated society and apologizes but their relationship is forever tainted by the racial politics, the phenomenon of the era. Author, however until the end, doesn’t clarify whose memory was correct and what exactly happened to Maggie.

Reading the story, more than figuring out who is black or who is white, I think author wanted to show how readers can reach different conclusions from the same story based on their experiences, thoughts and beliefs. And how, even the trivial bias can amount up to such segregation and conflict.