Compose an argument to be posted in this blog space using one of the following prompts. Use 2-3 direct quotations, and your notes in your response.
Prompts from Past Exams
1986. Some works of literature use the element of time in a distinct way. The chronological sequence of events may be altered, or time may be suspended or accelerated. Choose a novel, an epic, or a play of recognized literary merit and show how the author's manipulation of time contributes to the effectiveness of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.
1987. Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in social or political attitudes or in traditions. Choose such a novel or play and note briefly the particular attitudes or traditions that the author apparently wishes to modify. Then analyze the techniques the author uses to influence the reader's or audience's views. Avoid plot summary.
1988. Choose a distinguished novel or play in which some of the most significant events are mental or psychological; for example, awakenings, discoveries, changes in consciousness. In a well-organized essay, describe how the author manages to give these internal events the sense of excitement, suspense, and climax usually associated with external action. Do not merely summarize the plot.
The short story is about two girls Twyla and Roberta who were friends in a shelter when they were younger. Twyla is a black girl whose mother never stopped dancing. She changes from a scared little girl to a diner waitress then finally to a mother with a family. She isn’t wealthy throughout the story and attempts to reconnect with he friend Roberta but never really does. Roberta goes into the shelter because her mother is sick. She changes a lot from failing a lot of her classes, being a picky eater and she is white. She has a drastic transformation. From being a poor little girl she becomes a well off wealthy woman with a widowed husband that make a lot of money. Twyla changes and I feel bad for her because she wants to get somewhere in life but never really does because she doesn’t have the resources that she would have needed. Roberta goes from an innocent little girl to a powerful and rich women with a lot of power. “Roberta coughed on her cigarette and the two guys rolled their eyes up at the ceiling." She has gotten in with a new crowd of people who are stuck up type that don’t really care about others and will make assumptions about others if they mess up once. Maggie plays a role in adding context and having a talking point between the two of them. Maggie played a very important part in how Roberta and Twyla were connected because that's where their central conflict was throughout the story when they were going against each other and when they came together and reunited as friends at the end.
ReplyDeleteMorrison’s perspective of time throughout ‘Racitatif’ is to make it consistent for both characters. Twyla and Roberta were both placed into very similar paths; Roberta’s mother was placed in the hospital sick, while Twayla’s mom is described to “dance all night”. Both parents were not available to meet their children’s needs, so Twyla and Roberta were taken to a shelter. Both were in very similar situations and saw each other as equals, both receiving F’s in their classes and being some of the youngest in the shelter. Despite the colors of their skin, the two girls were completely equal. This continues until Roberta is taken out of the shelter and the two girls lose contact. However, when the story jumps ahead, the girls are seen in very different situations, while we see Twyla working in a diner which she describes as being similar to the shelter she was in. Twayla’s life stayed consistent to as it was before, but Roberta is seen smoking a cigarette and on her way to meet Jimi Hendrix. When we are reintroduced to Roberta’s character, she seems like a completely new person. She inhibits luxury, something that completely contrasts her and Twyla making paper baskets full of jelly beans when they were younger. Both girls seem content with their current lives, but the difference between where ended up had an extreme contrast. When Roberta talks about her mother, she mentions that she is ‘fine’ and it seems as though she wants to wash away the memory of being placed into the shelter. As time continues on, we truly see the contrast between the two characters. Roberta is stubbornly protesting against her child being moved to another school, while Twyla approaches it in no big deal. It seems as though Roberta tries her best to fit in with the “big girls”, even when she’s older and married. Although, what brings her back every time is the question “how is your mother?” which returns at the end of the story. I think this repetition represents how the girls are similar to their mothers, as Roberta never seems to “get better”, she tries to fit in with the status quo. In the part where Twyla is at the protest, Roberta does not take Twyla’s hand- which perfectly mirrors what occured at the start of the story with their mothers. Twyla’s mother is described to “always be dancing” which would represent her being free and not caring of fitting in so much.
ReplyDeleteI love how you were able to relate Roberta and Twyla back to their mothers. I did not see the connection between their behaviors in their adulthood and their mothers until you pointed it out as I focused more on the influence society had on their actions.
DeleteI found your example of the hand-shaking metaphor to be fantastic. I did not notice this contrast at all when I read through the piece, and the metaphysical division between Twyla and Roberta is exemplified in this small yet powerful human gesture.
DeleteToni Morrison uses time in a very interesting way to depict the story of two very different girls and how they are connected through shared hardships in what becomes a lifelong companionship. A big bulk of the story takes place when the girls are only eight years old, Twyla is black and Roberta is white. Both girls are there for different reasons but find respect and sisterhood with one another and they believe at the moment that it is a bond that will never be broken. Morrison writes, “ we looked like salt and pepper standing there and that's what the other kids called us sometimes”. The symbolism of the salt and pepper is that they may be very different, in fact quite opposites, but they still are together as a pair. The story jumps to over a decade later when the girls meet in Twyla’s work place and then again later during a racial protest about school integrations and then once again at a later time as Twyla is buying a Christmas tree. Each time both girls are going through their own struggles and hardships and are often butting heads with one another on the right course of action or how to ‘correctly’ interact with one another. I personally believe that this is in part due to the racial stereotypes that black and white people are not supposed to be friends with one another and you can see them grow out of their child like innocence in which they do not judge others by their racial differences. They sort of give in to the single story stereotyping in society at that time. This is very evidently seen in the ways that Roberta harshly treats Twyla and is quite rude and cold to her like during the protest, “ My arm shot out of the car window but no receiving hand was there. Roberta was looking at me “. Another factor that plays into their odd interactions with each other is the issue of their class and how Roberta is living a wealthy, glamorous life and Twyla is trying to pick herself life and fit into at least a lower middle class lifestyle. It’s very interesting to see how these girls go from being such equals and basically sisters at the beginning of the story to such drastically different people in their older age.
ReplyDeleteOne of the main things that seems to keep the girls together is the incident with the old lady Maggie who was disabled and worked at the orphanage when they were younger. I feel as though Maggie’s purpose in the story sevres a greater meaning than just remembering what happened to her. She serves as a commonality for the girls as they almost always seem to mention her when they meet up. It’s a small dispute that seems to continue their relationship with one another and their bigger fight to become connected with one another as they once were before.
I agree that Maggies character has a greater meaning and while it is a commonality, their perception of Maggie is very different. While Roberta saw Maggie as black Twyla never saw her race, because it did not matter to her.
