Summary Of Recitatif By Toni Morrison

Author Toni Morrison’s short story, “Recitatif” explores a subject vital to the story which is racism. The two main characters are Twyla and Roberta, one is Afro-American and the other Caucasian, and at no point in the story does Morrison reveal which one is which, “It didn’t matter that we looked like salt and pepper standing there and that’s what the other kids called us sometimes.” (Morrison 201) I got the impression that Twyla was a Caucasian girl whose mother danced all the time, and Roberta was the Afro-American girl whose mother dropped her at St. Bonny’s because she was sick. By this, it meant she had some psychiatric problems, and was not able to care for Roberta. I formed my opinion from references in the story like how Twyla’s mother