47 pages • 1 hour read
Toni MorrisonRecitatif
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1983A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
Racial Codes in the Construction of Literature
In her Preface to her essay collection Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination, Morrison writes, "The only short story I have ever written, "Recitatif," was an experiment in the removal of all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial" (xi). Authors and readers alike sometimes use a character's race to assume a number of characteristics about that person. Morrison wants to make the reader aware of this practice. By denying the reader the code through withholding the knowledge of which character is white or black, the reader must refrain from assigning characteristics based on race. Making such a predominate aspect of identity indeterminate raises awareness of how American society has traditionally inscribed race. Morrison's desire to point out the construction of art—that is, to show art as artifice—is part of the larger aim of postmodern art.
The Search for the Mother
Twyla and Roberta seem to have parallel stories at first. Both were left in an orphanage because their mothers were unable to care for them. They had to learn to survive in an institution. They were unable to bond with the other girls because they were not genuine orphans, as their mothers were still alive. They also must defend each other against the older bullies and the meanness of the Bozos (the adults in charge). But one of the strongest similarities is their longing for their mothers. When their mothers finally visit them, both girls prepare for the visit in great earnestness and excitement. Yet the visits area source of both excitement and disappointment. They are let down by the reality that their mothers cannot truly care for them and most likely never will. Their mothers will not be there to guide them into the future.
Nonetheless, the girls continue to ask each other about how their mothers are at the end of every one of their meetings; these questions function like a refrain. Sometimes their replies are joking and other times they are poignant. It is clear that their mothers' absences have left an emptiness in their hearts that they cannot forget.
The Fluidity of Childhood Versus the Rigidity of Adulthood
As children, Twyla and Roberta forge a deep connection, bonding over their shared situation. Twyla and Roberta grow up as outsiders, but when they meet each other, they feel comfortable and safe. When they grow up and try to recreate that feeling, many issues threaten to—and do—divide them. Roberta, as a teen, is acutely aware of race, and that makes it difficult for her to communicate with Twyla. Twyla, as an adult, is acutely aware of class, and that makes it difficult for her to connect with Roberta. The issue of bussing brings out these issues of race and class, landing Twyla and Roberta on opposing sides of the issue. But their argument goes beyond issues of race and class and brings them full circle, back to their origins. Twyla claims that Roberta is betraying their upbringing by aligning herself with the Bozos (the other mothers who remind Twyla of the adults from the orphanage). Roberta defends the protesters as "just mothers," denying Twyla's attempt to connect to their past. In fact, Roberta distorts the past, saying that Twyla attacked Maggie, along with the older girls. She is aware of how hurtful this will be to Twyla, since it’s clear that both girls have strong, unresolved feelings toward Maggie, who is a type of mother figure to the motherless girls.
Both girls struggle with their upbringing. They want to escape their childhood vulnerability and gain control over their lives. But they realize they can't deny the past, even when they try to. Twyla has worked hard her whole life and now lives in a web of stable family relationships in a family that’s well established in town, while Roberta has adapted to the mannerisms of the upper-class world in order to fit in. Their involvement in the bussing controversy shows their desire to prove a measure of control over their lives, in stark contrast to the powerlessness of their positions growing up. And yet, at times, they realize that they can never quite fit in. Instead of joining the others, their protests end up getting personal and are no longer about the bussing movement at all. Their childhood identities allowed a fluidity in their ability to understand each other, but their adult identities have hardened this fluidity, setting themselves up on opposite sides of the protest. While as children they could easily become an Us, as adults they have become Other to one another.
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