Looking at Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif”

Throughout Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif,” Maggie represents a very particular reality in Twyla and Roberta’s moral considerations: As kids, because she is deaf and mute, they ridicule her, seeing no immediate negative ramifications for themselves. Later, they exclude her in follow-up conversations about that behavior, and they seek neither justice nor reconciliation. I contend that this empathic failure of ethics on behalf of Twyla and Roberta sheds light on more fundamental issues of who can express themselves within hierarchies based in power and oppression.



Throughout the story, Maggie exists in the flesh extremely briefly: Twyla dubs her “the kitchen woman,” who is “old and sandy-colored” (158). The girls call her “Dummy!” and “Bow legs!” since she cannot hear or respond (159). Indeed, Maggie’s final appearance is only to contextualize another event: She “fell down” on Twyla’s 28th day at the shelter, when the two girls learned of their mothers’ visit (159). The remainder of Maggie’s presence is only through memory. Years later, Twyla admits that “the Maggie thing” gave her trouble, as Roberta acknowledges the abuse (166), and Twyla realizes she’d forgotten about Maggie entirely (167). Roberta later berates Twyla for kicking “a poor old black lady when she was down on the ground” (169), which brings Twyla confusion twice-over: She never identified Maggie as Black, and she didn’t kick her, either (169-70). But, Roberta corrects herself: Maggie’s race was unclear, and Twyla never kicked her—but they wanted to (171).

The critical error in all of this is that Maggie remains absent for most of the story. This is partially logistical: The story accentuates dialogue, and Maggie is mute. And yet, this transcends logistics: Twyla and Roberta’s ethical spheres are focused on how they might have treated her, what her race was, and how that might impact the moral value of what they already did. Their moral calculus is similar, and it is self-centered. They analyse their past actions, even when the facts are ambiguous, to better understand their identities. This is why Twyla feels troubled: She feels torn about something she barely remembered, so what might that say about her?

Their ethics fail them. They don’t even consider reconciling with Maggie, because they see her as a temporal reference point and as subject material in a morality lesson. To them, she is a distant memory, a figment of the past. As such, they view her as a tool, or means, in their own self-discovery. Finally, when Roberta cries, they realize that they have no idea about what ever happened to Maggie (172). Roberta’s tearful revelation demonstrates how painfully ironic their ethics have been: In only seeing Maggie as a metric for the morality of their behavior, they’ve wholly forgotten to actually make amends and care for her.

“Recitatif” makes expression fundamental: There is a character who cannot speak because she is mute, and she cannot hear, either. She is excluded from all conversations, except when the girls at the shelter verbally abuse her. Upon reflection, Twyla and Roberta don’t even think to include Maggie as a stakeholder in her abuse; she is only a passive source of experiential knowledge. They demonstrate a clear injustice: They represent powerful people who make decisions for larger groups while offering little consideration of the well-being of critical underprivileged stakeholders. By forming interpersonal power dynamics from basic capabilities, such as speech, Morrison clarifies the universality and fundamentality of power differentials in even mundane relationships. She acknowledges other dynamics at play, such as race, family structure, and age, ensuring that the story does not erase those issues. And yet, this work brings forth some fundamental questions, critical to topics of postcolonialism and intersectional feminism: How much do we exclude important stakeholders, and for whom do we construct our ethics? If every stakeholder doesn’t have a seat at the table, it may be necessary to grab some more chairs.