Toni Morrison's "Recitatif"

     After reading through "Recitatif" twice (a few days apart), I'm still trying to wrap my head around different aspects of the story. After the first couple pages I thought that this would be a story about a black girl and a white girl who would develop a friendship, reunite, and defy the racial tensions of their time. However, stories are not always quite that satisfying. When Roberta coldly talked to Twyla at Howard Johnson, I was crushed. When they met up at the grocery and reminisced, I was elated, but then I was crushed again.
     What I found most interesting about "Recitatif" was the idea of perception. Twyla describes her situation at St. Bonny's by saying: "...we weren't real orphans with beautiful dead parents in the sky. We were dumped" (131). What Twyla is communicating is the discrepancy between society's ideas and feelings about orphans/kids in a shelter. The children who lost their parents due to sudden death/illness/etc. were pitied and comforted. However, Twyla (who has been "dumped") has a low self-esteem because she feels that in a way she is unwanted. Even the other children view Twyla and Roberta differently although they are in the same situation living in the shelter.
     The other main issue with perception in this story is Roberta's and Twyla's versions of the incident where Maggie falls down in the orchard and neither one helps her. After reading this story, I still can not figure out the truth (which is probably intentional.. and does it matter?). At first I thought that Roberta envisioned Maggie as black to give herself an excuse for not helping her or that Twyla envisioned Maggie as white to hide her shame. Either, or neither, of these may be true but I think what matters is that neither child stood up for someone who couldn't stand up for themselves. Is this a reflection on the racial turmoil in the story? Absolutely. If someone is being mistreated and abused, isn't being silent just as bad as being the one mistreating or abuser? I also think it is interesting how flippantly Twyla regards the Puerto Ricans, upstate Indians, and Koreans. She uses a tone that makes it seem that it should be surprising that she was treated worse than them. She also expresses shock when she thinks that Roberta married a "chinaman."
     There is a lot to discuss within this story and I look forward to exploring it in class, I will undoubtedly understand more than I do now after discussion. My favorite quote from this story is: "There was this silence that came down right after I laughed. A silence it was her turn to fill up" (135).

Toni Morrison Talks about Writing