Toni Morrison’s Recitatif is a fantastic deep dive into social and racial prejudice with an emphasis on nature versus nurture. The story begins with two young girls, Twyla and Roberta, who are admitted to an orphanage despite both not actually being by definition actual orphans. Both have a mother who is still around but are unable to care for their daughters in their own way. Twyla’s mother is described as too busy because she “danced all night” while Roberta’s mother was described as being too ill. Now being in the orphanage, these two girls had to share a room together and that did not bode well at the beginning because Twyla learned that Roberta was a different race from her which led her to exclaim she was sick to her stomach from such information. This leads me to talk about the most important aspect of this text, neither Twyla’s nor Roberta’s race is ever specified or even hinted at during the entire reading.
I believe Toni Morrison’s goal when writing Recitatif was to hopefully tap into the readers subconscious stereotypes, only to withhold any information confirming or denying such “accusations” so that one can reflect on these stereotypes and hopefully make any corrections necessary so that we can see everyone as equals, rather than seeing someone as only part of an exclusive group. One can clearly see this later in the story when Twyla proceeds to describe all that her mother, Mary, told her about this “other” race. Mary told Twyla that people of Roberta’s race never seemed to wash their hair and “smelled funny”. Now of course the reader will make their assumptions of what race Mary is referring to, however, there is no clear indication meaning Morrison’s goal of dragging out this subconscious prejudice is working.
Later in the short story, the process of school integration, a clash that was harshly criticized and supported by people of all backgrounds, comes up when Twyla and Roberta are much older and have children attending school in the same district, and even then Morrison still managed to conceal the racial identities of both characters despite talking about the quaint life Twyla was leading versus Roberta’s more lavish lifestyle. This in turn highlights the inconsistent idea of racial identity that hopefully the reader would have and even should have picked up on by this moment. Race is a social construct that was developed in a less equal society and has been perpetuated by ideas like “single stories” that Adichie referred to in the previous weeks of this course. One cannot assume and idea about somebody based upon the little information they heard about the collective group people like to clump others together in. Just because Twyla’s mother referred to Roberta’s “people” as smelly and dirty does not unequivocally define Roberta herself. Racism and prejudice do exist in the world we live in today, however one should understand that we all belong to the same race and things like culture or even things as insignificant as the color someone is does not define us, our character does.
References:
Morrison, Toni. Recitatif. Morrow, 1983.
I think this read was very interesting and even more so because of the writers technique in not displaying the races of each girl. This type of writing gives the reader no chance to paint a stereotypical story in their head since there is no races stated. I liked this reading and enjoyed your summary, it helped detail exactly why the races were left out of the story. There were chances that a reader could assume a race based on descriptions that were very racially biased but you could never be exactly sure.
I thought you did a good job in your examination of this text, and I really liked your point about how this story serves as an internal mirror for us to see how we subconsciously think of others. I agree with you that these conceptions about race are largely the same across our society, and most of us will have the same inference on what race Twyla and Roberta are. I wonder what your thoughts are about the timeline of this story( civil rights/segregation era) and how it played a role in how the two characters saw each other. It seemed at a point they were best of friends, then enemies, back to friends, and now are separated from each other. Either way I think you did well in your summary of Morrison’s work, it’a a great piece of writing that forces us to examine our biases.
Great Presentation! The way in which you helped elaborate on Morrison’s non identification of races, but also emphasized that we as the reader continued to see this little nuances subconsciously. Even when the race of the characters were never physically stated, the prejudice’s and stereotypes we have within our society almost made us as the reader feel like we knew what race they were based upon the descriptions of the characters lifestyles. This isn’t always true, and I think you made very good light of that. This helped me better understand Morrison’s reading from a deeper perspective that I didn’t get when I first read it, so thank you!
I like how you focused on the concealment of their races. I also think your analysis of her talking about Roberta’s lavish lifestyle was interesting. Morrison really seemed like she was commenting on the stereotype that black people are often in lower-income classes. There were a few times while I was reading that I doubted that my assumptions were correct about the two girls races, which really further exemplifies that we are truly all the same race. The differences in our skin color are really just trivial. Great job on your analysis!
Wow, this was a really great post! I realized as I read your post that I had been making assumptions the entire time reading Recatif. I had been adding to the stereotyping occurring in society. Although I was using prior knowledge to make these assumptions, you are right, there are no clues that could lead me to think which character is which race. I really enjoyed that she kept you wondering the entire story. I was constantly engaged and trying to make as many connections as I could. I completely agree that your race and culture absolutely DO NOT define a person. A person’s heart defines them to me. Overrall, wonderful job!!!
thank you for sharing. I think this presentation was really good and it´s so interesting to me how prejudices and assumptions really work and how much power it has. We preach to not make assumptions, not judge people based off things they can´t control, stop stereotyping, stop having all these prejudices that we do, but at the end of the day, it´s almost something we can´t control. I realized the more I read how many assumptions I have myself. I didn´t know Twyla or Roberta´s ethnicity or race, but I still had a picture and a thought in my head of what ethnicity they belong to. We make assumptions based off of their interests and stereotypes that we have. But honestly, most of the times we are wrong. And I want to say I really appreciate your last sentence, it struck out to me. “”one should understand that we all belong to the same race and things like culture or even things as insignificant as the color someone is does not define us, our character does.wrong.” you gave me a greater understanding of the reading. thank you!
Hi! I think it is super interesting in how the author never tells us the race of the girls but from the way she describes them we assume. This just shows how much prejudice and stereotypes play a huge role in our society and how much this ties in with the idea of the dangers of a single story by Adichie that we learned about a few weeks ago. Overall great presentation!
Hi, thanks for your post. It is very useful to help me understand the Recitatif by some examples to provide to “social and racial prejudice with an emphasis on nature versus nurture.” This sentence is perfectly summarize the main point inside it. Overall, it is a great presentation which include examples, citations, and personal thinking. Good job.
Thank you for a great presentation! I have to agree with you about your statement that Morrison’s goal for this short story was to tap into the reader’s subconscious. I know as I read the story, I had my own assumptions of each of the characters race even though it was not disclosed. I truly enjoyed this reading and not only find it interesting in the way Morrison withheld details, but also I don’t think I have ever read something that made me reflect on my personal thoughts and assumptions as much as I did with this story. If Morrison’s true goal was to “tap” into each readers subconscious with her story like you said- I would say she definitely achieved it!