Relationships In Toni Morrison's This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona

The relationships we see within Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif” and Sherman Alexie’s “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” are very complex, however, whether we’re examining a mother and daughter, or two childhood friends, it is clear our theme deals with the security and solidarity of relationships.

Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif” depicts the complex relationships that two girls in foster care, Twyla and Roberta, have with their mothers. Twyla’s mother and Roberta’s mother share a tragic flaw - their conditions prevent them from caring for their daughters. However, their conditions do differ - Twyla’s mother’s condition may be self inflicted. Twyla’s mother is a prostitute, and she may drink or do drugs heavily in the way that we see
Victor and Thomas were friends in their early childhood, but had a falling out at fifteen years old. The falling out was a drunken fist fight initiated by Victor, leaving Thomas badly beaten up. We might believe that Victor acted aggressively towards him out of embarrassment - he wanted to show the boys in their neighborhood that he wasn’t friends with Thomas, because Thomas was an outcast: “All the other Indian boys stood around and watched it happen. Junior was there and so were Lester, Seymour, and a lot of others.” (Alexie 326) We might also credit their falling out to the fact that they have such different cultural beliefs. Thomas is extremely unique - he tells odd stories, and believes nature can speak to him: "I heard it on the wind. I heard it from the birds. I felt it in the sunlight." (Alexie 326) While those may seem like characteristics of a mental patient, Thomas takes his beliefs from a traditional Native American culture. Victor’s cultural beliefs stray from that lifestyle, and eventually led him off of their reservation. We see how different their beliefs are during their conversation on the Fourth of