Who Is Toni Morrison's Recitatif '?

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Living in Black and White The short story “Recitatif” written by Toni Morrison shines the light on the “black-white” issue. This controversial story gives readers an idea of what race is and how it really affects people’s daily lives. Morrison gives vague racial identity to each main character, leaving readers to their own racial perception and racial stereotyping. This uncertainty about the character’s race causes readers to assign a race to each character by stereotypes. Toni Morrison proves that being a different race can influence people’s attitude and ideas towards different skin colors. “Recitatif” starts out inside of a shelter where our main characters, Twyla and Roberta, feel isolated and excluded. Twyla states that the other children at St. Bonny’s do not play with Roberta and her because they are not “real orphans, with beautiful dead parents in the sky” (Morrison, 239). The two girls bond in the beginning of the story due to the fact that their parents are not dead, they cannot take care of the girls anymore. Our only clue about the girls being opposite races in the beginning is when Twyla refers to them looking like “salt and pepper” (Morrison, 239). Twyla does not reveal which character is black, nor does she reveal …show more content…

The two friends are excited about introducing their mothers to each other. When Twyla’s mother arrives she is immediately embarrassed by her choice of clothing and her very loud voice. The two mother’s eventually meet, Roberta’s mother disregards Mary’s hand and quickly pulls Roberta away from Twyla. Readers might assume that Twyla is black, simply because of the stereotypical way Roberta’s mother acted towards the two of them. During this section Morrison leaves the audience again questioning the race of the characters. She wants readers to think about the issue that colored individuals faced during this period of

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