- 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?
Toni Morrison, Recitatif
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What is the meaning of Morrison’s title, Recitatif? How does it work as a title for this story?
The meaning of Morrison’s title Recitatif is a fitting description for the narratives theme. Like recitative in opera, which comes with speech and song, Morrison’s story blurs the boundaries between different forms of storytelling and memory. By shifting perspectives and timeless, the narrative goes back and fourth between the past and present reminiscences with reflections. This type of narrative mirrors the ambiguity of the characters recollections inviting readers to navigate the complexities of memories and personal interpretation. Recitatif is also has an exploration of race, memory, and nature of truth.
Why do you think Morrison chooses not to be explicit about which girl is African American and which girl is Caucasian?
I believe Morrison chose not to be specific about the races of these two girls because not being specific allows Morrison to force us to look at our own race stereotypes when trying to figure out which one of these two girls is African American and which girl is Caucasian American. By forcing us to look at this, Morrison can hopefully break down these stereotypes we immediately have, or at least make us more aware of them and hopefully teach future generations that they are not the case. Stereotypes like “Which mother is more likely to wear a cross?” or “Which girl is more likely to be going to see Jimi Hendrix and which wouldn’t know of him at all?” shouldn’t be issues at all.
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?
I think that Morrison adds issues of class to an already complicated story about race to show that emphasize the severity of racial division. The story starts off in an orphanage, a place where kids of different races and classes are bound to cross. Yet, Roberta and Twyla were inseparable as kids. The first time Twyla and Roberta encounter each other was at Howard Johnson. Roberta was rude and their conversation was full of tension. Twyla felt embarrassed after Roberta made some remarks. Twyla ends up living an average life, and Roberta ends up marrying a rich man. They ended up living to different lives and these can also be factors in why they treated each other differently after leaving the orphanage.
Hi Kayla. I do agree that there are children from various races in an orphanage but I honestly wouldn’t really expect many children from a higher class. The issue of class here is interesting because I think it further adds to the question of which girl is of which race? Normally, especially back then, you’d expect the Caucasian girl to end up in a higher class and the African American girl in the lower class. Although we got lots of mixed clues as to who is of what race, it leaned towards Roberta being African American and Twyla being Caucasian. And now the class difference between them breaks that stereotype. If Morrison’s goal was to attempt to break down stereotypes, class might be one of them as well.
Why do you think Morrison chooses not to be explicit about which girl is African American and which girl is Caucasian?
I think Morrison chose not to be explicit about which girl is African American and which girl is Caucasian for many reasons. One reason I think is so the reader can think about this question throughout the story. I also think she wanted the reader to create a prejudice idea of the characters before the story reveals more about them. Also, it points out racial codes like we discussed in class to further create assumptions about the characters (which goes back to the point about prejudice ideas). One last reason is that I think Morrison did not want the races of the characters to be a main detail of the characters, as their personal experiences and character could have been enough to show the story and emphasize more on racial division.
What is the meaning of Morrison’s title, Recitatif? How does it work as a title for this story?
The meaning of Morrison’s title, Recitatif is taken from a music’s term, especially from a narrative that is more sung than written. The title is an introduction to the text to come, an introduction to the two main characters of this story Twyla and Roberta.
What is the meaning of Morrison’s title, Recitatif? How does it work as a title for this story?
Recitatif is a musical term mostly used in things like Opera and it is a style that blends songs and ordinary speech mainly used for dialogic and narrative interludes. We see in the story Toni Morrison separates Roberta’s and Twyla’s encounters in 5 different parts where they happen over the many years and goes back always to reflect on their childhood days. The encounters where they meet each other is right after another with no information on what happened in the time between we just pick up on it though conversation, showing this song structure with this dialog of people changing over time. The title Recitatif with connection to the musical term has it so each part allows readers to connected with each encounter Roberta and Twyla has with each other and makes it so we can see it almost like a play you would see in a theater of sorts.
Why do you think Morrison chooses not to be explicit about which girl is African American and which girl is Caucasian?
I believe Morrison wanted to do a social experiment to see the readers assumptions on who they thought was white or black. I think she wants to see our unconscious biases which. Sometimes we might feel like we don’t judge but while reading Recitatif I found myself trying to find out the race of the characters. I think Morrison has fulfilled her idea of “experiment” because from what I saw in our class discussion for this work most of us were giving our opinions on the race of the characters.
Why do you think Morrison chooses not to be explicit about which girl is African American and which girl is Caucasian?
– I believe Morrison chose not to be explicit about which girl is African American and or Caucasian to test the readers and how they might perceive different races. For example, when Morrison described the mothers she said one was dressed modest and had a cross necklace. While, the other had a short shirt and looked out of place. When the readers are reading this some might see Twyla’s mom as the white one and Roberta’s mom as the African American or some the opposite. The perception on which girl is which correlates with the readers upbringing and what they were raised on. Us not knowing which girl is which race makes us the readers focus on the message Morrison wants us to grasp.