Eng 102 - Motherhood and Friendship in Recitatif

English 102

Essay 2

01/20/2011

Motherhood and Friendship in Recitatif

Racism and discrimination started with slavery. When slavery came into existence, it brought about racism and discrimination. Even when slavery ended, it didn't end; it still exists today in many communities. The New American Webster Handy College Dictionary defines racism as "prejudice against certain people" while prejudice is defined as "an opinion, often unfavorable, formed without adequate reasons; bias." It also defines discrimination as "an act of judging and treating people or other differently on the basis of race, sex, class, etc." Toni Morrison reveals this in her short story "Recitatif". "Recitatif" is about two girls, Twyla and Roberta, who grow up in an orphanage because their mothers could not properly care for them. Apart from race and racism, the story also talks about themes of motherhood, sisterhood, friendship, memory, and use of racial signifiers. Morrison's display of how useless the mothers are to the girls and how they became friends even though they were from different races , show us the significance of a mother figure and friendship in life.

The underlying theme in "Recitatif" deals with racism. An interesting twist is the mystery of the girls' race. Leaving clues, but never stating whether Twyla or Roberta were black or white, Morrison makes it clear that the girls come from different ethnic backgrounds. She uses racial signifiers to show that the story is about two girls from different races but does not say which of the girls is black or white. For example, Twyla states "we looked like salt and pepper." "Recitatif" is a story that shows how fate has brought together these two girls. They meet at the St Bonaventure orphanage and become friends because none of the other girls in the orphanage want to play with them or talk to them.

The other girls in the orphanage did not want to associate or have anything to do with them, because Twyla and Roberta were not actually orphans. Twyla states that the friendship between Roberta and herself is fabricated upon the difference between them and the other girls in the orphanage: "we didn't like each other all that much at first, but nobody else wanted to play with us because we weren't real orphans with beautiful dead parents in the sky. We were dumped" (1). The girls automatically became sisters. They lived in the same room, and they played together. They did things for each other just like sisters do. They did not feel that they did not have their mothers with them because they had each other by their sides. It is so amazing the way Twyla and Roberta turn out to be good mothers even though they didn't have the benefit of their mother. They both got married and they were better mothers to their children than their mothers were to them.

Twyla and Roberta's relationship gives shape to the plot of the story, which traces their interactions over more than twenty years. The story explores the possibilities and the failures of their friendship. The first sentence of ''Recitatif,'' ''my mother danced all night and Roberta's was sick,'' establishes that Twyla and Roberta's situations are parallel on the one hand, yet opposite on the other. It is this quality that makes friendship between the girls such a complicated prospect. While Twyla's mother is healthy and attractive, but immoral, Roberta's is sick and unattractive, but upstanding. Twyla's mother