DeleteI think this is very perceptive. We never really know why Twlya and Roberta keep bumping into each other throughout their lives, besides the fact they live in the same town, but I agree with you that the incident with Maggie seems to be related somehow. They had this terrible shared experience and are now linked by their own confusion in trying to remember the exact details of what occurred between Maggie and the girls. I had never thought of that while reading.
DeleteToni Morrison uses the absence of racial descriptions in her short story “Recitatif” to produce a “healthy confusion” in her readers. The two main characters, Twyla and Roberta, are introduced as a black and white girl who become fast friends after being sent to St. Bonny’s orphanage. Twlya is traditionally thought of as being black since she seems to take a much harder path in life than her carefree, somewhat unpredictable companion and is clearly more hesitant about staying in touch throughout their adulthood. However, Morrison never describes either girl as being a specific race, making their confusion over the mute kitchen woman Maggie’s race even more symbolic at the end of the story. Essentially what I got from reading “Recitatif” was that race, no matter the viewpoint, is never a matter of importance in the eyes of children, and, for this story especially, lacks importance in building a character. Roberta and Twlya developed a close bond as children since they “weren’t real orphans with beautiful dead parents in the sky. [They] were dumped.” Their relationship was built on survival, having to protect one another from the older girls with behavioural issues who threatened them on a daily basis. For this reason neither one of them focused on the other’s racial differences, but on their equally spunky personalities. I can see Twyla and Roberta’s childhood background story leaving particularly obsessive readers, like myself, with a lot of unanswered questions. Which one of them is black? Why would Twyla’s mom want to kill Roberta’s mom? What does sandy colored mean in reference to Maggie’s skin tone? Unfortunately none of these questions are answered as the story progresses, and the questions keep coming. Their mothers’ responses to one another can be interpreted multiple ways and so can the protests they attend as adults. The protest encounter provides probably the greatest bit of evidence pointing towards Twlya being black since she holds up signs defending her children (let’s remember that schools were being integrated across the country around the time this story presumably takes place), but even the protest’s subject matter is left very vague. It is never explicitly stated what Roberta and Twyla are fighting about. The final encounter between the two “friends” left me the most confused, and made the whole topic of race in the story much more clear to me. Each woman remembered Maggie as a different race, but they couldn’t remember what race she actually was. It became evident to me that Maggie is a representation of race in the story. Twlya described her as “the kitchen woman with legs like parentheses.” Her legs are symbolic of her purpose, which is as someone seemingly unimportant to the subjects around her, containing a message that could be ignored in analyzing the context of the story. This message of course is that race doesn’t matter in developing a character. The story’s many unanswered questions provoked a “healthy confusion” within me, fueling my desire to analyze the text more.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting that Morrison never defined who was who in regards to race throughout the story. There were often times throughout that one minute you might suspect Twyla was white and the next you suspected it was Roberta. The constant changing and "confusion" was beneficial to the story because it really showed another side to the story making the characters more complex as well as the idea that people who are white and people who are african american can be portrayed in different ways instead of the stereotypical ways as seen in "The Danger of the Single Story".
DeleteIn my opinion, this piece, “Recitatif”, by Toni Morrison, is a work of genius when it comes to perspective. By subtly playing on incredibly subliminal stereotypes about race in our society, he in turn reveals how harmful they can truly be. The aspect of this piece that amazed me was that by the conclusion, I was left completely confounded. I am often confused or curious at the end of a work, which is normal and great because it inspires me to reread the text to gain an even further understanding of the content and themes. However, by the end of “Recitatif” I didn’t know what to think. Throughout the piece, Morrison consistently makes it almost impossibly to tell the races of the two main characters, Twyla and Roberta. All the reader knows is that they are, “ A black girl and a white girl”. When they first meet, Twyla recalls that her mother said that people of the unspecified “other race” never, “ washed their hair and (that) they smelled funny. Roberta sure did. Smell funny, I mean.” This plays into negative stereotypes surrounding African-American people’s kinky hair. However, Twyla remarks that Roberta smells funny, diverting the whole stereotype in the first place. At this point in the story I did not know for sure who was what race, and my confusion was intensified when they met again in the Howard Johnsons, for Roberta was,“smoking a cigarette with two guys smothered in head and facial hair. Her own hair was so big and wild I could hardly see her face. But the eyes. I would know them anywhere. She had on a powder-blue halter and shorts outfit and earrings the size of bracelets.” The description is masterful, showing in utter detail the exact appearance of each character, but with one exception: race. The character of Maggie is absolutely fascinating. While Morrison makes you believe she is a “lowly” maid, in the end, Twyla reveals that she may have been her mom the entire time. This is incredibly interesting, for it makes me believe that the character of “Mary” is a figment of Twyla’s imagination. It explains why Roberta’s mom ignores her and does not shake her hand, for how can she shake the hand of an imaginary figure? This raises more questions about Maggie. If she really is Twyla’s mother, than how did she get there? Why is she mute and unstable? What race is she, and in turn, what race is Twyla? This piece left me with far more questions than closure, and while that may feel unsatisfying at times, I believe it is masterful in this case. Sometimes the questions we ask ourselves can be far more insightful than the answers.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested to know what passage implies Maggie is Twyla's mom, because that puts a whole new spin on the topic of race in the story. I saw her more as a "parentheses" character, someone who is hidden within the context of the story but has surprising significance. This, however, expands much more on who she could be.
DeleteMary being a hallucination would be pretty wack. I didn't really see anything to suggest that but given the theme of the work it is not entirely out of the question.
DeleteI think that your recognition of the importance of perspective and subtle clues is spot on. I agree that Morrison did a great job carefully crafting story elements and embedding subtle clues to play on stereotypes. I think that Morrison did an excellent job of crafting characters that are racially ambiguous. In doing so she brings to prominence ohw ofter we do rely upon race in our evaluation of other people. I too thought Maggie was an interesting character the vague way in which she is described and her muteness lend themselves to a character that is racially non-aligned. I find it interesting that both of the characters make the assumption that Maggie is of the opposite race as them for they know what their own race looks like, walks like, acts like. Since Maggie is devoid of all these telltale characteristics both characters write her off as not one of their own.
