Recitatif

"Recitatif" was first published in the anthology Confirmation: An Anthology of African American Women, edited by Amiri and Amina Baraka (1983). The story’s five-part structure explores the relationship of Twyla and Roberta, who first meet as 8-year old girls in an orphanage. Twyla and Roberta cannot rely on their mothers for help in understanding the world; their mothers leave them in an orphanage since they are unable to care for them. Instead, as Twyla and Roberta disappear and then reappear over and over again in each other's lives, they must learn to navigate their different experiences of race, class, and gender, transitioning from vulnerable, motherless girls, to becoming mothers themselves, caring for their own families and yet still trying to understand their own identities.

Maggie is a seemingly insignificant character in the story, and yet her character receives a central focus by the end of the story. As a kitchen worker at the orphanage, Maggie is the one to provide sustenance to the girls, unlike the girls’ birthmothers: "Mary's idea of supper was popcorn and a can of Yoo-Hoo" (244). Maggie is also a symbol for the girls' identity, especially the future that could await both Twyla and Roberta, since Maggie also grew up in an institution. Maggie is mute, and the girls are fascinated by her inability to communicate, especially by her inability to cry for help if she ever needs to do so. They too struggle with being able to break through their "muteness" and communicate with others throughout the story. They know of no one who will answer their cries for help, other than one another.

Maggie's race is ambiguous, as can be seen by the argument that occurs later between Twyla and Roberta as they cannot agree on Maggie's race. This mystery over race extends to Twyla and Roberta as well. Although race is a central issue throughout the story, Morrison intentionally withholds revealing to the readers the race of the two main characters. When we first meet Twyla and Roberta, we know that Twyla objects to rooming with Roberta because of her race, an attitude which she has learned from her mother. But which race is objected to? Is Roberta white or black? When their mothers visit, this time it is Roberta's mother who objects to shaking hands with Twyla's mother. Does she object to her race? Her tight clothing? The way she acts? Morrison purposefully leaves it up to the reader to fill in this information.

When we meet Roberta later, as an adult, she is part of the upper class and dressed fancily; in our final image of her, she is in the elegant hotel dressed in furs and diamonds while Twyla is burdened with her chores. While we can see that Roberta has become part of the upper class and Twyla is part of the working class, there is no mention of either of their races. Morrison, in an interview with The Paris Review, stated that, in the story, "I use class codes, but no racial codes" (Elissa Schappell, "The Art of Fiction").

So, what is the effect of not knowing the race of the characters? The girls cannot recall the race of Maggie, and at least Twyla finds this deeply disturbing, showing how deeply felt racial identity can be. But their inability to recall her race also shows just how race is based on artificial distinctions, since skin color is not enough to define race. How do we define race, then? How do we decide if Maggie is white or black? Her skin color is described as "sandy-colored." She is mute and unable to tell us if she classifies herself as white, black, or something else. Perhaps Twyla's discomfort in not knowing Maggie's race is similar to the reader's discomfort in not knowing Twyla and Roberta's race.

This "experiment" shows the reader how race, despite its artificiality, can be used in a story to turn Other-ize characters; race is often a distancing tool used to separate. By denying the reader any knowledge of the race of the two central characters, Morrison denies the reader the opportunity to Other-ize any of her characters. Twyla and Roberta's experiences cannot be tied to race. Instead, the reader must encounter these characters fully, and without those signifiers, allowing the character more freedom to develop beyond any racial stereotypes.