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The Semiotics of Race: Using Toni Morrisons Recitatif to Expose and Examine Signs of Stereotypes
What is semiotics? 1 One of the broadest definitions [of semiotics] is that of Umberto Eco, who states that semiotics is concerned with everything that can be taken as a sign (Eco 1976, 7). Semiotics involves the study not only of what we refer to as signs in everyday speech, but of anything which stands for something else. In a semiotic sense, signs take the form of words, images, sounds, gestures and objects. [. . . ] Contemporary semioticians study signs not in isolation but as part of semiotic sign systems (such as a medium or genre). They study how meanings are made: as such, being concerned not only with communication but also with the construction and maintenance of reality. [. . . ] Semiotics is often employed in the analysis of texts (although it is far more than just a mode of textual analysis). Here it should perhaps be noted that a text can exist in any medium and may be verbal, non-verbal, or both [. . .]. A text is an assemblage of signs (such as words, images, sounds and/or gestures) constructed (and interpreted) with reference to the conventions associated with a genre and in a particular medium of communication. [. . . ] A social semiotician would also emphasize the importance of the significance which readers attach to the signs within a text. [. . . ] [Semiotics] is not only concerned with (intentional) communication but also with our ascription of significance to anything in the world. Semiotics is important because it can help us not to take reality for granted as something having a purely objective existence which is independent of human interpretation. It teaches us that reality is a system of signs. Studying semiotics can assist us to become more aware of reality as a construction and of the roles played by ourselves and others in constructing it. It can help us to realize that information or meaning is not contained in the world or in books, computers, or audio-visual media. Meaning is not transmitted to uswe actively create it according to a complex interplay of codes or conventions of which we are normally unaware. Becoming aware of such codes is both inherently fascinating and intellectually empowering. We learn from semiotics that we live in a world of signs and we have no way of understanding anything except through signs and the codes into which they are organized. Through the study of semiotics we become aware that these signs and codes are normally transparent and disguise our task in reading them. [. . .] By making more explicit the codes by which signs are interpreted we may perform the valuable semiotic function of denaturalizing signs. In defining realities, signs serve ideological functions. Deconstructing and contesting the realities of signs can reveal whose realities are privileged and whose are suppressed. The study of signs is the study of the construction and maintenance of reality. To decline such a study is to leave to others the control of the world of meanings which we inhabit.

Quoted from Semiotics for Beginners by Daniel Chandler, University of Wales, UK, <http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem01.html>, February 19, 2001.

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The Story 2 Originally published in 1988, Recitatif seems to take place between the 1950s and 1980s and is, on the surface, at least, about the growth and development of two girls: Twyla and Roberta. The narrator, Twyla, describes her experiences and readers learn that she and Roberta met in an orphanage in New York State. Even though neither girl has beautiful dead parents in the sky (682), they have both been placed temporarily in an orphanage because neither of the girls mothers can care for them, Twylas mother because she dances all night, and Robertas because she is frequently sick. Readers also learn early on that one girl is black and one is white, that they looked like salt and pepper (682), but readers dont know which is which. Thats one of the main points of the story: to determine which girl is black and which is white based on a variety of clues in the story, clues that are deliberately ambiguous and misleading, clues that act a signs of racial stereotypes. The best way to use this story in class is to ask students to read the story, and after theyve finished, ask them (either in writing or in class discussion or both) which of the characters is black and which is white and why they believe so. In my ENG 201classes, students might write an essay in which they argue for one interpretation or another, then, after we discuss their essay responses, as well as a little bit about semiotics, they write a second essay that is a kind of metaanalysis of their first essay. I use this assignment in a similar way in ENG/WST 327 but primarily for the purpose of prompting class discussion about Morrisons purposes in writing the story.

A copy of the story is included in your The Prentice Hall Anthology of Womens Literature, edited by Deborah Holdstein, 2000, pp. 682-696.

