Recitatif” is about two children’s who are friends from childhood, one black one white, as they grow up. Her main characters’ lives intersect over many years. The prime point about the story is that Morrison never gives us character’s race than by doing so she is intended to reveal the fact that human beings have tendency to categorize people immediately. By overlapping different characters’ versions of shared history, Morrison shows what can happen when two people’s incompatible memories of the same event bump up against each other. When Roberta and Twyla discover that they have startlingly different memories of an important event in their childhood, Twyla asks, “I wouldn’t forget a thing like that. Would I?” Her uncertainty points to the
…show more content…
The story explores how the relationship between the two main characters is shaped by their racial difference. Morrison does not, however, disclose which character is white and which is black. Rather than delving into the distinctive culture of African Americans, she illustrates how the divide between the races in American culture at large is dependent on blacks and whites defining themselves in opposition to one another. On the other hand, Morrison employs Maggie to explicate ideological construction of otherness via using her disability and she also gives “prosthetic meanings” to her (Sklar 147). It is true to say that this makes us not sure to know which character is black or white explicitly.
References:
Andore, Helane Adams. "Revised Memories and Colliding Identities: Absence and Presence in Morrison's "Recitatif" and Viramontes's "Tears on My Pillow"." 32.2 (2007): 133-50.
Du Bois, W. E. B. "Of Our Spiritual Strivings." Hayes, Floyd W. A Turbulent Voyage. San Diego: Collegiate Press, 2000.
Morrison, Toni, ed. Birth of a nation'hood : gaze, script, and spectacle in the O.J. Simpson case. New York: Pantheon Books, 1997
Sklar, Howard. "Stereotype, Sympathy, and Disability in Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif”." What the Hell Happened to Maggie? Helsinki:
Stanley, Sandra Kumamoto. Maggie in Toni Morrison's "Récitatif: The Africanist Presence and Disability Studies. 36 vols.
The story explores how the relationship between the two main characters is shaped by their racial difference. Morrison does not, however, disclose which character is white and which is black. Rather than delving into the distinctive culture of African Americans, she illustrates how the divide between the races in American culture at large is dependent on blacks and whites defining themselves in opposition to one another. On the other hand, Morrison employs Maggie to explicate ideological construction of otherness via using her disability and she also gives “prosthetic meanings” to her (Sklar 147). It is true to say that this makes us not sure to know which character is black or white explicitly.
References:
Andore, Helane Adams. "Revised Memories and Colliding Identities: Absence and Presence in Morrison's "Recitatif" and Viramontes's "Tears on My Pillow"." 32.2 (2007): 133-50.
Du Bois, W. E. B. "Of Our Spiritual Strivings." Hayes, Floyd W. A Turbulent Voyage. San Diego: Collegiate Press, 2000.
Morrison, Toni, ed. Birth of a nation'hood : gaze, script, and spectacle in the O.J. Simpson case. New York: Pantheon Books, 1997
Sklar, Howard. "Stereotype, Sympathy, and Disability in Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif”." What the Hell Happened to Maggie? Helsinki:
Stanley, Sandra Kumamoto. Maggie in Toni Morrison's "Récitatif: The Africanist Presence and Disability Studies. 36 vols.