Stories can make a person feel many emotions when connecting with different characters in a story. Sometimes the connections are due to common interests, feelings, and even through culture, race and class. Racially focused writings tend to reveal the different perspectives of people and life through race. In the story “Recitatif” by Toni Morrison, Morrison is making a major statement by not disclosing Twyla and Roberta’s racial identities throughout the entirety of the story and their battling friendship. The story takes place during the civil rights movement and due to this, the story sends a very strong racial message. The non-disclosure of the racial identities of the two main characters in this story allows for assumptions to be made throughout
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Morrison opens the door in this situation for the reader to look at the two different races and their ability to be able to provide for their families. When Roberta and Twyla are in the shelter, their mothers are due to come visit them in the chapel one Sunday and have lunch after the service. “We were supposed to have lunch in the teachers’ lounge, but Mary didn’t bring anything, so we picked fur and cellophane grass off the mashed jelly beans and ate them. I could have killed her. I sneaked a look at Roberta. Her mother had brought chicken legs and ham sandwiches and oranges and a whole box of chocolate-covered grahams. Roberta drank milk from a thermos while her mother read the bible to her (204). In this part of the text, it becomes clear whose mother is more responsible and able to provide more nourishment for their daughter. The assumptions can go two different ways. One may assume that Roberta and her cross wearing mother are black and her mother was able to bring her a large variety of delicious food, or that she is white and still, able to do the same. Twyla may have a mother who is a dancer and unable or forgot to bring her food for their lunch, but both Twyla and Mary could be black or white. Twyla was forced to eat jelly beans for lunch while Roberta …show more content…
In this story, Morrison opens the door for these racial assumption to be made when Twyla’s mother says that “they never washed their hair and they smelled funny” (201). When Mary says this to Twyla, she is making a statement about the stereotype that she is familiar with in regards to another race. She could be describing white people who never wash their hair or shower because of laziness or lack of access to be able to. On the other hand, one may assume the stereotype that black people don’t wash their hair as often due to their different type of hair. If one assumes the latter, then they may also assume that a black person would smell bad after not washing their hair and bodies for consecutive days at a time. In this part of the story, Morrison is showing the reader how assumptions based on stereotyping is not always correct and how assumptions made in this story when referring to either black people or white people can go both
Morrison opens the door in this situation for the reader to look at the two different races and their ability to be able to provide for their families. When Roberta and Twyla are in the shelter, their mothers are due to come visit them in the chapel one Sunday and have lunch after the service. “We were supposed to have lunch in the teachers’ lounge, but Mary didn’t bring anything, so we picked fur and cellophane grass off the mashed jelly beans and ate them. I could have killed her. I sneaked a look at Roberta. Her mother had brought chicken legs and ham sandwiches and oranges and a whole box of chocolate-covered grahams. Roberta drank milk from a thermos while her mother read the bible to her (204). In this part of the text, it becomes clear whose mother is more responsible and able to provide more nourishment for their daughter. The assumptions can go two different ways. One may assume that Roberta and her cross wearing mother are black and her mother was able to bring her a large variety of delicious food, or that she is white and still, able to do the same. Twyla may have a mother who is a dancer and unable or forgot to bring her food for their lunch, but both Twyla and Mary could be black or white. Twyla was forced to eat jelly beans for lunch while Roberta …show more content…
In this story, Morrison opens the door for these racial assumption to be made when Twyla’s mother says that “they never washed their hair and they smelled funny” (201). When Mary says this to Twyla, she is making a statement about the stereotype that she is familiar with in regards to another race. She could be describing white people who never wash their hair or shower because of laziness or lack of access to be able to. On the other hand, one may assume the stereotype that black people don’t wash their hair as often due to their different type of hair. If one assumes the latter, then they may also assume that a black person would smell bad after not washing their hair and bodies for consecutive days at a time. In this part of the story, Morrison is showing the reader how assumptions based on stereotyping is not always correct and how assumptions made in this story when referring to either black people or white people can go both