ENG 327: Kreth Relevant Signs of Racial Stereotypes Description

Twyla doesnt at first know what to think of Roberta, but Twyla remembers and agrees with something her mother has told her, that people who are of Robertas race never washed their hair and they smelled funny. Both girls were eight years old and got Fs all the time. Me [Twyla] because I couldnt remember what I read or what the teacher said. And Roberta because she couldnt read at all and didnt even listen to the teacher. She wasnt good at anything except jacks, at which she was a killer. . . . Twyla: The food was good, though. At least I though so. Roberta hated it and left whole pieces of things on her plate: Spam, Salisbury steakeven Jell-O with fruit cocktail in it, and she didnt care if I ate what she wouldnt. [My mothers] idea of supper was popcorn and Yoo-Hoo. Hot mashed potatoes and two weenies was like Thanksgiving for me. While at St. Bonnys, the girls witness something terrible in the orchard, two to four aces of apple trees near the orphanage, a place where older girls hang out to listen to the radio and dance (these descriptions are also perhaps euphemisms for sexual activities they engaged in among themselves). Twyla: Maggie fell down there once. The kitchen woman with legs like parentheses. And the big girls laughed at her. We should have helped her up, I know, but we were scared of those girls with lipstick and eyebrow pencil. Maggie couldnt talk. The kids said she had her tongue cut out, but I think she was just born that way: mute. She was old and sandy-colored and she worked from early in the morning till two oclock, and if she was late, if she had too much cleaning and didnt get out till two-fifteen or so, shed cut through the orchard so she wouldnt miss her bus and have to wait another hour. She wore this really stupid little hata kids hat with ear flapsand she wasnt much taller than we were. A really awful little hat. Even for a mute, it was dumbdressing like a kid and ever saying anything at al. The girls mothers come for a Sunday visit: Twyla: I saw [my mother] right away. She had on those green slacks I hated and hated even more because didnt she know we were going to chapel? And that fur jacket with the pocket linings so ripped she had to pull to get her hands out of them. But her face was prettylike alwaysand she smiled and waved like she was the little girl looking for her mother. . . . But I couldnt stay mad at [my mother] while she was smiling and hugging me and smelling of Lady Esther dusting powder. . . . and I was feeling proud because she looked so beautiful even in those ugly green slacks that made her behind stick out. Note: Lady Esther is a German cosmetics company, and has been around since 1913. Twyla: I am left-handed. Twyla: [Robertas mother] was big. Bigger than any man and on her chest was the biggest cross Id ever seen. I swear it was six inches long each way. And in the crook of her arm was the biggest Bible ever made. . . . Robertas mother just looked down at me and looked down at [my mother] too. She didnt say anything, just grabbed Roberta with her free hand and stepped out of line, walking quickly to the rear of it. [My mother] p. 685

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was still grinning because shes not too swift when it comes to whats really going on. Then this light bulb goes off in her head and she says, That bitch! really loud . . . . Why did I think she could come there and act right? . . . We were supposed to have lunch in the teachers lounge, but [my mother] didnt bring anything . . . [Roberts mother] brought chicken legs and ham sandwiches and oranges and a whole box of chocolate-covered grahams. Roberta drank milk from a thermos while her mother read the Bible to her. Several years later, in the 1960s Twyla: I was working behind the counter at the Howard Johnsons on the Thruway just before the Kingston exit. Not a bad job. Kind of a long ride from Newburgh, but okay once I got there. Note: In the 1960s, Newburgh and surrounding areas were almost exclusively white. Roberta is in the Howard Johnsons with two hairy men, and it is at this point we learn that Robertas last name is Fisk. Twyla describes Robertas appearance thus: Her own hair was so big and wild I could hardly see her face. But the eyes. I would know them anywhere. She had on a powder-blue halter and shorts outfit and earrings the size of bracelets. Talk about lipstick and eyebrow pencil. Roberta: Were on our way to the coast. Hes got an appointment with Hendrix. She gestured casually to one of the boys next to her. Twyla: Hendrix? Fantastic, I said. Really fantastic. Whats she doing now? Roberta coughed on her cigarette and the two guys rolled their eyes up at the ceiling. Roberta: Hendrix. Jimi Hendrix, asshole. Hes only the biggestOh, wow. Forget it. Note: Jimi Hendrix had a mostly white following. Several years later, in the 1970 or 80s Twyla is now married: [James] liked my cooking and I liked his big loud family. They have lived in Newburgh all of their lives and talk about it the way people do who have always known a home. . . . James and his father talk about fishing and baseball and I can see them together on the Hudson in a raggedy skiff. Half the population of Newburgh is on welfare now, but to my husbands family it was still some upstate paradise of a time long past. . . . But the town they remembered had changed. Something quick was in the air. Magnificent old houses, so ruined that they had become shelter for squatters and rent risks, were bought and renovated. Smart IBM people moved out of their suburbs back into the city and put shutters up and herb gardens in their backyards. Twyla sees Roberta in Newburghs new gourmet food store: Twyla: Where are you? Here? In Newburgh? Roberta: Yes. Over in Annandale. . . . Now Im Mrs. Kenneth Norton. . . . The two proceed to separate checkouts and agree to meet outside the store: She was waiting for me and her huge hair was sleek now, smooth around a small, nicely shaped head. Shoes, dress, everything lovely and summery and rich. I was dying to know what happened to her, how she got from Jimi Hendrix to Annandale, a p. 688-89

