In “Recitatif”, Morrison skillfully utilizes ambiguity and the lack of explicit racial markers to explore themes of identity, memory, and racial complexity. By not explicitly informing the race of two main characters, Twyla and Roberta, the author allows the reader to guess their racial affiliation from the detailed descriptions, forcing readers to confront their own prejudices.

For instance, when Twyla describes “stuck in a strange place with a girl from a whole other race” this is the first time she met Roberta at Bellevue shelter. Twyla also describes her mother’s opinion toward the other race “They never washed their hair, and they smelled funny”, and “Roberta sure did smell funny” It could align with stereotypes of either black or white women, depending on the reader’s perspective.

Another example is their encounter as adults at Howard Johnson’s. Twyla is a waitress at the diner, and the well-dressed Roberta shows indifference to their re-encounter. Twelve years later when they meet again at grocery shopping, this time Roberta acts like an old friend she hasn’t spoken to in a long time, and Roberta confesses that she gave Twyla the cold shoulder back then because of race differences. However, Morrison still does not name who is white and who is black, a scene that emphasizes that race and class are socially constructed and that they are often used as tools of division despite people’s shared humanity.

The two characters’ differing memories of Maggie, the mute kitchen worker, highlight how personal prejudices and emotions shape memories of the past. Twyla’s racial memory of Maggie is ambiguous, she believes she did not personally bully Maggie, whereas Roberta persists in believing that Maggie was black and accuses Twyla of being involved in abusing Maggie. This divergence of memory emphasizes the unreliability of memory and how racial identities can be assigned after the fact.

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