It is the intention of this paper to look at Toni Morrison as a writer and how she expressed her political views through fiction. The short story by Ms. Morrison “Recitatif”, written in 1983, will be used as an example of her writing. This short was pulled for this paper from a collection of short stories found in the book Worlds of Fiction (2nd ed.) co-authored by Roberta Rubenstein and Charles R. Larson (2002, pp. 600-612). A biographical perspective will be implied in this paper but not formally addressed.
First this paper will give a brief summary of Toni Morrison’s biography, including literary awards. Second a summarization of Ms. Morrison’s short story “Recitatif”. This paper will take a critical view of this story from a feminist, a racial, and a historical perspective.
Toni Morrison born in 1931, her given name was Chloe Anthony Wofford. Ms. Morrison, the second oldest of four sibling was raised in a working-class black family, in Lorain, Ohio. Ms. Morrison attended Howard and Cornell Universities. She has taught at Texas Southern University, Howard University, and Yale. Since 1989, she holds a chair at Princeton University (Sture, 1997, para 1). Among the many awards for literature that have been bestowed on Ms. Morrison, are the National Critics’ Circle Award, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and Noble Prize for Literature. She was the first African American to ever receive a Noble Prize for Literature (Rubenstein and Larson, 2002, p 599). Ms. Morrison list of accomplishments is impressive by anyone’s standards.
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She has been a published author since 1970. Ms. Morrison has published seven novels, several children books, and academic texts. “Recitatif” is one of her few short stories ever published. In a quote from Toni Morrison about this story she stated, “The best art is political and you ought to be able to make unquestionably politically and irrevocably beautiful at the same time (Rubenstein and Larson, 2002, p 599).” She has become the voice for the Black American experience.
The short story “Recitatif” is narrated in first person. “My mother danced all night and Roberta’s was sick.” (Morrison, 1983, p. 600) is the opening line of the story and sets the tone of the story. It is a tale of how two eight year old girls meet in an orphanage and why they became friends. Both girls struggle in school and have an unusual acceptance of their circumstances. It is the friendship between the two girls that makes living in the orphanage bearable.
Throughout the beginning of the story Twyla, the narrator of the story, refers to all the things in life that make herself less than everyone else. Both Twyla and Roberta are one of the few children in the orphanage that actually have parents. They are not there because their parents have died, like the rest of children, but because their mother’s can’t take care of them. This is the glue that binds the two girls together.
The narrator of the story recalls a particular day when the two girls are watching the older girls dance in the fields, but on this particular day one of the woman from the kitchen cuts through the field to catch the last bus home. She is physically disabled and mute; the older girls start to taunt the woman. They call her names and knock her to ground. The two young girls just stand and witness the injustice.
The second significant thing the narrator recalls is the Easter Sunday when both of their mothers come to visit. She is so excited to introduce her mother to her best friend. When her mother finally arrives for church service she is embarrassed by the way her mother is dressed and by how loud she speaks. When she finally can introduce her mom to Roberta’s mom, Roberta’s mom grabs Roberta’s hand and she rushes away from her and her mom.
The story fast forwards in time. Twyla is a young adult working as waitress. One day Roberta comes into the restaurant with two young men on her way to see a concert. This is the first time Twyla has seen Roberta since she left the orphanage. Twyla tries to talk with Roberta but is blown off.
Twelve years later the two run into each other again at the store. This time Roberta wants to catch up with Twyla. Twyla is married with a son of her own in school. She finds out so is Roberta. Both of their sons are about the same age. The major difference at this time is Roberta is rich and Twyla is of the working class. Roberta accuses Twyla of having taken part in the incident with the kitchen worker (Maggie) twenty years before. This makes her question her reality. They part on a cold note.
Several months later, the two women find themselves on opposite side of fence -on school integration. Twyla did not like how far her son was going to have to travel to go school but was okay with him attending a new high school. Roberta was absolutely appalled at the idea of her son being integrated into a school on the other side of town. Both mothers picketed each other and the school. The picketing last six weeks and then the children are sent back to school. After it all over the two women run into each other once again. Roberta confesses to Twyla that they never kicked the mute woman. The two women end with. “Did I ever tell my mother never stopped dancing?” And Roberta replied “Yes. You told me. Mine, she never got well.” Crying Roberta says, “Whatever happened to Maggie.” (Morrison, 1983, p612) This is still the glue that binds the two women together.
The writer never actually gives any specific dates when the events in the story take place. She uses social clues to let us fill in the time period the events take place. During the visit of Twyla’s mother to orphanage, Twyla reflects how she was embarrassed her mother would wear pants to church (Morrison, 1983, p 601). In the nineteen fifties women began to wear pants instead of dresses and skirts all the time. It was still a social faux pa to wear slacks to church. This would lead to the embarrassment of Twyla over her mother’s loud pants.
Another time reference in the story is eight years later when Twyla is waitress in at Howard Johnson. When she tries to speak with Roberta, she is told they are on their way to see Jimmy Hendrix in concert. Jimmy Hendrix died of a drug overdose on September 17th 1970 (Morrison, 1983, p604). Therefore one could safely assume the meeting happened in the sixties.
