Twyla And Roberta In Recitatif

In Morrison's narrative, "Recitatif", the storyline begins in St. Bonaventure orphanage during the 1950s, where Twyla and Roberta first meet. At this time, African Americans had been battling racism and segration for years. However, the 1950s marked an era in which the fight for civil rights became established in everyday American life. This is evident when Twyla expresses her discomfort of being roomed with Roberta: "It was one thing to be taken out of your own bed early in the morning-it was something else to be stuck in a strange place with a girl from a whole other race." Other details from the passage that also display the uncommon ground between blacks and whites are seen when Twyla describes her inital introduction with Roberta as something that sickens her to her stomach and when she says, "My mother won't like you putting me in here," hinting that Twyla's

After the girls age and are no longer orphans at St. Bonaventure, they reunite numerous times, unexpectedly. Throughout the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, Twyla and Roberta encounter one another at a variety of different settings, including Howard Johnsons, the Food Emporium, a strike in reference to the integration of colors into the school system, and finally in a small diner during late December. The time period that the narrative was written in is significant because it causes the majority of disagreements that Twyla and Roberta face throughout the duration of the story. When asked why Roberta had been so stand off-ish at Howard Johnsons, she attributes her actions to the controversey that blacks and whites were experiencing during the course of that time. The setting also created the incident that occurred with the strike, due to the fact that integration in schools was a new, unfamiliar policy that was just beginning to take effect in the 60s and 70s, after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed in office, prohibiting discrimination based on color or