DeleteSome authors like to confuse their audience in their stories. Authors like, Tim O’Brien, are fond of confusing their readers, making them question if a storyline is true or not. In Recitatif, Toni Morrison seemed to be doing a similar thing using the character Maggie. At first, Morrison describes maggie as “mute”. “She was old and sandy-colored and she worked in the kitchen.” She had readers believing that Maggie was an insignificant, deaf, and mute woman. She did not play a big part in Twyla’s character develop at first. The confusion comes in when she is brought up many years later when Twyla and Roberta met again. Roberta mentioned that Maggie fell when they were in the shelter. “They knocked her down.” Twyla refused to believe that. But at the beginning of the story, Morrison did mention Maggie’s fall. This situation is confusing because no one knows if Twyla forgot or she denying it or it did not happen at all. Later in the story, when Twyla and Roberta were arguing at the protest, Roberta insulted Twyla saying, “[she’s] the same little state kid who kicked a poor old black lady when she was down on the ground.” The black lady being Maggie. Twyla was startled. She did not remember kicking Maggie or that she was black. Earlier in the story, there was no mention of Twyla kicking Maggie. But as mentioned above, she was described as sandy-colored, which alludes to her being black or of another race. There is a lot of mixed information throughout the story. It is hard to keep up with not to mention confusing. Readers do not know what is information is real and what is not. They just have to go along with the story without getting an answer. Sometimes not having the answer can be pleasurable/ healthy. That does not mean it is satisfying. Though Maggie’s storyline can be confusing, it also keeps the reader intrigued and curious. It is better to have an active reader who is eager to read on to find the result than a bored reader who can predict everything. This also ties to a conversation from a few days back when we were talking about the endings of stories. Sometimes a story without answers is just as pleasurable as a story with the perfect conclusion. I think some of us can agree that some of the satisfaction of reading a book are the lessons in the middle of the story.
ReplyDeleteI actually think that the description of Maggie's skin being "sandy" actually adds to the mystery of her race more than it defines her. Sand can be many colors; it can be white like the beaches of Thailand, it can be tan like the beaches in Salisbury, or it can be dark like transforms when water comes into contact with it. So, I would say that her description fits in quite nicely with your ideas.
DeleteI had the same thoughts as I was reading, "Recitatif." I agree that the structure of the writing that Morrison created can amount to confusion for the reader, however, it keeps the reader engaged and intrigued in the story. The story having an open ending about some characters and some confusion for the reader allowed to me keep thinking about this story, instead of reading it and then moving on because I was handed all the information by the author. We as human beings learn lessons throughout our lives, which as you stated can create satisfaction to reading about lessons learned in the middle of stories, as opposed to simply the end.
DeleteToni Morrison’s “Recitatif” brings readers through an emotional roller coaster. This “healthy confusion” that readers experience involves period of pleasure, or satisfaction and enjoyment, and disquietude, or uneasiness and anxiety. Such confusion is said to be “healthy” because it keeps readers on their toes and actively analyzing. Since the story is told from Twyla’s perspective, readers go through the emotional highs and lows along with her.
ReplyDeleteOne instance where readers tilt their heads is when Twyla and Roberta meet at Howard Johnson’s for the first time after leaving the shelter. When they part ways as children, Twyla and Roberta are friends since they are all each other had. Readers assume that they will be friendly with each other after reuniting coincidentally, but Roberta’s reaction is the opposite. When Twyla asks her, “Remember me?” Roberta responds with "Sure. Hey. Wow." She later claims her reaction was because of “how it was in those days: black-white;” however, Twyla thought blacks and white got along “in those days.” This contradiction makes readers suspect that perhaps Roberta’s true reason is because she did not want to talk about her time in the shelter in front of her friends. A few months later, there is an unexpected shift in their relationship. They run into each other again at a grocery store, but this time they “both giggled. Really giggled” as if nothing had happened in the past. Roberta’s rude personality softened and “huge hair [became] sleek” since their encounter at Howard Johnson’s. Although this scene gives satisfaction to readers, they are also confused as to why Roberta so drastically changed.
The greatest source of confusion and uneasiness in readers is due to Twyla and Roberta’s contradicting memories about Maggie, “the kitchen woman.” Twyla has no doubt in her mind that Maggie was not black and that she fell on her own one day at the shelter, but when they meet at the grocery store, Roberta asserts that Maggie was a black woman whom Twyla kicked. Since readers only know the truth from Twyla’s point of view, they cannot be sure who is correct. Readers like to be in a position where they know the entire truth even when the characters do not, so this type of situation where they only know as much as the characters do brings on anxiety. Roberta later reveals that Maggie really did fall on her own, but she continues to believe that Maggie is black. “Recitatif” leaves readers asking the question that Roberta asks: “What the hell happened to Maggie?” By abruptly ending the story, Morrison creates a “healthy confusion” in her readers where they continue to ponder about the reason for Twyla and Roberta’s differing memories about Maggie.
I like how you directly use their contradictions in dialogue as a means of analyzing their character. I agree that Roberta wants to be perceived well within her social class therefore she wants to live in denial concerning her days with Twyla in the shelter. Their differing memories of the incident with Maggie did evoke disquietude within me, but the fact that they owned up to it towards the end was comforting.
DeleteMorrison likes to jump around a lot in the context of her stories. Each piece has a purpose, even if it was only mentioned for just a moment. A good example of this is Mary’s slacks; something minute, meant to demean Twyla’s mother, and Roberta still remembered it when they were adults, recalling them and laughing. Maggie is another of such instances. She came up for a moment, as what seemed to be just to characterize the gar girls and show them to be how brutal they are. By the end, especially in the line “‘Oh shit, Twyla. Shit, shit, shit. What the hell happened to Maggie?’” (20). We don’t know the truth surrounding the incident, like what race she was, whether or not Twyla had also wanted to beat her, or if Twyla actually did incorrectly remember some details about the incident. In addition, we never truly understand the relationship between Twyla and Roberta. It seems as if every other time they meet, they’re going to start a fight. Morrison creates this idea of “healthy confusion” in creating the ambiguity surrounding many of the major details in her story, allowing us to see the picture and know what it is, but we don’t get to understand what it pieces together by the end. Parts are still missing.
ReplyDeleteAt the very beginning of the story, we meet Maggie, who is an old, short, mute cook who works for St. Bonny’s. She was looked down upon by the children, and even Twyla thought that “even for a mute, it was dumb––dressing like a kid and never saying anything at all” (3). We are unsure as to why Maggie was mute, and as to why she wore clothes designed for children. However, Twyla knew for certain that her legs were bowed, her skin was tan, and she was old. Later, when Roberta and Twyla met in a grocery store, Roberta had a conversation that goes as follows:
“‘Maggie didn't fall,’ [said Twyla].