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neighborhood full of doctors IBM executives. Easy, I though, Everything is so easy for them. They think they own the world. . . . And then I saw the dark blue limousine. Note: Annandale is an upper class neighborhood in the Newburgh area. The two women discuss their husbands and children: Twylas husband is a fireman and Robertas is an IBM executive. They then find themselves talking about the Maggie incident: Twyla: Remember Maggie? The day she fell down and those gar girls laughed at her? [. . .] Roberta: Maggie didnt fall, she said. Twyla: Yes, she did. You remember. Roberta: No Twyla. They knocked her down. Those girls pushed her down and tore her clothes. In the orchard. . . . And Bozo [the superintendent] was fired. Twyla: You're crazy. She was there when they I left. You left before me. Roberta: I went back. You werent there when they fired Bozo. . . . Once for a year when I was ten, another for two months when I was fourteen. Thats when I ran away. . . . Youve blocked it, Twyla. It happened. Those girls had behavior problems. . . . Twyla: Why cant I remember the Maggie thing? Twyla then changes the subject to their last meeting at the Howard Johnsons: Twyla: Were you on dope or what that time at Howard Johnsons? I tried to make my voice sound friendly. Roberta: Maybe, a little. I never did drugs much. Why? Twyla: I dont know, you acted sort of like you didnt want to know me then. Roberta: Oh, Twyla, you know how it was back in those days; blackwhite. You know how everything was. Twyla: But I didnt know. I thought it was just the opposite. Busloads of blacks and whites came into Howard Johnsons together. . . . and blacks were very friendly to whites in those days. Later that fall: Twyla: Strife came to us that fall. At least thats what the paper called it. Strife. Racial strife. . . . I couldnt figure it out from one day to the next. I knew I was supposed to feel something strong, but I didnt know what, and James wasnt any help. [Our son] was on the list of kids to be transferred from the junior high school to another one at some farout-of-the-way place and I thought it was a good thing until I heard it was a bad thing. I mean I didnt know. All the schools seemed dumps to me, and the fact that one was nicer looking didnt hold much weight. . . . So I forgot about it, until I found myself driving along Hudson Street out there by the school they were trying to integrate and saw a line of women marching. And who do you suppose was in line, big as life, holding a sign in front of her bigger than her mothers cross? MOTHERS HAVE RIGHTS TOO! It said. Twyla: What are you doing? Roberta: Picketing. Whats it look like?

