Conflicts In Morrison's Recitatif By Toni Morrison

In Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif,” Twyla Benson retells the story of her time in St. Bonaventure shelter and encounters with Roberta Frisk, but they remember different things each time they reminisce on the past. Twyla finds herself evaluating what really happened in her life, shifting ideas based on her own memories and what Roberta thinks. Her thoughts are ultimately distorted, raising questions on what is actually true. Twyla, as the narrator, tells the story with her own bias, making it difficult to discern the authenticity of each thought or event. Her thoughts, however, are influenced by present events, which can be considered to recognize the reality of a situation. Morrison employs Twyla’s memories to uncover how other characters and events shape a person’s …show more content…
Twyla knew from the start that what Roberta had been telling her were not what actually happened, but she was baited by the ideas and began to believe them herself. Once Roberta told Twyla that none of it was true but only a figment of her fantasy, since she also wanted to push Maggie, everything came full circle. Through Roberta’s claims, Twyla began to believe what Roberta believed, showing how easily influenced she was throughout the story. In “The Space that Race Creates: An Interstitial Analysis of Toni Morrison’s ‘Recitatif’, Benjamin asserts that, “Roberta’s counterpoint … encourages Twyla’s self-discovery even though it initially wracks her with guilt” (96). Twyla suppresses her true thoughts throughout the story until the end, once Roberta admits that she has the same thoughts she does. Until then, both characters were picking out certain memories and manipulating them, but the last scene highlights how they both ended up seeing Maggie as a mother figure, and wanted to get revenge on her because they were mistreated by their own