‘Yes, she did. You remember.’
‘No, Twyla. They knocked her down. Those girls pushed her down and tore her clothes. In the orchard.’
‘I don't––that's not what happened.’
‘Sure it is. In the orchard. Remember how scared we were?’
‘Wait a minute. I don't remember any of that.’
‘And Bozo was fired.’
‘You're crazy. She was there when I left. You left before me.’ (12)
And neither of the girls could agree on a single story. By the end, Roberta wasn’t even sure of what the correct events were, telling Twyla that “‘you were right. We didn't kick her. It was the gar girls. Only them. But, well, I wanted to. I really wanted them to hurt her. I said we did it, too. You and me, but that's not true. And I don't want you to carry that around. It was just that I wanted to do it so bad that day-wanting to is doing it’” (19). In the end, we never really find out the truth about Maggie. We can’t believe Roberta because she created lies about Maggie many times before. All we know is that the gar girls had beat her up under the small orchard at St. Bonny’s.
Roberta’s character was also an enigma in general. It was hard to get a grasp on who her character truly was, as she jumped from personality to personality rapidly. As a child, she was happy to be with Twyla, yet innocent and childlike enough to be excited to return to her mother. When she was old enough to leave the orphanage, she rejected Twyla fully, even calling her names. Even later, when they met by chance, they had a civilized conversation and “giggled. Really giggled. Suddenly, in just a pulse beat, twenty years disappeared and all of it came rushing back” (10). It seemed like they could finally be friends and put the fiasco at the diner in the past. Yet, when their children went to a far-away school, they protested on different sides of the street and refused to help each other. It’s strange to see two women who shared a portion of their lives together under the same roof, with little to no conflict, act like strangers or enemies at any given time. They had no control over whether or not they’d agree or fight to the point where they would refuse to contact each other. Every instance they met outside of St. Bonny’s by chance.
Morrison never gives us an answer. She keeps us waiting, remaining to see what comes next, and abruptly ends the story. We never solve that confusion that’ll haunt the last lines of the text. We’ll never find out whether Twyla and Roberta remain friends or greaten the divide between them.
Delete"Recitatif", as suggested by its name, is a symphony of words that melt together to create dripping scenarios and images. I never felt like I was reading word for word and then translating it into a scene in my head. The short story played like a movie, the sentences were the film that was already produced and I halluncinated into a theater than displayed scenes of pleasure and pain. A good story can make you feel all of those conflicting emotions at once. I winced as I saw Maggie being kicked to the ground, no matter if it happened or not. I was soothed as I viewed scenes of Maggie and Twyla bonding or reminiscing about their past. They ceased to be childhood friends who happened to be together at the right place and right time. According to me, they became sisters in those moments. The bitter emotions came rolling back when Roberta accuses Twyla of being "the same little state kid who kicked a poor old black lady when she was down on the ground." It filled me with disquietude because the action was immoral but what made it worse was the fact that Roberta thinks she is still "the same," that there was no character development within her. To live thinking about your regrets and then learning that you never got past them can be damaging to the soul. Hearing about Twyla dreaming about that orchard even though "nothing [important] really happened there" made me smile. It was a place that she cherished. The events in relation that happened there made it a place that is displeasurable to recount. It ends with them facing the reality, a sweet and bitter mix, of their past, grimly, solemnly.
ReplyDeleteWhat an absolute unit of a short story to unpack. The story covers a lot of ground; touching on subjects like growing up without definite parent figures, ableism, racism, and feminism. This is quite ambitious to capture in 20 pages, but it was done quite well. Not to brush over the triumphs just mentioned, I would like to make a few specific events the focal point of this blog post. I think that the sections in this story relating to Maggie are very important, specifically the parts in the beginning, middle and end about her. The first part, about how Twyla and Roberta initially bully her, is important because it lays the framework for many important parts later on. A specific section quotes “ "Bow legs! Bow legs!" Nothing. She just rocked on, the chin straps of her baby-boy hat swaying from side to side. I think we were wrong. I think she could hear and didn't let on. And it shames me even now to think there was somebody in there after all who heard us call her those names and couldn't tell on us.” This passage is important because it commences the guiding hand of Roberta and Twyla’s relationship. Although the abuse is all verbal, it becomes a significant plot point later on when Roberta’s vision of this memory is skewed by her own psychological/mental delusion. Roberta remembers physical abuse; she remembers cruel and oddly specific torment. Roberta’s accusations are stated as so, “‘Maybe I am different now, Twyla. But you're not. You're the same little state kid who kicked a poor old black lady when she was down on the ground. You kicked a black lady and you have the nerve to call me a bigot.’” Although this accusation is terrible in itself, I find the mind games to go even further in the way that Twyla defends herself. Rather than denying the physical attacks, Twyla chooses to defend herself in the fact that Maggie wasn’t black. These psychological disturbances begs hard questions, like is Twyla more afraid of knowing that she tortured some poor girl, or is she more worried of being labeled a racist? Twyla’s innocence is proven eventually at the end of the story when Roberta is coming clean. She states, “‘you were right. We didn't kick her. It was the gar girls. Only them. But, well, I wanted to.’” With this big tension point finally settled, the two make up and are friends again just in time for the end of the story. I think that although these psychological and mental hiccups and fabrications can be frustrating and angering to read about, I think that the author does a great job of also using them to enhance the story. I feel as if the story was more effective in the fact that we were able to watch a person come clean about themselves and their skewed vision after so many years. I think that it makes the character more inspiring, likeable, and turns the climax into something bigger than it could have been otherwise. That is how mental and psychological hiccups of the characters in “Recitatif” helped enhance many aspects of the story and its climax.
