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Introduction
The central idea of the Recitatif by Toni Morrison is race and racism, the “black-white” conflict. It must be noticed that the author’s approach to this subject is nonconventional, and the first sign of it is that she makes the reader guess who between the two protagonists of the story is “black” and who is “white.” Despite this difference, two girls appearing as the main characters are able to become friends, though the ties of their friendship are unstable, and their attitude towards each other undergo many changes as the story proceeds. Two girls from different racial backgrounds have something similar, which is related to their mothers, and make them feel solidarity, as they “nod the head” in reply to each other’s words.
On the other hand, they share the memory of Maggie, a mute kitchen lady in the orphanage, who once fell down in the orchard and was “kicked” by “big girls.” Throughout the story, this memory remains the constantly appearing point of the protagonists’ discussion and, ultimately, their conflict. The question is about the fact whether they kicked her (or wanted to), and whether the lady was “black.” Thus, it becomes an allegory of their attitude to a racially different person, revealing their intolerance and hostility towards ethnocultural “other.” In this essay, there will be discussed a symbolism of the two acts constantly appearing in all encounters of the main characters, nod and kick. The contexts in which they appear will be described, allowing understanding the ideas which these acts reveal for readers.
A Nod of the Head and its Contexts in the Story
As two protagonists, Twyla and Roberta, are introduced to each other in the orphanage, Twyla, on behalf of whom the story is told, immediately gets “sick to her stomach” (Morrison 243). The girl with whom she is going to share the room is “from a whole other race” (Morrison 243), and that is enough to feel hostile towards her. However, Roberta doesn’t reply to Twyla’s reaction, asking instead whether her mother is “sick too.“ “No, she just likes to dance all night,” answers Twyla (Morrison 243). Roberta nods her head; no words are needed for the feeling of solidarity, as the simple sign makes both girls feel it. Though their relationships remain ambivalent, they consolidate, largely due to having common enemies, the “gar girls” from the upper floor. The world is unfriendly towards them, and their alliance seems to be the only mean of their psychological survival.
However, during their second encounter, there is no place for the nod of the head.
“How’s your mother?” I asked. Her grin cracked her whole face. She swallowed. “Fine,” she said. “How’s yours?”
“Pretty as a picture,” I said and turned away (Morrison 250).
These answers become significant if to consider their difference from the other encounters of the protagonists. They will never describe their mothers in this manner anymore. Instead of it, they will always restate the same phrases accompanied with the same nod, symbolizing their solidarity.
“By the way. Your mother. Did she ever stop dancing?”
I shook my head. “No. Never.”
Roberta nodded.
“And yours? Did she ever get well?”
She smiled a tiny sad smile. “No” (Morrison 255).
Twyla and Roberta’s next encounter happened at the time of the desegregation bussing crisis, and during the picketing, in the culmination of their opposition to each other, Twyla suddenly refers to their mutual life challenge. On her poster, she draws: “Is your mother well?” (Morrison 259); after that, Roberta disappears. Although the reader may only guess the reason for that, it might be supposed that the poster made Roberta suddenly look inwards and reconsider the situation.
At, in the end, after Roberta’s reconsideration, the nod of the head concludes the story.
“Did I tell you? My mother, she never did stop dancing.”
“Yes. You told me. And mine, she never got well” (Morrison 261).
However, the last words, leaving their discussion and, ultimately, the whole story open, were: “What the hell happened to Maggie?” (Morrison 261). This phrase leads to the second symbol of the story and its context.
A Kick and its Contexts in the Story
The issue began when Maggie, a dump kitchen lady “with legs like parentheses” working at the orphanage, fell down in the orchard and became the subject of the “big girls” laugh and abuses. “We should have helped her up, I know, but we were scared of those girls
with lipstick and eyebrow pencil,” remembers Twyla (Morrison 245). Further, in the story, this issue would become the subject of the re-interpretation, as every time they meet, Roberta points out new details about this moment, which Twyla can’t remember. Thus, first, Roberta states that “Maggie didn’t fall,” but “those girls pushed her down” (Morrison 254). Later, she argues that nobody else than Twyla kicked that “black lady” (Morrisons 257). Finally, in their last meeting, Roberta accepts that none of them kicked her, but they both wanted to do it that day, concluding that wanting to be, ultimately, doing.
This point becomes more significant if to consider the perception of Maggies by Twyla and Roberta in terms of herm racial belonging. For Twyla, she always remains a “sand-coloured” lady, while Roberta perceives her as a “black lady.” Within this context, her abuse stops being just a cruel treatment of the dump, speechless, and helpless woman but becomes an issue of racial profiling. In the end, Roberta, doubting about the colour (and the race) of Maggie after the words of Twyla, hesitates in her opinion: “I really did think she was black. I didn’t make that up. I really thought so. But now I can’t be sure” (Morrisons 261). Thus, the message of it is about the conventionality of all the social concepts, suddenly realized by both Twyla and Roberta.
Besides this, an interesting detail could be uncovered, if to remember Twyla’s reflection on her undisclosed wish to give Maggie a kick. “Maggie was my dancing mother. Deaf… and dumb. Nobody who would hear you if you cried in the night… nobody who could tell you anything important”, such thoughts emerge in Twyla’s mind (Morrison 259). Therefore, her contempt for Maggie was not connected to the mute woman’s colour or race, but just to her inability to be a person who can feel compassion and love, to live a meaningful life. It seems that this remark depicts the author’s opinion about the value of human qualities not depending on race or any other conventional definition; there can be just “somebody” – or “nobody.”
In summary, it may be concluded that the two symbols in the story, nod and kick, represent the opposite ideas of solidarity and racial conflict. The ways they appear in the text allow understanding its meaning about the existence of both approaches, friendliness and hostility, or solidarity and conflict between the different races. It is only the conventionality, presumption, which makes “black” and “white” so. The unusual approach of the author, not disclosing the racial belonging of both the protagonists, ultimately allows the readers to guess, and in this way, to examine their stigmas and superstitions in this regard.
Work Cited
Morrison, Toni. “Recitatif.” Confirmation: An Anthology of African American Women, edited by Amiri Baraka and Amina Baraka. Quill, 1983, pp. 243-261.
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