Critical Analysis Of Toni Morrison's Recitatif?

In the story “Recitatif”, Maggie is a kitchen woman and a target for abuse. Maggie attracts the ire of the residents on St. Bonny’s due to her being mute, bowlegged, and wearing a childish hat. With a passing glance, one would think that Maggie is simply a side character who plays very little role in the story as a whole, but this cannot be further from the truth. Maggie is absolutely central to the conflict of the story, and she has a profound effect on the actions of other characters within the story and the story’s theme. Maggie’s effect on the actions of Twyla and Roberta is shown in how both remember Maggie and the event in the orchard in completely different ways. The ways that they remember the event differ because they both remember …show more content…
Maggie is an enigma within the story; so much about her is completely forgotten save for the characteristics that lead her to be attacked. Roberta and Twyla cannot even recall what race she was they saw her only as a lowly kitchen woman. She seems to lack identity entirely with her being mute, she becomes a blank slate, a zero, and a passive victim for Twyla and Roberta to feel guilty about as they debate their memories (Shirley). Terry Otten, in his critical essay "Toni Morrison's 'Recitatif' of Race, Gender, and Myth.", states that Maggie simultaneously represents the lost innocence of Twyla and Roberta and the mothers who abandoned them both and the misplaced rage they show is at the failure of their own maternal figures. This conclusion is one I am inclined to agree with. In my opinion, Maggie serves as a release for Roberta and Twyla’s rage at their mothers (Otten). As Otten reiterates, Roberta and Twyla were both abandoned by their mothers so they released their rage upon Maggie. Otten continues to explain that Maggie represents the lost innocence of the two girls. Maggie in her childlike appearance and muteness appears completely innocent, which of course makes her the perfect target for abuse. She is the basis for many different abstract ideas and symbolizes many different important concepts, showing how she contributes to the …show more content…
Maggie’s role in the conflict of the story is one of a trigger. She serves as the source of basically all of the conflict within the story. She, in being attacked that day in the orchard behind St. Bonny’s, created a divide between the main characters. Maggie’s odd appearance led a group of older girls to attack her one day after she fell in the orchard. This event was witnessed by Twyla and Roberta, who were traumatized by it, and as a result they remember it in vastly different ways. Without this event I see little chance of the conflict between the Twyla and Roberta emerging at all. The strain in the relationship between the two came into existence only because they had differing accounts of what happened that day in the orchard. An idea of Otten that also supports this idea of Maggie as the divider is in his examination of Maggie’s ambiguous racial identity ("Toni Morrison's 'Recitatif' of Race, Gender, and Myth."). Maggie’s race being ambiguous contributes to the conflict between the two characters as it creates confusion between the two on her racial identity