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Dr. M. Ayuso
English 300—Spring 2008
Short Paper #1: The Formalist Approach in Practice
The Ambiguity of Race in Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif”
Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif” takes a close look at conceptualizations of race in a
racially segregated America. The story looks at the relationship between two women –
one black, one white – over time, beginning from their meeting as little girls. It builds
upon racial ambiguity to help develop a theme about how race is applied to individuals; it
never concretely discloses which character, Twyla or Roberta, is black and which is
white. The ambiguities of race and the paradox of the similarities between the two
women in the face of racial divides helps to explore a universally-relevant theme: that
race is an artificially-constructed apparatus that masks the true humanity of all people.
At the beginning of the story, the racial differences between Twyla and Roberta
are noted, but the commonalities they share are more striking. Most notably, both end up
in a children’s shelter because of their mothers. “My mother danced all night and
Roberta’s was sick,” explains Twyla, the narrator, at the very beginning of the story. She
further comments, “That’s why we were taken to St. Bonny’s,” the shelter (159). Twyla
establishes the friendship she develops with Roberta as not based on differences but on a
major similarity that is inherently non-racial. Both have mothers who are unable to take
care of them but for different reasons. Both the common ground that Twyla and Roberta
share and the pervasive topic of race are seen in the mothers as well. Both mothers have
attempted (perhaps subconsciously) to instill in their daughters a sense of prejudice
against the other race. Mary, Twyla’s mother, educates her to believe that people of
Roberta’s race “never [wash] their hair” and “[smell] funny” (160). Twyla acquiesces,
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noting that Roberta does indeed smell funny. Later, when the two mothers meet through
their daughters, Roberta’s mother refuses to shake Mary’s hand, prompting Mary to call
her a “bitch” (163). The similarities of Twyla and Roberta’s situation because of their
mothers and the racial tensions that exist because of their mothers provide a paradox that
helps to extract a theme revolving around racial tensions that should not exist.
A racial uneasiness develops more clearly between the two girls when they next
meet, coincidentally, at the Howard Johnson’s where Twyla works, but the racial identity
of both continues to remain ambiguous. Twyla’s working class job at the hotel is not a
clearly defined racial occupation, nor is Roberta’s cold reception of the other a
specifically white or black attitude. The allusion to famed African-American rock
guitarist Jimi Hendrix gives little indication as to which character might be what race but
instead prolongs the racial ambiguity of the story. Hendrix was an iconic counterculture
figure that appealed to both blacks and whites. Thus, Roberta’s attempt to see Hendrix
and Twyla’s ignorance of who he is in the end provides few clues to the skin color of the
characters. In fact, he is perhaps symbolic of similarities that people, including Roberta
and Twyla, share over color lines.
Later, the two meet by chance in a grocery store, but the racial ambiguity of both
remains. Both are now married, but the names of their husbands, Twyla’s James and
Roberta’s Kenneth, as well as Twyla’s son, Joseph, provide no real contextual clues
about the race of either woman, assuming both married men of their own race. Kenneth,
James, and Joseph are names that are often given to men of both races. Roberta’s newfound wealth through her husband, who likely works for IBM, including the fact that she
lives in the well-to-do suburb of Annandale, that she has a limousine with a “Chinaman”
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for a driver (167), and that she buys “fancy water” (166) suggest that she might be white,
as these luxuries are often seen as stereotypically white and “yuppie.” This, however,
would discount the upward mobility of many blacks in the post-civil rights era. It is very
conceivable that Roberta could be an upper-class black woman and Twyla a middle- or
lower-class white woman.
Perhaps most striking, though, is the argument that the two have over Maggie, the
old woman who worked at St. Bonny’s, while protesting on opposite sides the bussing of
their children to different schools, which itself helps to enhance the racial tension
enveloping the story. The main crux of the argument is over the race of Maggie, and in a
sense, Maggie represents a shared history between the two women that has come to be
seen differently by the two:
“Maybe I am different now, Twyla [says Roberta]. But you’re not.
You’re the same little state kid who kicked a poor old black lady when she
was down on the ground. You kicked a black lady and you have the nerve
to call me a bigot.”
The coupons were everywhere and the guts of my purse were
bunched under the dashboard. What was she saying? Black? Maggie
wasn’t black.
“She wasn’t black,” I said.
“Like hell she wasn’t, and you kicked her. We both did. You
kicked a black lady who couldn’t even scream.”
“Liar!” (172)
The two cannot agree over Maggie’s race. Interestingly, Roberta, the wealthier woman
who might easily be seen as the white one, accuses Twyla of bigotry, of accosting an old
“black woman.” Roberta’s statement helps to continue the racial ambiguity of two
characters. Paradoxically, their sense of a shared history, represented in the racially
ambiguous Maggie, is coming apart while their own racial identities are still far from
clear.
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In the end, when the two meet for the last time in the story, Maggie’s race
becomes a moot issue. What becomes important is that Maggie was a human being, one
who could not speak and disclose her own racial identity. “I really did think she was
black,” Roberta tries to explain to Twyla. “But now I can’t be sure. I just remember her
as old, so old” (174). Maggie embodies the children’s home and the racial blurring that
brought the two girls together in the first place. In the end, they do not care what race she
is; they care about her as a person, which the very last line of the story, spoken by
Roberta, tells so eloquently: “Oh shit, Twyla. Shit, shit, shit. What the hell happened to
Maggie?” (175). To know what happened to Maggie is for them to know what will
happen to them and to their friendship. The racial labels prove meaningless.
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Works Cited
Morrison, Toni. “Recitatif.” Women’s Writing in the United States. [rest of citation
unknown].