Ambiguity Showcasing Innate Perceptions

When writing the short story Recitatif, Toni Morrison stated that the story was meant to serve as a social experiment. At its core, Recitatif is a story of how two girls, one black and one white, raised with similar backgrounds slowly adapted to social constructs. Throughout the story, Morrison never mentioned the race of the two girls, instead, readers have to use their definition of race, historical knowledge, and context clues to deduce the race of each girl. 

At the start of Recitatif, it’s easy to assume that Twyla is African American since she was the main character, and authors often project their own qualities onto central characters. However, two pivotal scenes from the girls' time at the orphanage made this view uncertain. When Twyla was talking her mom that she made a new friend who was of another race, her mom responded, “they never washed their hair and they smelled funny. Roberta sure did. Smell funny, I mean.” Given that this story began at the start of the Civil Rights Movement, this type of derogatory comment towards another race could’ve been said by either race. Moreover, when Roberta and Twyla's moms were introduced to one another, “Roberta's mother looked down at me and then looked down at Mary too. She didn't say anything, just grabbed Roberta with her Bible-free hand and stepped out of line, walking quickly to the rear of it.” On one hand, one assumes that Roberta was white since her mom felt a sense of superiority to Twyla's parents. On the other hand, this extreme reaction could be attributed to the racial tension of this time. 

All in all, Morrison’s short story forces the audience to reevaluate their own definition of racial characteristics and makes us question whether or not our perception of characters can ever truly be unbiased.