–How is the theme of maternity explored in the story? Give at least two examples.
–Morrison adds issues of class to what is already a complicated story about race. Why? Where in the story do you see evidence of this?
–What is the meaning of Morrison’s title, Recitatif? How does it work as a title for this story?
–What are Twyla and Roberta fighting about in the section about school busing? What’s going on between them?
–Is the story’s perspective on race relations ultimately pessimistic or optimistic? Why?
–Why do you think Morrison chooses not to be explicit about which girl is African American and which girl is Caucasian?
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–How is the theme of maternity explored in the story? Give at least two examples.
Maternity is explored through Twyla and Roberta’s relationship with their own respective mothers and when they later both become mothers themselves. As they meet each other sporadically at different venues, their mothers would always be brought up. Twyla’s mother was forever out dancing and Roberta’s mother was still sick. Regardless of the time that has past, their mothers were static. Ironically while the situation of their mothers at first unites them in the orphanage, when their mothers actually meet the situation turns quite sour. While Twyla and Roberta’s own relationship with their mothers can be called distant, it still divides them.
Later on in their life, Twyla is married to a fireman and Roberta to an IBM worker. Roberta is noticeably richer. Twyla also has one child while Roberta has four. Like their meeting at the diner, they slowly take up arms against each other. They argue about the future of their own children with the city’s new and controversial busing policy. This situation separates their stances on their own policy of maternity as Twyla directly opposes Roberta. Regardless of sides, their efforts both correlate to the love for their children.
–Why do you think Morrison chooses not to be explicit about which girl is African American and which girl is Caucasian?
I think she chooses to avoid the race of the girls because she didn’t want to make race the main issue of the short story. However, she indirectly gives many hints of their race but they’re not clear. She tried to make these characters as similar as she could. They were the same age, were in an orphanage, their mothers were alive, they didn’t judged each other, and they liked each other.
–Why do you think Morrison chooses not to be explicit about which girl is African American and which girl is Caucasian?
Adding on to Rosa’s comment that Tony Morrison removed racial markers to make race not the main topic of the story, I think that the reader still considers race as a central part of the story. This is because throughout the story, the reader is trying to figure out from what race both Roberta and Twyla come from since race is often critical to how people identify themselves. One way of analyzing this is understanding how Toni Morrison was trying tell the reader not to follow common stereotypes or presumptions about race. According to studies, everyone has a subconscious bias when it comes to other’s identity, and by removing race ( which is one form of identity), the reader is left to assume which girl is African American and which girl is Caucasian. In this story, it is difficult to figure out which one is which because both girls have differences (such as the way they dress) as well as similarities (such as staying at the orphanage or being married).
On the contrary with what my classmates said above. I think she chooses not be explicit about the two girls’ race to drive the reader to focus on race. Anastasiya said that readers are subconsciously bias when its comes to race. Toni Morrison knows this fact. Therefore by not specifying the race of the two girls the will spend time trying to figure out which one is which. At the end of the day the reader will understand that the skin tone does not define a person behavior. The reader will also learn that his presumption about race differences is a false narrative. Let us not forget that the depicts a situation that is happening in the mid sixties. The United States is dealing with racial tensions. Specially with the fight for civil right. Therefore Toni Morison goal is to teach people to understand that we are all equal, there is similitude between people of different race, and the differences are not due to our skin tone.
–How is the theme of maternity explored in the story? Give at least two examples.
