An Experiment

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     In Toni Morrison’s Recitatif, the story of two young girls in a temporary orphanage and then zooming in on their lives multiple years later, the readers are taken through an experiment where the factor of race has never been clarified. 

    Throughout the whole short story, Morrison never clarifies the race of the two girls, Roberta and Twyla, instead Morrison leaves it up to the reader to figure it out themselves. This reminded me of those “choose your story” books from when we were younger, where one small decision we took could impact the rest of the story's experience for us. For those who assigned a race to each character from the beginning, the story could have become confusing, or our perspective could have changed throughout the story. For those who didn't assign a race to the characters, we could've used other means to decide the girl's social standings, like their economic situation or relationships(family and friends).

    What I found interesting was my urge to figure out which race both of the girls were. I at first thought that since Morrison herself was black, Twyla would be black too. This was proven wrong when Twyla tells Big Bozo that her "mother won’t like you putting me in here." After this, I found myself constantly trying to figure out the characters’ races, as if it had any importance to the story. 

    From what I believe, Recitatif was meant to expose the reader's biases. Like how Twyla believed that Maggie wasn't black, the reader's assumptions as to which race each character was, defined how the reader interpreted the rest of the story and told the reader something new about them. 

    If a reader connects more to Twyla, the reason could be because of past experiences or social standings instead of the usual "because she's a person of color". The same goes for Roberta. If someone found Roberta's character more relatable, Roberta's race wouldn't be the main reason. 

    Now I actually take back the “choose your story” perspective on Recitatif, instead, Recitatif is a personality quiz where as the story goes on, we learn more and more about ourselves and how we perceive society. Morrison not only experimented with herself but also with the readers.

 

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