Toni Morrison "Recitatif"

Nobel Prize winner (1993) Celebrated for her novels: The Bluest Eye (1970) Song of Solomon (1977) Beloved (1987) "Throughout her works, characters find themselves caught in patterns of violence and prejudice that threaten to destroy them, but a few manage to transcend this history and achieve a measure of freedom and self-worth"

Passages of narrative or dialogue in an opera that are sung in the rhythm of ordinary speech.

A form of music that balances the spoken and the sung. Essential to the development and progression of the plot.

Morrison's only published short story (until recently when she published "Sweetness" in 2015) Why does Morrison use the term "recitatif" as the title for her story? Reinforces the theme of the integration of disparate parts. Necessary balance and integration between different races. The structure of the story constitutes five distinct parts that narrate five different moments when Twyla and Roberta meet.

We might infer that the friendship and antagonism narrated in these moments must be similarly balanced in the manner of a recitatif. "Desegregation busing": practice of transporting students to schools outside of his or her residential area to redress prior racial segregation of schools. "I wonder what made me think you were different?" (1184)

Invites reflection on the role that race plays in understanding characters and interpreting their actions. Challenges reader to contemplate the role that race plays in one's identity and also emphasizes a common humanity among Twyla, Roberta, and Maggie.

-"What the hell happened to Maggie?" (1187) Difficulty of remembering past events.

"Distinguishing color — light, black, in between — as the marker for race is really an error: It's socially constructed, it's culturally enforced and it has some advantages for certain people," she says. "But this is really skin privilege — the ranking of color in terms of its closeness to white people or white-skinned people and its devaluation according to how dark one is and the impact that has on people who are dedicated to the privileges of certain levels of skin color.

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Both the main characters are identified through the descriptions of their mothers.

At the orphanage the two were both made fun of since both were not true orphans, which gave them a common and sort of "necessary" type of bond. There was a likeness between these two that the others lacked.

Before their mother's came the two became very close, and curled eachothers hair. Then when their mother's arrived a type of division occurs because Roberta's mother would not shake hands with Mary, Twyla's. Then there is the division of lunches, in which Roberta's brings alot, and Twyla's does not. Then Roberta left in May, leaving Twyla alone.

The relationship has grown far more complicated. With Roberta more successful than Twyla, opposing opinions on the past and the present issues, making their relationship rough but balancing.

Yes, because Roberta does not support the integration and the moving of schools, she poses a sign saying "Mothers have rights" and then Twyla makes a poster saying "and so do children" although these two signs would not make sense withough one another.