Recitatif

Racism plays a very important role in this story, as Roberta and Twyla are of different races. When they are young, they think little of it, but they learn from their mothers what it means to discriminate. As they get older, they dislike each other more for who they are, and they find it hard to feel sympathy for other races when they are neglected. In the final encounter that they have with each other, they begin to move to an understanding of who they are in relation to each other (with Maggie as the conduit). Morrison also asks her readers to think about race and what the internalized cues they have regarding which character is white and which is black.