ReplyDelete“Recitatif” by Toni Morrison is a depiction of the rollercoaster that is the relationship between Twyla and Roberta. What struck me the most was how their relationship evolved as they got older, and how race played a major role in how they viewed each other. One story that has always stuck in my head was told by MLK Jr. He said that when he was a kid he would play with the other white children, but after a certain age he was separated. I felt as though Twyla and Roberta had a similar relationship. The moment of their separation was ironically the meeting of the mothers. Both girls were so excited to introduce their mothers, but they did not know how the meeting would go wrong. This symbolizes how ignorant each girl was. They were not entirely aware of the role of race in society, and were rudely awakened by their mothers. Their meeting in the diner is representative of how young adults viewed race. Young adults are notoriously naive, and often follow the guidelines set by society. When Twyla and Roberta meet in the diner Roberta is not nice to Twyla. She later attempts to explain it away by saying “Oh, Twyla, you know how it was in those days: black-white. You know how everything was.” This shows to me that Roberta was conforming to society. I believe that this is a defining moment in the development of her character. Another theme throughout the story is the character of Maggie. I believe that she is racism personified. When she is first described, she is a deaf and mute woman that is used and bullied by everyone. This can represent racism because people use racism to their advantage. What interests me most is that Roberta always seems to have different memory of Maggie in comparison to Twyla. Roberta always seems to remember both of them as participants of the bullying of Maggie, but Twyla always remembers that they were both scared of that they would become victims as well. This shows that Roberta was attempting to excuse her racism by implying that everyone was guilty of racism. This makes Twyla think “Roberta had messed up my past somehow with that business about Maggie. I wouldn't forget a thing like that. Would I?” This self doubt is the true danger of racism. When people excuse themselves by claiming that everyone has done wrong a society without principles is created. However, Roberta’s reconciliation at the end of the novel shows how she has finally accepted that she has done wrong. By accepting that the girls were not responsible for the bullying of Maggie, Roberta has accepted that her actions have not always been pure. Overall, I view Roberta as someone that conforms to society. She never stood up against the grain throughout the story, and her actions are predictable. She follows the common pattern of having extreme views from her 20s-50s, and realizing her mistakes in ther later years. Morrison has perfectly displayed how the average person lives: ignorance, then extremism, then reconciliation.
ReplyDeleteIs is better to be called one hurtful label over another? Is that what Twyla is worried about? I like how you bring that out in your analysis. NO matter the label, what's done is done. The remorse and reconciliation of the issue comes first and foremost. The end definitely shows that they are owning up to kicking Maggie rather than playing the blame game or living in denial.
DeleteAs the story Recotatif by Toni Morrison goes on, more and more details about the lives of Twyla and Roberta are presented to the audience. The more details that are added the more the audience sees how truly complex and intricate their lives are. Twyla, the narrator of the story starts out as a very judgemental girl who believes that her roommate Roberta “smelled funny” based off of the horrible things her mother had told her about her opposing race and even went as far as to telling the owner of the orphanage how her mother wouldn’t approve of her “putting her in here” due to the two girls having different races. Twyla understandingly has these assumptions regarding Roberta due to the fact the few things her mother has said to her has been about Roberta’s race, each depicting a single story. As Twyla and Roberta spend more time together Twyla learns other stories, besides the ones her mother told her and is able to experience and write for herself her own story and own perspective. As the story progresses, the reader begins to feel sympathy for Twyla and Roberta because they were each abandoned by their living parents and were also continuously bullied by the “big girls” who “pushed [them] around once and again”. These bullies even went so far as to push one of the girls who worked at the orphanage who was unable to speak, down, and the two girls were too terrified to speak up and help her. Or so we thought. Later on in the story, it is revealed that both Twyla and Roberta helped in the bullying and abuse towards Maggie in which they would kick her as soon as she was on the ground. Roberta appears to regret the action while Twyla continues to deny the fact. The audience is instantly taken aback and conflicted because they then realize that the narrator of the story has been leaving key details out in order to preserve their image and appear a different way. By Twyla trying to deny what happened and Roberta showing remorse the audience instantly knows that Roberta must be telling the truth and Twyla has lied throughout the story. At the conclusion of the story, the girls try to appease their guilt by insisting that they “really did think [Maggie] was black” but now are not so sure. If Maggie was in fact white, then that would mean Twyla was at least partially telling the truth but if she was not then Roberta could have been telling the truth. The girls both try to appease their guilt at this point by confusing themselves as well as the reader and in the end putting the blame of the fact that they were eight and scared.
ReplyDelete1987
ReplyDeleteIn this country, black people get the short end of the stick. Even when both whites and blacks are confronted with childhood adversity, and are just as bad of footing, whites never fail to end up on top. In “Recitatif,” Toni Morrison illustrates such an inequality, and hopes to shed light upon the plight of America’s blacks.
Between Twyla and Roberta, “[one’s] mother danced all night and [the other’s] was sick.” Both are in a home for the unfortunate children, and both have been abandoned by their parents, who are completely out of the picture. It makes no difference what the situation is, all that matters is that they are isolated. In this scenario, race means nothing, as separation is a universal feeling. In this scenario, it means nothing that Roberta is white and Twyla is black, for both have nothing. The most ubiquitous narrative describes whites living this privileged life, set firmly above their black peers. However, Morrison tells the story of equals, of two lines that commence from the origin, their overlapping. A childhood where race means nothing evolves into a world in which race really matters.
As Twyla grows up and leaves St. Bonny’s, she sees a world of the working class, where “[she] got to see everything at Howard Johnson's and blacks were very friendly with whites in those days.” Both races are in it together, and have no quarrel with the other. When economic conditions for both races was the same, so conflict was absent. Both races had a sense of community, where each benefitted from policies that would lift themselves out of poverty. However, Roberta’s life took a different course. At St. Bonny’s, she was just as bad of a student as Twyla, but ended up thinginking that “in those days: black-white.” Roberta had lucked out and married someone rich, whereas Twyla married someone living in Newburgh, someone who didn’t have much. As the ages of both characters increased, so did the rift between their wealth. It doesn’t matter how much one’s neighbor makes when one has it all. The sense of community is lost.
Maggie is a character whose recollection by Twyla and Roberta takes front and center. Both Twyla and Roberta can’t come to the decision of what happened to her when she was crossing the field full of gar girls. This does not matter, at the end. To Twyla, the memory of herself knocking over and beating Maggie prompts fear, as Twyla did want to take out her anger on Maggie. Twyla had nobody, and Maggie represented a pathetic mother figure who had trouble walking and when hit, there would be “‘just tears. No sounds [would] come out.’” Twyla did want to hurt Maggie, and she wanted to hurt her mother, who had abandoned her. To have gone ahead and beat Maggie would not have been something Twyla could have lived with. However, Roberta tells Twyla that “‘I said we did it, too. You and me, but that's not true. And I don't want you to carry that around. It was just that I wanted to do it so bad that day-wanting to is doing it.’” They have already tormented Maggie and Maggie could talk to tell them off, or even report them. However, beating someone is something slightly worse, but the power of the inner feelings telling Twyla and Roberta to hit Maggie, to scapegoat her of their messed up childhoods was too strong. What seemed to be a dream was verging on reality, and though Twyla didn’t believe that she kicked Maggie, when Roberta told her that she had it was too close for comfort, and she doubted what there remembered.
