The story “Recitatif” by Toni Morrison is a story about two girls and the journey of their friendship over the course of many years. In the beginning of the story, the narrator named Twyla is moving into an orphanage St. Bonny’s. Her mother was still alive she but she “danced all night” and therefore unable to take care of her. Twyla was introduced to her roommate Roberta, who was of a different race than her own, and they were not the best of friends at first. Twyla said, “It was one thing to be taken out of your bed early in the morning-it was something else to be stuck in a strange place with a girl from a whole other race (Morrison, 1983).”. She also explained that this was taught by her mother. Twyla said her mother told her “…they never wash their hair and they smelled funny (Morrison, 1983).”. Roberta also had a mother that was unable to take care of her, but Roberta did not seem to think sharing a room with Twyla was a problem. When reading this it shows how the racism is learned from their parents and has a very big impact on these girls of such a young age. I saw the same type of learned behavior when reading Letter from Birmingham by Dr. Martin Luther King. A five-year-old boy asked his father, “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean? (King,1993)”. These young kids are curious and are not biased based on the color of a person’s skin. It is only once they are taught not to like someone that then they believe it too.
Twyla and Rebecca were not included by the other girls at St. Bonny’s, so they became better friends. They stuck together and kept to themselves because they did not want to be bullied by the older girls. They even introduced their moms to each other, but it did not go well. As they got older and left St. Bonny’s they ran into each other a few different times over the course of many years. They were of different social classes and lived different types of lifestyles. Each time seemed to be a different type of encounter. The first time Rebecca did not hardly speak to Twyla. Then a few years later they met, and Rebecca wanted to go coffee and hear all about Twyla’s life. Another few years later they started to have an argument about what happened in their past at St. Bonny’s. They friendship and fighting over the course of their life goes back to the way they were taught about race at a young age. Twyla was taught not to like Rebecca. While they were living together, she learned that she liked being friends with her and race didn’t matter. Once they grew up and not the same social class, they saw the world and issues in their different perspectives. At the end they talked about when one of the workers that was beat. They both remembered it very differently because they saw the world when they were little different than once they grew up and had opinions of their own.
Sources
King, Martin Luther. Letter from the Birmingham Jail. Harper San Francisco, 1993.
Morrison, Toni. “Recitatif.” 1983, https://osu.instructure.com/courses/106813/files/33418722?module_item_id=6554301
Thank you for the wonderful description; you helped me understand the piece much better! Like you said, Morrison’s text makes it clear that racism is never inherent. Instead, these forms of discrimination are examples of learned behavior. It’s for this reason that patterns of prejudice between allying groups and family members are omnipresent. This coming of age story highlighted how age can change perception and made me reflect on time’s effect on my own views. For example, the pandemic helped me understand mental illness to a greater extent. Moving on, you touched on how Morrison also presents reoccuring themes such as outcasts and racism. Upon reading, I took notice of how discrimination, in many forms, often brings victims together. This was not only demonstrated by Twyla and Roberta but also by other experiences in my life. As a minority myself, I’m appreciative of my cultural community because it gives me the backbone to celebrate my heritage without worrying about judgements from others or being viewed as an outsider.
Thank you for this description of the text it honestly added a lot towards my understanding of the text. Morrison tells a tale about how prejudice and race change with time and experience. I enjoyed how you tied these ideas into what we spoke about last week that being the letter from Birmingham jail. The quote you used in particular reminded me of the I have Dream speech King gave during the march on Washington. During this speech King talks about his dreams of former slave owner’s sons and sons of former slaves will be able to sit down together at the dinner table in peace. This reminds me of the ideas told in the story as the two girls Twyla and Roberta learn to become friends with one another despite prejudice. Even though this effect was not permanent the idea of two people overcoming bias and beginning to understand one another for some time is something similar to what King envisioned.
