Race and prejudice
Throughout the short story, Morrison manipulates the issue of race and prejudice by not explicitly stating the race of the two main characters, Twyla and Roberta. However, Morrison makes the distinction between the two characters when they first meet, noting that Roberta is of a different race from Twyla. Throughout the novel, Morrison attempts to reveal the reader's personal assumptions and prejudices about race. Morrison also manages to conceal Twyla and Roberta's races during a disagreement over school integration. Roberta lives in an affluent neighborhood that consists of executives and doctors, whereas Twyla lives in a neighborhood in which half of the population is on government assistance or welfare. In the midst of their argument, Twyla and Roberta both emphasized the arbitrary nature of racial identity and both women's generally negative views regarding the other race.[4]
The race of another character, Maggie, who is disabled, is an important element of Toni Morrison's "Recitatif" as Roberta and Twyla confront each other, and Roberta thinks that Maggie was black while Twyla disagrees, highlighting the girls’ racial stereotypes. In addition, Roberta states that Twyla kicked Maggie, who she called a "poor black lady", into a garden, displaying her racial prejudice. However, later in the story, Twyla recounts the incident as Maggie falling down, but she still feels shameful. As a result, Roberta admits that she lied about the incident because of her personal conflicts regarding Maggie's race. The ambiguity of Maggie's racial identity is a key literary component of her puzzling significance within the story as it is used to show how race and prejudice is primarily an arbitrary social construction, which exists in reality because of prejudices and racial concepts that develop in people's minds.[6]
Roberta and Twyla's perception of race is based largely, not solely on race, but on their upbringings and societal norms, which contributes to the racial tension between them. As Twyla and Roberta's mothers are also essential characters in this story, they are the primary reason why the girls were put in the orphanage and they contributed to their bonding. As children, the girls relied on the racial perception of their parents as they were not old enough to develop their own perceptions. As a result, Twyla was not friendly with Roberta, initially. However, as the story progressed, the girls came to understand that they are similar in many ways. However, Roberta's racial attitudes were developed from the way society perceives race and she used this as an excuse for the previous racial tension between her and Twyla.
Throughout the story, Toni Morrison looks into the racial differences of two girls growing up in the same setting. Although the girls encounter several racial barriers and tension, they ultimately find similarities within one another, developing their relationship beyond skin color. Morrison's layered literary work depicts the parallel, complex relationship of Roberta and Twyla while simultaneously complicating the understanding of the story by the reader to challenge their racial perceptions and stereotypes. Morrison utilizes racial ambiguity as well as the vague signs and traits to create Twyla and Roberta's racial identities and to show how their relationship is shaped by their racial differences. Morrison's use of specific social and historical descriptions of the girls forces readers to reevaluate how racial preconceptions and stereotypical assumptions affect the overall understanding of a literary character.[7]
Disability
Although "Recitatif" is heavily centered on the theme of race, the theme of disability is also extensively highlighted throughout the short story. During the story, the primary disabled character, Maggie, is described as mute and possibly deaf. Maggie is also stated to have "legs like parenthesis", emphasizing a physical disability. In the story, similar to the theme of race, Morrison never explicitly states what Maggie's disability is, leaving the other characters to speculate and form their own conclusions about her. Some of the children in the orphanage believes Maggie's tongue was cut off, which would explain why she does not speak. However, Roberta and Twyla do not submit to the other children's belief as they are unsure if Maggie is deaf. The two girls test Maggie's hearing ability by calling her derogatory and stereotypical names such as "Bow legs" and "Dummy". Ultimately, the girls feel ashamed as they later consider the possibility that Maggie may very well hear them and their offensive comments. However, this does not prevent the girls from engaging in their biases and false assumptions later in the story, Twyla questions if "there was somebody in there", referring to Maggie's body. As adults, Twyla even justifies Maggie's incident of falling at the orphanage as insignificant because she does not believe that there is a real person inside of Maggie's body, while Roberta claims that she thought Maggie was crazy because she did not talk and confesses that she wanted to hurt Maggie, emphasizing the notion that individuals with disability are not considered real humans with real emotions, instead they are simply subjects.
Other important characters who were potentially disabled in Morrison's "Recitatif" is Roberta's mother and Mary, Twyla's mother. In the story's opening, Twyla states that her mother "danced all night" and that "Roberta's mother was sick", which is why their mothers sent the girls to the orphanage. Continuing the literary utilization of ambiguity, Morrison never explicitly reveals the diseases of either of the girls' mothers' illnesses. Roberta's mother’s illness rendered her incapable of caring for Roberta and caused her to be raised in an institution suggesting she has a mental illness, similarly, Twyla's mother is suggested to have a mental illness as well as she has an obsession with dancing that has rendered her incapable from properly caring for her daughter. Twyla also equated her mother to Maggie as she highlighted that both of their disabilities rendered them deaf, although it is unclear if they have a literal inability to hear sound. Instead, them being deaf refers to Maggie and Mary's detachment from their surroundings.