I think the same thing. It seemed to me as if Roberta was trying to abuse both the system and Twyla: as soon as her life changed, she took a drastic turn and left Twyla behind. It's no coincidence that Twyla meets Roberta during the periods that follow major change. Each time, she comes back as something different, and treats Twyla accordingly as to suit her needs. Roberta had no need for her in the diner once she left St. Bonny's. She does need her when they meet at the supermarket––she's getting older, having kids, and needs to reclaim her youth. When those kids enter school, though, Twyla is simply an obstacle. Either way, Roberta's race allowed her to act this way. No one ever questioned her actions towards Twyla. Had it been the other way around, Twyla would have almost certainly been in trouble. Not only did Roberta use Maggie as a scapegoat, but she used Twyla as one too.
DeleteRecitatif creates a sense of confusion by using an unreliable narrator. During the start of the story there is no indication that Twyla might not be recalling things as they really were. We take her words as truth. Any description we read is considered complete, at least from the perspective of a child. The reason for this is that the narration is made to seem like an exact recording of what Twyla perceived through the use of a language familiar to a child, like the chain of adjectives “really stupid little” used to describe a hat. As the story progresses, the conflict seems to be setting up for it to be about Twyla and Roberta drifting apart as they age, along the lines of race and class, although I couldn’t tell which was what, pushed by observations of Twyla’s own appearance. She spent a moment to “wonder why I was standing there with my knees showing out from under that uniform.” showing her perceived difference. While that was not entirely wrong, the source of the reader’s unease shifts quickly to the accuracy of her narration once Maggie is brought up. It is revealed that the reader there is one extra layer between Twyla’s perception of events and her telling of them. We are only being told memories oh what she saw. Conflict at this point is being generated by Twyla and Roberta being unable to agree on what happened to Maggie. The reader, for most of the story, has been baited into following a single story from the perspective of a biased observer. While there is eventually some resolution of the past that allows Twyla and Roberta to have some reconciliation in the present, tension is never fully relieved. While the color of their skin and the Roberta’s perspective of some of their adult meetings are never discussed, the biggest one is that perhaps even though they came to some sense of agreement about not pushing Maggie, we still don’t know if that is the correct retelling. Maybe Roberta was less stubborn, and more easily influenced that Twyla. Maybe the both just don’t want to remember something more unsavory. There is no absolute truth given. The clarity that we often seek in literature is never given to us, leaving us with our final sense of disquietude.
ReplyDeleteThe unreliable narrator gives a new perspective to how "fiction can be more real than non fiction". For whatever reason, Twyla cares about what happened to Maggie. I believe that the girls remembered their experiences with Maggie differently because they wanted to. I do not believe that Twyla completely remembers the truth, but she does not "lie" on purpose. The same goes for Roberta. Both women remember Maggie in a was that suits their character. I got the sense that Twyla was the more passive of the two, so it makes sense that she would remember being a bystander. Roberta seemed to be more aggressive, so it makes sense that she would remember taking part in the bullying. Maggie is more of a symbol in their memory, not a person. Interactions with her represent something different in each women's character.
DeleteThe term "unreliable narrator" perfectly describes Twyla. We tend to take the narrator's words as truth, forgetting that her version of the truth may not be 100% accurate. I also like how you tied in the idea of a single story that readers are "baited into."
DeleteI agree with what you were saying about us always just taking what the narrator says as truth. If Roberta didn't come clean about making up the accusations about Maggie, how would we ever know if Twyla was the one who was wrong all along? It also reminds me of how in "The Things They Carried", Tim O'Brien was making up the bulk of the plot the whole time, and we didn't find out until much later on in the book. It turns out all the stories we came to know and love never actually happened. This goes to show how second-nature it it for us to trust things being told to us without question sometimes. I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing, as I would like to assume that most people tell the truth more often than not, but it shows that we can be a lot more trusting than we think.
DeleteI definitely agree with you first sentence, and the ideas you explored in your opening sentence. It reminds me of the summer reading book, "In the Lake of the Woods," where John Wade's retelling of the story of his wife's disappearance was plagued with inconsistency and lies, like the the discrepancy between the retelling of what went down with Maggie. However, I think that this short story is definitely about race, and the evolution of both white and black children that come from the level playing field of poverty and a poor eduction. Roberta can afford to ignore the plight facing back Americans, as she assumes her position as the privileged one, conversely, Twyla cannot, for her community is not well off. However, this does not stop the pettiness displayed by Twyla over the integration of schools, as all Twyla focused on was the signs, but not the actual reasons why she should fight for or against integration.
DeleteBut sometimes that disquietude at the end doesn't hide the fact that the story was quite good. Also, the way she doesn't give us the answers we wanted made the story more interesting to read.
DeleteThe short story, “Recitatif” uses the element of time in a distinct way. The plot is chronological, while bringing back events from the past. However, the author does not make it clear that time has moved far forward until the dialogue begins. The fact that this short story covers a lengthy time period allows the reader to see how the characters’ mindset and attitude has developed overtime. The time Twyla and Roberta spend reflecting on the past with each other allows more of the story to unfold that was not included in the writing when the event happened. For example, Roberta reveals to Twyla that she was part of the attack on Maggie, and later reveals that she lied to her about it. This kind of behavior allows the reader to understand better Roberta’s decision to not aid Twyla when at the protest in front of the school about integration. The character and story are able to connect piece by piece by how the story is told. Morrison’s decision to use time in a distinct way creates depth in the characters and allows the reader to interpret the characters’ decisions and qualities.