Two months after the girls meet 12yrs later they run into each other during a protest over busing students to integrate the school (Morrison, 1983, p608). It was in 1954, that the US Supreme court ruled that equal but separate was not constitutional. In 1965, US Supreme court ruled busing was a legal solution to desegregate public schools. During the 1970’s and into the early eighties many schools adopted busing plans to integrate the public schools. This was time of great change and many mothers protested busing their children to a different neighborhood to attend school. This is the historical account that sets up the setting for Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif”
“Recitatif” is the story of two women one black and one white. From the very beginning of the story the reader can pick up on racial clues and come to this conclusion. The one thing omitted in this story is which one white and which one is black. This where the readers own racial prejudices may come in. On page 600, the seventh paragraph it states “…we looked like salt and pepper…and that’s what the other kids called us…” (Morrison, 1983) Although this is not the first clue this the most obvious clue to the race of the two girls. The author intentionally leaves out the racial identity of both girls. She is challenging the reader to follow her clues throughout the story. The readers own racial biases may influence which girl they perceive as being black or white.
There are several references to the fact that Roberta is actually black.
In the very being as Twyla is recalling their first encounter she mentions her mother warning her that, “they never wash their hair and smell funny. Roberta sure did. Smell funny, I mean. (para 2)” One of the things the author does to challenge the readers racial prejudices is Twyla is the insecure one of the two. She is the one who feels less than the other children. It is Twyla’s mother that is snubbed by Roberta’s mom. It is also Roberta, who does not want her child shipped across town to attend a different school than his friends. It is Twyla who becomes offended that Roberta would not want her son to attend a school that her son attended. It is through excluding their racial identity that the reader can see what preconceived ideas they brought into the story.
From a feminist point of view the story is told only from a female perspective. All the characters of significance in the story are female. It was an all girls orphanage with all female staff. Neither Twyla nor Roberta has a father. Both women get married and have sons. Neither the husbands nor the sons are ever actually introduced in any significant way to the story. It is in this fashion that Toni Morrison can actually tell the story without gender bias. (Goldstein-Shirley, 1999, pp 99-101) Leaving out any conflict between men and women she is able to eliminate a gender bias allowing room only for racial prejudice brought to the story by the reader.
David Goldstein-Shirley gathered information from 67 college students. The questionnaire reflected the reader’s ability to pick up racial cues and their personal views. 6 of the 67 students did not pick up on any of the racial clues in the story. These were the exception not the norm. The other 58 students were able to pick up on racial cues given in the story and add personal experience not written but implied to the story. The data provided that it was personal experiences that reader brought to the story and integrated into the story rather than an influences based on gender or demographics (1999, pp 106-107). The study showed the results that were intended by Ms. Morrison.
Toni Morrison used her short story “Recitatif” to show an author could write a political statement and engage the reader at the same time to take a look at their own racial prejudices on the issue. Her experiment to remove racial identity from the characters of story and to remove gender bias was a great undertaking. The study by David Goldstein-Shirley was proof that Toni Morrison completed her task with great success.
“Recitatif” was a perfect blend of in Ms. Morrison’s own words “unquestionably political and irrevocably beautiful at the same time (Rubenstein and Larson, 2002, p 599).” Toni Morrison stayed true to the historical times of the setting, the racial times of the setting, and all from a completely feminist point of view.
Annotated Bibliography
Goldstein-Shirley, D. (1999), “Chapter 7- Race/[Gender] Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif”
Women on the edge: ethnicity and gender in short stories by American women
Retrieved February 15, 2010, from
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Mr. Goldstein-Shirley poled 67 college students who had read the short story “Recitatif”. He documented the reader’s ability to pick up on the racial cues given by the author in the story. He broke this information down by gender and demographics.
Morrison, T. (1983), “Recitatif”, Worlds of Fiction (2nd ed. 2002).
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
“Recitatif” by Toni Morrison was pulled from this collection of short stories.
This is short story written in first person about the relationship formed between
two young girls and how it impacted the narrator of the story as an adult.
This short story was examined in this paper from several different
perspectives.
Rubenstein, R. and Larson, C. (2002) Worlds of Fiction (2nd ed. 2002).
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
This book is a compilation of fiction stories from around the world. Toni
Morrison’s short story “Recitatif” is included in this book to represent a North
American writer, a perspective of class, a racial or cultural conflict,
relationships of women, and youth maturation. The story was pulled from this
book and the Biography written for this was used in writing the biographical
summary for this paper.
Sture, A (1997), Nobel Lectures, Literature 1991-1995, Singapore: World Scientific
Publishing Co. Retrieved February 15, 2010, from
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1993/morrison-
bio.html
This site provided a bibliography of the author Toni Morrison. This
information was compiled when Ms. Morrison won the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1993 for her novel “Beloved”. This biography was used
in the biographical summary for this paper.
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