Recitatif by Toni Morrison Literary Analysis Essay Example

Morrisons purpose in writing this may have escaped early critics to make the reader question both of the protagonist's races based on stereotypes. In the story Recitatif, by Toni Morrison, she starts by introducing the protagonists of the story, Twyla and Roberta. The story starts with two girls, Twyla and Roberta. These girls have a connection because they both grew up in an orphanage. The “Recitatif” essay was analyzed and read by others.

There are other resources that also review Morrison’s short story. One of the articles that talks about Toni Morrison's short story in a positive light is Toni Morrison's Only short story “Addresses Race by Avoiding Race. by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers which is about the lives of two girls and their differences and about the meaning of the story “Recitatif” and why it was written in the first place. The essay titled “Recitatif”, by Joyce Anderson talks a lot about the term “Recitatif” and that it means “the tone of rhythm peculiar to any language.” The essay also explores the relationship between the two girls that are the protagonists in the short story and how it is affected by their race. The video from CodeXCantina featuring analysis from Una and Krypto titled, “Toni Morrison's Recitatif - summary, critique and analysis expands on these ideas and continues about talking about” is two people discussing what Toni Morrison was trying to make the reader think about while reading the short story Recitatif. The purpose of Recitatif is to make the reader question both of the protagonists' races based on stereotypes. Throughout the story Toni Morrison messes with the reader's mind because she doesn’t tell the reader the girl's races, but instead she attempts to make the reader's notions of identity and race be challenged. Toni Morrison accomplishes this by not revealing the race of the main characters. She makes the reader compare Twlya and Roberta based on their backgrounds and personality throughout the story. One of the main topics that is brought up throughout the story is racism. 

Racism is a significant part of the story “Recitatif.” “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.” (Morrison 1). Twyla has a prejudiced thought process because of her mother. In the story Toni Morrison makes Twyla give the reader a clue when she complains by saying that everything is easy for some people compared to others. In Jeffer’s article it says, “‘Recitatif’ depicts an interacial friendship between two girls – one white, one black – who meet in a shelter. They have different reasons for being there.” (Jeffers 2) When the two girls show up at the orphanage, they both have a reason why they were left there. Twyla was left there because her mother liked to dance, but Robertas mother left her there because she got sick. Despite the fact that both of their parents abandoned them at the orphanage, their backstories share some similarities and this also contributes to Twyla and Roberta's friendship. Furthermore, they both grew up in a diverse community, and the story depicts how they change as they grow older.

Twyla and Roberta are both different races, but they both were friends when they were in the orphanage. “I liked the way she understood things so fast. So for the moment it didn't matter that we looked like salt and pepper standing there and that's what the other kids called us sometimes. We were eight years old and got F’s all the time. Me because I couldn’t remember what I read or what the teacher said. And Roberta because she couldn’t read at all and didn’t even listen to the teacher.” (Morrison 1) When she says “salt and pepper” she is alluding to the two girls' races, one is white and the other is black, making the reader wonder about the race of both girls. At first Twyla and Roberta didn’t like each other at first, but soon after the kids in the orphanage did not play with them, they became friends, they thought that Twyla and Roberta weren't real orphans because their parents weren't dead. “Because readers don’t know which character is black and which is white” (Anderson 4) The audience who reads this story will most likely come to conclusions on the character's race, but it is not definitive, based on the descriptions. 

Recitatif was written by Toni Morrison in order to show the inadvertent racism that exists in all readers. In the story when she said, “We weren’t real orphans with beautiful dead parents in the sky.” (Morrison 2) This quote shows how judgemental people can be and how people can judge you for you based on your past, or background story. She did so by giving her characters racial ambiguity, challenging racial stereotypes, and setting her characters in different time periods that corresponded to specific racial tensions in the United States. This explains why Twyla and Robertas viewpoints drastically as they got older. In the Code X Cantina video, Kypto and Una say, “Readers interpret and analyze  the story through their own stereotypes.” This quote is a bright example of readers praising Toni Morrison because they can't figure out the character's races. This demonstrates that people have stereotypes of their own and they judge others based on those stereotypes. 

In conclusion, Recitatif is a truly inspiring story to young adults because of its ability to mess around with the reader's mind. The goal in Recitatif is to make the reader question both of the protagonists' races based on stereotypes. Throughout the story Toni Morrison messes with the reader's mind because she doesn’t tell the reader the girl's races, but instead she attempts to make the reader's notions of identity and race be challenged. Toni Morrison begins her story Recitatif by introducing the characters of the story, Twyla and Roberta. "Toni Morrison's Recitatif - summary, critique, and analysis" is a video from CodeXCantina that includes analysis from Una and Krypto. Recitatif is about two girls that have been left at an orphanage at a very young age. Twyla and Roberta were both abandoned when they were younger and were left in an orphanage. All in all, the story's objective is to highlight the bigotry that each of us carry within us.