ReplyDeleteI like the way that you explained the author's time jumps throughout the story. I thought it was quite fascinating how Morrison was able to span the story over multiple decades in such a short story. I thought that through the big time jumps we were able to view Roberta and Twyla's relationship in a broader perspective that made it easy to notice changes of personalities of moral and characteristics as we age
DeleteI feel bad for both Twyla and Roberta at first because of their family situations. Twyla’s mother has neglected her and raised her to have racist views. It’s always a shame to see young children have parents instill discriminatory behavior into their minds. And Roberta’s mother is sick and cannot raise her. But it becomes harder to feel bad as the story goes on, as it is revealed the girls bullied another kid, Maggie. Then when the girls meet up again a few years later, it’s revealed that Roberta is fiercely opposed to racial integration at schools. The two also had an argument about what happened to Maggie, and Roberta later admits she made up a lot of what she said.
ReplyDeleteOne shift occurs when Roberta and Twyla decide to make fun of Maggie, calling her “Dummy! Dummy! Bow legs! Bow legs!” Up until this point, I saw them as fairly innocent little kids, but this shows that they definitely had the capacity to be very hurtful.
Another change is when Roberta tells Twyla “They want to take my kids and send them out of the neighborhood.” This reveals how she is against racial integration, which really lowers my opinion of her. Later, she also reveals how she lied to Twyla about the accusations of what they did to Maggie, but that she still had malicious intent. She says, “We didn’t kick her...But, well, I wanted to. I really wanted them to hurt her. I said we did it, too. You and me, but that’s not true.” Finally, the book ends with Roberta asking “What the hell happened to Maggie?” This shows that even though all her faults, she still has some regrets and concerns for what happened.
Having already discussed "The Danger of the Single Story" makes it easier to understand Twyla’s feelings at the start of the passage. Being raised by a racist mother doesn’t justify her telling Roberta that she won’t be happy about rooming with her, but it makes it clear why she acted that way.
The incident with Maggie remains on Roberta’s mind throughout the book. She feels terrible for the way she treated her and now has to live with regrets the rest of her life. It’s clear that this was very important to Roberta, as the story ends with her asking about Maggie.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, the author, Harper Lee, does her best to teach young readers to be kind and accepting of others, regardless of their race. The book brings does a good job showing the discrimination of the past and how it can ruin the lives of those affected by it. The narrator of the story is also an innocent child who quickly learns about the racial issues of society at the time, thanks to her father and older brother. This makes it easier for today’s young readers to understand the problems of the past.
I agree with you in how To Kill A Mockingbird teaches people how to act and treat all. But, in your third paragraph how you talk about Roberta and how she doesn't want to room with a black girl. I find that hard to believe because in the end they became great friends in the orphanage so I think she just had her mothers voice in her head the whole time but she really didn't care that much about race.
DeleteI suppose it was more of her mother who didn't approve of them rooming together, however Twyla does say "We didn't like each other all that much," at the start of the passage. It is only with the passing of time that their relationship gets better.
DeleteAs the name implies, Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif” recites the story of two girls as they navigate two very different worlds. The concept of race is central to the short story; immediately the storyteller Twyla introduces us to her roommate, Roberta, as “a girl from a whole other race” though we aren't privy to exactly what race this is. All we are told is that Twyla and Roberta are empirically different. As the story progresses the two are brought together; they both live in an orphanage but are not orphans, abandoned by their respective mothers, they find consolation in each other. The two are inseparable, they do everything together, eat, sleep, go out to the orchard where we are first introduced to maggie a “sandy-colored” “mute” kitchen aid. In a book so focused on racial divide, Maggie is an interesting fixture, without any clear tells as to her race both Twyla and Roberta impose their own ideas; Years later when the two meet they disagree Roberta “really did think she was black.” whereas Twyla thought she wasn’t. Without features to profile her by like the way she walked, the clothes she wore or the color of her skin the two were unable accurately judge her race. The short story emphasizes the importance of race, especially when Twyla and Roberta were children Roberta commenting "Oh, Twyla, you know how it was in those days: black-white.” As time passes the importance of the racial divisions between Twyla and Roberta fade as does the memory of Maggie her once well defined “semicolon legs” blur into “semi-circle legs”. The story of Twyla and Roberta is one of unlikely similarities. In a world where racial divisions and class struggle is the law of the land the tumultuous friendship between Roberta and Twyla is a triumph over adversity
ReplyDeleteI like how you brought up the idea that even though the story really emphasizes the importance of race we never really find out the race of the kitchen maid, Maggie who comes up in disputes between the two women multiple times. I think that the confusion about Maggie's race reflects their own struggles with how to deal with their opposite races.
DeleteI feel like calling it a triumph over adversity is a bit hard to justify, mainly because there is a bit of a lack of resolution at the end. It does, after all, end on a question. "What the hell happened to Maggie?"
DeleteThe short story recitatif by Toni Morrison changes the attitude of the audience toward racist traditions completely. Two young orphans are forced to share a room and their bond forms quickly and unexpectedly. Morrison begins the story by displaying the blind vulnerability children possess to race. In the eyes of children their new roommate is their friend who understood them completely from the beginning. Morrison allows the reader to discover the race of Twyla and Roberta at the same moment Twyla first experiences racism. This mutual awakening allows the audience to feel the same jolt of disappointment and hurt that Twyla experiences when Mary reaches her hand out to shake hands with Roberta’s mother. Instead of accepting Twyla and her dancing mother as Roberta had, “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.” (Morrison) This shock the reader experiences allows them to see the hate through the eyes of a victim of racism, which shifts their viewpoint to see racism as Morrison does.
ReplyDeleteIn order to prove the insignificance of race Morrison shows how Twyla’s perception of the character Maggie differs from Roberta’s. In the beginning of the story Morrison describes Maggie falling from Twyla’s perspective, but when she meets Roberta again years later Roberta says, “Maggie didn't fall.” (Morrison) Twyla doesn’t remember pushing Maggie and Roberta did, but it did not matter. Whether they physically hurt her or not the girls both stood by watching, wishing they too could kick herMaggie is a metaphor for the silence victims of hate and racism experience. They wanted Maggie to experience the same pain they felt from their mother’s leaving them and not being able to call out for help even though they could speak. Creating pain in someone else is the result of pain and insecurities in our own lives.
