Recitatif comes from the French word “recitative” which is song in

Opera. The story is told in first person, so Twyla is telling us the

“recitatif” of her life.

It was a Morrison’s experiment in the removal of all racial codes from

a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial Twyla and Roberta, salt
identity is crucial. The experiment is to challenge the reader, why and pepper but who is
does (s)he think one of the girls is black and the other white? Which salt and who is pepper?
stereotypes, which expectations, prejudices do you have about races Maggie is sandy-colour
when you read it the story? What does this tell you about yourself?
Twyla and Roberta, salt
Racism is taught by her mothers, and it is perpetuated through
and pepper but who is
generations.
salt and who is pepper?
Both girls are probably repeating the behaviour learnt by their
Maggie is sandy-skin
mothers, but finally it was their choice (regarding Maggie).
Both want to be better people.

Symbols.
Klonkike ice cream – outside black (chocolate) and inside
white (vanilla)
Yoo-Hoo – chocolate drink (milk and chocolate).
Both foods melting together, as the girls at the end

Twyla sees Maggie as her own mother, “dancing”. Dancing has a negative meaning in the story.
But she also sees Maggie as herself. Maggie is dumb and can’t not cry for help, the same as her that
although going through a very hard time she is mute, and can’t cry for help. She doesn’t like that
part of herself, because she sees herself as mute and vulnerable. That’s probably why she doesn’t
help Maggie when is beat or doesn’t ask for help.

Maggie is cruelty treated by the other girls and neither Twyla nor Roberta helped her. This is a major
theme, allowing mistreated because of the disability.
The tendency for cruelty it is the real problem, beyond the race or the class. When inside ourselves
there is the impulse to blame and hate “others”. We have a society, morality problem.

The orchard. It is described as the Eden Garden. But it is also where Maggie fell, mirroring the moral
lapse of the fall of Eden. It was the moment when Twyla loses her innocence, because for the first
time she understands what it means to be cruel. And that’s Twyla’s fall, her moral misstep, because
she felt guilty about it. Roberta feels it as well. The story ends with the girls feeling this sadness
about how they lost in the orchard, their compassion, their humanity, their lost themselves.

Postmodernist work. Society has stereotypes for nearly every race and creed and we tend to define
people by their stereotypical characteristics that we impose upon them. Morrison challenges these
ideals by neglecting to classify either Twyla or Roberta as black or white. The initial setting of the
story that takes place in an orphanage-like environment is also evidence of postmodernism.
Traditional society says that a mother and father care for their children, the “perfect-picture”. In
reality, many families are diverse due to divorce or single-parents’ households and income levels
often do not permit a middle-class lifestyle. Postmodernist challenges traditional ideas of what is
right or normal. The character Maggie is also quintessential to the postmodernist feel of the narrative.
The binary opposition between the “normal” girls and Maggie who has a “disorder” is indicative of
postmodernism. Additionally, the discrepancy between Twyla and Roberta over what actually
happened to Maggie and who really initiated her abuse is telling of postmodernism.