Reader Response Essay: Recitatif
Toni Morrison’s Recitatif follows the life of two young girls who befriend each
other in an orphanage. Throughout the story, not only does time see a societal change, but a
change in t
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Reader Response Essay: Recitatif
Toni Morrison’s Recitatif follows the life of two young girls who befriend each
other in an orphanage. Throughout the story, not only does time see a societal change, but a
change in the girls themselves as well. Although their paths seem to diverge, Morrison makes it a
point to continually remind the reader of their shared experience at the orphanage, seemingly the
only thing that connects the two after all this time. I believe the purpose of Morrison’s story was
to eliminate all differences and focus on how shared experience can shape to people, no matter
how different, in much the same way.
Right off the bat, I was ready to assume this story would be in what I believed to be true
Toni Morrison fashion. Having read another one of her works, Beloved, and being somewhat
familiar with her style, I was prepared to encounter a story full of struggle. I braced myself for
the cruel reality of racism and prejudice, told from the perspective of downtrodden African
Americans. However, this turned out not to be the case. For a plethora of reasons, Twyla, in my
eyes, embodied the white character and Roberta the black character. For example, Twyla’s
mother has instilled in her the stereotype, “they never washed their hair and they smelled
funny”(Morrison 131). As whites are generally known to wash their hair every day, whereas
black people do not, Twyla’s character was established as the white character. Additionally, the
girls’ reaction to food and the subsequent meals their mothers bring them. Twyla eats whatever
she can get her hands on, and subsequently Mary brings her no food when she visits
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