The theme of maternity is prominent since the beginning of the text. Morrison establishes that Twyla’s mother who is named Mary and Twyla do not have a very strong and close relationship. Twyla’s mother is a nightclub dancer. She is basically a stripper. Since Mary cannot take care of her child by herself, she sends her to the orphanage. We can infer that Mary and Twyla’s relationship is not that strong. In the passage the author mentions this line, “But nobody ese wanted to play with us because we weren’t real orphans with beautiful dead parents in the sky. We were dumped.” This quote shows that Twyla and Roberta both know that they were dumped into the orphanage because their parents were unable to care for them. Morrison basically undermines the idea of maternity by showing that these two girls never had perfect mothers, nor did they have responsible mothers. Another example of the theme of maternity is later in the story when Twyla and Roberta confront one another about “bussing” their children. Roberta pickets against it while Twyla is for it. Although at first it seemed as if the two cared for their children and hence why they were arguing about this issue, it is later shown that Twyla seem to care much about it. The author writes that after their first confrontation Twyla began making her own signs and taking them with her to wherever Roberta was protesting. Twyla began to become “addicted” to opposing Roberta, not because of her son but because of her own principles that she now despises Roberta and everything she does because Roberta insulted her. Twyla’s actions are very similar to her mother’s personality when Mary seemed agitated and was almost about to confront Roberta’s mother for ignoring her. These events within the text show how the theme of maternity is prominent within the text.
Why do you think Morrison chooses not to be explicit about which girl is African American and which girl is Caucasian?
Once we read a story, we imideatly imagine it in a certain way in our head. We put character in roles as we see fit. For example if the character was a doctor we imagine him to be a white male, just naturally without thinking about it. There are certain stereotypes associated with certain race. By not making the race of the girls explicit she makes race a centeral theme of the story and also challeges this social idea of putting imaging chartacters in certain roles. furthermore, by this we see all the overlaps and how the two girls have similar problems.
5) I think that Morrison chooses not to be explicit about which girl is African American and which girl is Caucasian because she want readers to think by themselves that who is who by depending on their thoughts or knowledge that they have about different races.
Is the story’s perspective on race relations ultimately pessimistic or optimistic? Why?
I believe that the story portrays both pessimistic and optimistic relationships regarding the perspective on race. From, a pessimistic viewpoint the story points the racial difference between Twyla and Roberta as well as society at that time that generally segregated. Specifically how both races treated each other at the time when the government imposed forced busing that based on diversification of schools. Meanwhile, at the same time showing a more optimistic perspective where both races are similar than they think. Which generally can be seen within the friendship between both characters throughout their childhood as well as their lives after asylum.
Why do you think Morrison chooses not to be explicit about which girl is African American and which girl is Caucasian?
Morrison does not want race to be the main focus of the story; however, I think that most readers still consider it a huge part of the story. I think Morrison’s goal was to make the girls as similar as possible which is why she only noted some of the physical differences at the beginning of the story without creating any stereotypes. Twyla and Roberta are basically the same, both are the same age, in an orphanage despite their mothers being alive, and they didn’t ask questions.
–Why do you think Morrison chooses not to be explicit about which girl is African American and which girl is Caucasian?
I think that her idea was for the readers to either get involved into the reading and try figuring it out themselves, or for the reader to understand that race shouldn’t matter and that anyway you look at it, the situation would not be any different. This type of style was very unique to me, and made paying attention to little details very important. Even though I had a perspective on who was Caucasian and who was African American, I realized that if I switched up the races, the situation would remain the same. Nothing would change plot wise, conflict wise, and theme wise. This realization makes me believe that this was Toni Morrison’s reason to completely erase the details about race.
I think Morrison chooses not to be explicit about which girl is African and which girl is Caucasian because he wants to make the reader think which is which and also he wants to show that people can go through same situation or condition no matter what they race or color they are.
–Why do you think Morrison chooses not to be explicit about which girl is African American and which girl is Caucasian?
Morrison is trying to prove a point by intentionally hiding the race of the girls. He wants readers to make their own assumptions about which girl is which race. By analyzing their own assumptions, they will realize their own reasoning. Morrison is trying to show that stereotyping is wrong and that people can not be differentiated just by their skin color.
–Is the story’s perspective on race relations ultimately pessimistic or optimistic? Why?
I believe its pessimistic because the author in a way, writes in a manner in which you can kind of assume the races of the girls based on how they act. Basically including stereotypes society has imposed on different races, specifying their specific race isn’t necessary for the reader to be able to figure out who is who.