Recitatif

Recitatif

Final Paper Pg.1
“”Recitatif” by Toni Morrison
Lupe Perez
LIB. 316
Dr. Steve McKenna
September 7, 2009
Final Paper Pg.2
“Recitatif”
After meeting at St. Bonaventure Twyla who is the narrator of this story and Roberta the other eight year old girl, who is brought in by Mrs. It kin ( who is also know as Big Bozo) quickly learn that they have something in common. At first they are not sure of each other because of their back grounds and their cultural beliefs. Twyla soon finds that Roberta is understanding and sympathetic to her situation, while most children at the shelter are orphans, Twyla is there because her mother “dances all night” and Roberta is there because her “mother is sick”. The two girls are isolated from the other children at St. Bonny’s and are scared of the older girls, so having that in common they decided to stick together. One of the memory’s that sticks out in Twyla’s mind is that of the orchard and an incident that happened their with Maggie, one of the kitchen woman who was deaf and who had crooked legs that caused her to rock and sway as she walks, she fell while running down the orchard trying to catch her bus, the older girls laughed at her, and Twyla recalls that her and Roberta did nothing to help her. They called her names and Maggie ignored them or maybe because she was deaf she didn’t hear them either way after looking back Twyla cant help but to feel guilty and ashamed of her actions. One Sunday afternoon Twyla and Roberta’s mother come to visit, after 28 days of being there. They will go to the chapel together and have lunch with them at the teachers lounge. The girls are excited and get dressed and do each others hair. Once they arrive at the church services Twyla is embarrassed by her mother Mary who is wearing green slacks that make her butt stick out with a ratty fur jacket with ripped pocket linings. Twyla feels that her mother is dressed inappropriately for church service.
The picketers join Roberta...