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Twyla: What for? Roberta: What do you mean, What for? They want to take my kids and send them out of the neighborhood. They dont want to go. Twyla: So what if they go to another school? My boys being bussed to, and I dont mind. Why should you? Roberta: Its not about us, Twyla. Me and you. Its about our kids. Twyla: Whats more us than that? Roberta: Well, it is a free country. Twyla: Not yet, but it will be. Roberta: What the heck does that mean? Im not doing anything to you. Twyla: You really think that? Roberta: I know it. Twyla: I wonder what made me think you were different. Roberta: I wonder what made me think you were different. Twyla: Look at them, I said. Just look. Who do they think they are? Swarming all over the place like they own it. And now they think they can decide where my child goes to school. Look at them, Roberta. Theyre Bozos. Roberts co-picketers surround Twylas car and gently, gently, began to rock it. After the police disburse the picketers, Roberta and Twyla resume theyre discussion: Roberta: Maybe I am different now, Twyla. But youre not. Youre the same little state kid who kicked a poor old black lady when she was down on the ground. You kicked a black lady and you have the nerve to call me a bigot. [. . . ] Twyla: She wasnt black, I said. Roberta: Like hell she wasnt, and you kicked her. We both did. You kicked a black lady who couldnt even scream. Twyla: Liar! Roberta: Youre the liar! Why dont you just go home and leave us alone, huh? Twyla goes home and makes her own picket sign: I had a decent sign: red spray-painted letters on a white backgroundAND SO DO CHILDREN****. I meant just to go down to the school and tack it up somewhere so those cows on the picket line could see it, but when I got there, some ten or so others had already assembledprotesting the cows across the street. . . . The second day there was name calling and finger gestures. . . People changed signs from time to time, but Roberta never did and neither did I. Actually my sign didnt make sense without Robertas. And so do children what? one of the women on my side asked me. Have right, I said, as if it was obvious. . . . Still, I couldnt tell if [Roberta] saw me and knew my sign was for her. . . . As soon as she hoisted her MOTHERS HAVE RIGHTS TOO I began to wave my new one, which said, HOW WOULD YOU KNOW? I know she saw p. 693

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that one, but I had gotten addicted now. My signs got crazier each day, and the women on my side decided that I was a kook. . . . I brought a painted sign in queenly red with huge black letters that said, IS YOUR MOTHER WELL? Roberta took her lunch break and didnt come back for the rest of the day or any day after. Two days later I stopped going too and couldnt have been missed because nobody understood my signs. Twyla thinks about what Roberta has told her about the Maggie incident: I was puzzled by her telling me Maggie was black. When I thought about it I actually couldnt be certain. She wasnt pitch black, I knew, or I would have remembered that. What I remember was the kiddie hat and the semicircle legs. I tried to reassure myself about the race thing for a long time until it dawned on me that the truth was already there, and Roberta knew it. I didnt kick her, I didnt join in with the gar girls and kick that lady, I but I sure did want to. . . . Maggie was my dancing mother. Deaf, I thought, and dumb. Nobody inside. Nobody who would hear you if you cried in the night. Nobody who could tell you anything important that you could use. At some unspecified Christmas season in the future, Twyla bumps into Roberta in a diner. Roberta, who is dressed in a silvery gown and dark fur coat, confesses: Roberta: Listen to me. I really did think [Maggie] was black. I didnt make that up. I really thought so. But now I cant be sure. I just remember her as old, so old. And because she couldnt talkwell, you know, I thought she was crazy. Shed been brought up in an institution like my mother was and like I thought I would be too. And you are right. We didnt kick her. It was the gar girls. Only them. But, well, I wanted to. I really wanted them to hurt her. I said we did it, too. You and me, but thats not true. And I dont want you to carry that around. It was just that I wanted to do it so bad that daywanting to is doing it. . . . Oh, shit, Twyla. Shit, shit, shit. What the hell happened to Maggie? The end.

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ENG 327: Kreth Considerations for students 3 Complete the following statements honestly based on your initial reading of the story. In the explanations of your answers, make sure that you provide specific detail from the text to support your ideas. 1. In reading Toni Morrisons Recitatif, based on examples from the text, I conclude that Twyla is black/white because . . . 2. In reading Toni Morrisons Recitatif, based on examples from the text, I conclude that Roberta is black/white because . . .
3. 4. 5.

In reading Toni Morrisons Recitatif, based on examples from the text, I conclude that Maggie is black/white because . . . In reading Toni Morrisons Recitatif, based on examples from the text, I did/did not change my mind about the characters races while reading because. . . I did not focus on issues of race because I was more interested in other issues in the story such as . . .

6. I think Recitatif is mostly about . . . 7. I did/did not enjoy reading Recitatif because . . .

From English Composition 102M On-Line: Multiculutral American Literature, Response to Toni Morrisons Recitatif. <http://parallell.park.uga.edu/~lisaboyd/102M/s98/recitatif.html>.

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Map Showing the Location of Newburgh NY