In her story Recitatif, Toni Morrison uses confusion and unclear racial identity to talk about big ideas like identity, memory, and race. She nevers tells us if Twyla and Roberta are Black or White, which makes readers guess and think about their own assumptions. This confusion helps show how race can affect how we see the world. Also, the characters’ memories about Maggie and their fights over school integration make us think about how complicated race and society are. I will use three examples from the story to show how Morrison uses this unclear style to explore these themes.

The idea of confusion and unclear racial identity is explored throughout Recitatif in several key moments. Morrison never directly tells us Twyla and Roberta’s race, but small clues, like Twyla saying Roberta “smelled funny”, make readers assume their identities. This forces us to think about how race shapes our views of others. Maggie’s story adds another layer to this theme. Twyla and Roberta disagree about Maggie – Roberta believes Maggies was Black and pushed down, but Twyla doesn’t remember it that way. This difference shows how race and emotion influence memory. Later, during the school busing protest, their conflict grows. Roberta protests against integration, while Twyla supports it, highlighting how race and class divide them as adults. Through these moments, Morrison uses ambiguity to reveal the complexities of race, memory, and identity.

Through the use of ambiguity, Morrison challenges readers to reflect on their own perceptions of race and identity. By keeping racial markers unclear and presenting conflicting memories, she highlights how race and personal experiences shape the way we see the world. These moments, such as Maggie’s story and the busing protest, reveal how societal divisions and assumptions about race continue to affect relationships and understanding. Morrison’s approach invites us to think critically about how race operates in both personal and collective memory.

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.