You did a great job at explaining the text and creating a better understanding for me. It is really interesting how a young person’s environment and how they were raised can shape their opinions of the world. This especially applies to dealing with people of different ethnicities and races in which not everyone is taught the same. Like Twyla, some are taught to dislike those of different races and treat them differently. Others are taught to respect every person no matter what race they are. I also find it intriguing how Twyla and Rebecca become friends despite what their parents said when they were living together, until they grow up and create opinions of their own in which their friendship starts to waiver. It goes to show how much society influences a person and how important it is to treat everyone with respect no matter who they are.
Thank you for the description of the text as it has added to my understanding of the text and plot of the story. What stood out to me from you post was the idea that kids are not biased when they are born, but they learn biases from their parents. Understanding this concept can be powerful for adults/parents because they need to realize the influence they have on others, in particular their children. Given this idea of “passing on” bias to your children, it may be difficult to break these bias and stereotypes that some people have formed in their mind from a young age.
Your description of this week’s narrative was extremely informative of what to look out for when reading the story. I agree with you and Morrison on how racism is not something biological, and that it is taught. I grew up in a suburban area that was in the middle between the city and farm areas. So my perception of race was a lot different from my family who lives more in the country. As a white person I have never faced racism, but a lot of my friends have. When we would play sports against teams that were not as diverse as ours my fellow classmates would be called very vulgar terms based on their race. It is so disgusting to think that people continue to teach their children hatred due to their own biases.
I really enjoyed reading your post and learned a great deal about the required reading this week. Your last statement “These young kids are curious and are not biased based on the color of a person’s skin. It is only once they are taught not to like someone that then they believe it too.” I found this statement very interesting because I have always thought about how parents can persuade their kids way of thinking about someone else. Additionally, I find it devastating that a parent would want their kid to dislike someone else based on the color of their skin. Furthermore, there was another portion of your presentation that helped me as well, which included the connection made between Recitatif and Letter from Birmingham Jail. Overall, great job this week!
Great job interpreting the text. Racism is a concept that is taught and not one that is innate. Even though it may get taught and instilled in people, time is still able to change certain viewpoints and perspectives about racism. Racism is a concept that is influenced by people. I faced racism when I was a lot younger and to me it seemed like a foreign concept, but I understood later on what it was and why it was used as they must have copied others or learned certain things pertaining to discrimination. Over time though, I did notice a lot less direct racism. Just like the story of Twyla and Roberta, we see some racism present early on as Roberta acts like she didn’t know Twyla, but later on we see this friendship get mended.
Your presentation was interpreted very well, so that we can understand the friendship between Twyla and Roberta at a deeper level. Racism is not innate, but taught. Children’s nature is not inherently hostile to people of any color. Most of them learn from somewhere. Moreover, you have keenly found that the letter from Birmingham we read last week also has a similar “learning”. This “learning” is not a good inheritance. It will only deepen the deep-rooted prejudice between races and stimulate contradictions. Although Twyla and Roberta were not very friendly when they first met, they established a deep friendship with each other. This feeling faded with the passage of time after they left St. Bonny’s so that they hardly talked well when they first met in adulthood. Even after several meetings, they broke up unhappily due to fierce debate over the color of migrant worker Maggie and her beating. These influences largely come from the racial ideas formed in their growth.
I really enjoyed your description of this text. This really helped me to further understand the relationship between Twyla and Roberta. You really showed us how racism is not inherently adopted, it is actually taught. On line from your description really stuck out to me. That was “Once they grew up and not the same social class, they saw the world and issues in their different perspectives.” This really made me realize that the environment that people are exposed to, is really what shapes their values, beliefs, and how they view the world. Overall your description really taught me some things about how racism developed and how relationships and where you are can impact your viewpoint on everything going on in the world.