The short story “Recitatif” by Toni Marrison revolves around the life of two girls, Twyla and Roberta, divided by race but joined through circumstance. The girls both faced rough childhoods, as they were both were forced into a shelter due to the inconsistency provided by their mothers. While Twayla’s mother is described as someone who “danced all night”, Roberta’s mother is described to be “sick”, although the sickness is never specified or showed. Roberta eventually leaves the shelter and therefore contact between the girls is lost. As the girls grow up we see the racial divide tear them apart. Twyla and Roberta see eachother again as young adults, Twyla working at a dinner and Roberta seen as as part of a rebellious youth group. The conversation between the two seems forced and the social divide is very apparent. “She laughed then a private laugh that included the guys but only the guys, and they laughed with her...There was this silence that came down right after I laughed.” In these moments, Roberta and Twyla seemed more like strangers than the “sisters” they claimed to be at the beginning of the short story. Forwarding a few years the girls meet again, both married women with their own families. Roberta seems like a completely different person, a woman of luxury and class, while Roberta seems the same living a very modest and stable life. The girls connect like they had when they were younger. “Once, twelve years ago, we passed like strangers. A black girl and a white girl meeting in a Howard Johnson's on the road and having nothing to say. One in a blue and white triangle waitress that-the other on her way to see, Hendrix. Now we were behaving like sisters separated for much too long.” Due to other circumstances Roberta and Twyla both left annoyed at each other and the reunion was cut short. Eventually they were able to put their differences aside and reconnect once again. Maggie, a mute girl in the shelter, played an important role throughout the short story, as she is essentially the reason why Roberta and Twyla reconnect. Although her role may seem insignificant at first, the girl’s memories of Maggie restores the friendship between them. While reading the short story “ Recitatif”, I was more exposed to the stereotypes involved due to my reading of “The Danger of a Single Story” and how such a divide can create tension between those who were once close.
ReplyDeleteRecacitif is an excellent of show not tell. Through a first person memoir, I believe the story provides an extremely immersive commentary on a range of social themes such as innocence and prejudice.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading I found it interesting that I could not rely on Twyla’s observations and thoughts. The beginning of the story puts us into the innocent perspective of Twyla as a child, and later in the story reveals that our main character’s memory is subject to questioning. It is only through exposition, inferences, and implicit meanings does the reader progress their understanding of the story. Twyla knows simply describes her mom’s vocation as “dancing all night” but readers have a better understanding of her night time employment. Even as an adult Twyla’s memory of Maggie waver in credibility: “But why can’t I remember the Maggie thing?” By establishing Twyla as an unreliable narrator, I believe Morrison highlighted the show not tell nature of the story, while also guiding readers to immerse themselves to truly understand the progression of the plot.
Maggie’s role to the story changes as time draws on but overall she is representative of Twyla and Roberta as individuals, as well as a pair. As children, the two initially watch the older girls jeer and beat on Maggie after she trips. Unable to speak or cry for help, Maggie stands a metaphor for Twyla and Roberta who have no control over their lives as young children. They are passed around from place to place with no role models to follow, or goals to chase. As Twyla and Roberta grow and develop, their memories of Maggie evolve as well. For example, when the plot moves towards a racial theme, the question of Maggie’s skin color is brought into discussion: “What was she saying? Black? Maggie wasn’t black.”
Chimamanda Adichie warns us of the single story, of its limits, its shortcomings. What she did not mention, however, was its malicious ability to mutate. “Recitatif” speaks to the fickleness of our memories. Readers, Twyla, and Roberta may never understand what really happened with Maggie, but as I have said before in other essays, real history is often far from the truth just as Roberta’s emotions contort the past: “I really thought so. But now I can’t be sure.” Fact becomes fiction, partnership to prejudice. The single story expands to an ever expanding web of possibilities because as we change, so does our perception of past.
Toni Morrison makes a conscious choice to make the race of the characters ambiguous and overlap with each other with typical stereotypes of each other’s race. This creates a general confusion in the readers as she switches between racial codes through these stereotypes. This then plays a role in identifying Maggie as she is described as being “old and sandy-colored” which ultimately does not really reveal her race as sand comes in various shades. This obscurity plays a large role in the development of Twyla and Roberta’s relationship as it troubles them and their relationship as they try to remember her race later on. I found it very interesting that Twyla and Roberta so easily identified each other’s race but had such a difficult time identifying that of the maid as they had such a dislike of her. The ending left me absolutely perplexed as Twyla and Roberta were left wondering what happened to Maggie. This can be related back to Twyla’s own confusion of Roberta’s reaction and actions to her in the diner to then her sudden friendly nature 4 months after. Through this story, we see how as children we are fed the ideas of our parents and act upon those ideas until we are able to make our own judgements and choices. We see how easily Roberta and Twyla developed a relationship with the most minimal information about each other which was what made it so strong as they understood their experiences without asking any questions.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read "Recitatif" by Toni Morrison, I sympathized with the characters Twyla and Roberta. They both had a challenging upbringing, growing up in inconstant families and crowded orphanages. They felt threatened by the older girls at the orphanage, who would bully the younger girls and even staff members, like Maggie a kitchen member. Maggie is mute and disabled, and cannot fight back against the girls. When the narrator, Twyla, describes how she feels about the actions of the older girls, the reader at first thinks that she and her close friend Roberta do not agree with the way the older girls act. Then, Twyla describes Maggie herself: “She wore this really stupid little hat. A kid's hat with ear flaps-and she wasn't much taller than we were. A really awful little hat. Even for a mute, it was dumb-dressing like a kid and never saying anything at all." (Pg. 2) At this point, we think that Twyla and Roberta may not have as strong a moral compass as was projected earlier in the story. As the plot continues, we realize that this is not the case: Twyla and Roberta, as orphans, speak of Maggie this way because they are uncomfortable with themselves and are angry with the way their own lives are panning out. Maggie, someone who can’t speak up for herself, is very much like Twyla and Roberta in that respect, though Twyla and Roberta have each other to rely on.
ReplyDeleteThere is a sense of reflection in the piece throughout, as it is written as though a grown-up Twyla is talking about her past. This technique shows character development, as older Twyla says that she is ashamed of her actions when she was younger. “I think we were wrong,” she says. “ I think she could hear and didn't let on. And it shames me even now to think there was somebody in there after all who heard us call her those names and couldn't tell on us.” (Pg. 3) I like the way that the story plays with time in this sense, because we know that Twyla now understands why she treated Maggie this way, and she knows it wasn’t right for her.
I do like the ending of this story. Older Roberta, who is successful and beautiful asks of older Twyla, “Where is Maggie now?” and cries. This is also what the reader is wondering, as we hear all about the happy endings that Twyla and Roberta receive, but never what happens to Maggie.