Your context presentation was explained very well. I agree that the discrimination here was taught. The girls literally would have had no reason not to like each other except for their parents teaching them that way. It was crazy that they bonded over such odd things and realized that color didn’t mean anything. Twyla and Roberta was taught their ways which was shown throughout the story. It did come in with King’s issue with discrimination too because like stated before it was obviously taught for them to discriminate. Twyla seemed to have it a little more rough but I felt like that’s because we were given more information on her and the “bad” things. I think we were seeing more of a social class difference which is what caused issues when they ran into each other after St. Bonnys. They had a few different interactions, and some didn’t go so well. I think they didn’t go so well though because they viewed things different by the way they grew up. Just like at the beginning it was odd because discrimination was taught, they just both had to find the world in their own view.
Hello! I liked your context presentation because it added additional information to my understanding of the reading this week especially with how race plays into the story. I also like your connection to Martin Luther King’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” for additional support as to how racism is taught and affects other people and how they are seen. It helped to clarify how Twyla was taught a single story about whatever race Roberta was (because it was never clarified, only implied based on how the reader read the text). Your summarization of their interactions was nice too and helped to consolidate it so that it was much easier to keep track of, great job!
I really enjoyed your presentation and how you connected it with the reading we had last week. I definitely agree with you and the text that racism is taught and passed down to a younger, more impressionable kid. Reading that line from MLK’s “Letter” broke my heart because no child should feel that way and I think sadly to this day we haven’t done enough to change that. As long ago as it may seem, most of the grandparents or even parents around today have lived through that era and could be bringing that hateful rhetoric/mindset with them. Then like you discussed, becomes taught to younger children who are not born with that mindset, that type of hate. Great post and I am very intrigued to read the story.
Thank you for a very well put together summary. The summary that you wrote was very similar to what I read. In the first paragraph, you summed up the story in a straightforward but detailed way, and everything you wrote rand a bell after I read the story. The second paragraph also explained how they ran into each other many times in many years and the arguments they faced while meeting. It sounded very similar. Overall the summary you wrote was very informative and an excellent way to help sum up the story after reading it.
Hi! You had a very great post and a great summary. I really liked how you emphasized that both Twyla and Roberta’s prejudices came from what they were taught by their mothers. This is very much still applicable today, and it is an important topic to discuss. I also found it interesting how their views of each other changed each time they met after leaving the orphanage, and I wonder why there is such a drastic change in their behavior. I also liked the connection to last week’s MLK reading. Great job!
This is a wonderful summary of Recitatif. I really enjoyed your connection to our prior week’s reading of MLK’s Letter From Birmingham. Drawing connections is very influential in comprehending new material and is very beneficial to others. The only suggestion I’d make is to include the character, Maggie, in your summary. Although she was non-verbal and didn’t physically add dialog, she was heavily included in the context. Maggie’s character a factor in bringing the two together, along with being the reason they were apart.
Hello! I just want to say that this was a wonderful interpretation of “Recitatif” by Toni Morrison! You did an excellent job with interpreting this story and it was very interesting hearing the way you perceived this story because it was actually different than mine! I actually love that it was because it gives me a completely new outlook on the story and I was able to visualize it in a different way than I initially did after reading it !!
I also want to point out the amazing intersection you included in your presentation being the connection to “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King. You bring in the connection by talking about the relationship children have as opposed to adults. You compared this to the relationship Twyla and Roberta had when they were little and I thought it was a very valid and important detail that you brought into this story!!
Hi, this is an excellent analysis of Morrisons “Recitatif”. I especially liked your comparison towards Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” because it further informed me and changed my understanding of the reading. I wasn’t as able to connect the story to race as well I probably should have been. However, the story was fascinating; how they emphasized so many different opinions, like Mary’s, on stereotypes from the other race, but we’re never actually told who is what race. And you find yourself making assumptions that are the exact point the story is trying to make. It’s like you said the two girls aren’t biased, not until someone else tries to influence that. Even later your summary of everything that happened throughout their lives was very well done and allowed me to formulate a more compact summary of the reading.
I enjoyed your gatherings from this weeks reading. I found your summary to be helpful and concise. I enjoyed your observations and connections you made to “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” I also found what you said about racism being taught to be accurate and insightful. Your presentation helped me better understand this week’s reading.