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Tamarra Malone
English 101: Rhetoric
Mr. Newman
November 13 2014

Everyone has that on important person in their life that they cant live without but what if
you were taken away from that person? In Toni Morisons Recitatif there are two girls named
Twyla and Roberta who were taken to an orphanage to stay temporarily. Twylas mother danced
all night and Robertas mother was sick, their mothers could not take care of them so they were
taken away. While the girls were in the orphanage they met a women named Maggie, she was
the cook at the orphanage. Maggie could not talk or hear, she was also disabled. All the girls in
the orphanage made fun of Maggie but she never said anything back. Although Twyla and
Roberta said bad things about Maggie when they were children, they still thought about her in
their adult lives, they were always worried about what happened to her. Other critics believe that
Maggie is a representation of Twyla and Robertas mothers because she is like their mothers in
many ways. In this analysis, I will support the idea that Maggie represents Twylas and
Robertas mothers through Maggies powerlessness, absence and connection to the girls.
Throughout Twylas and Robertas stay at St. Bonnys they saw and heard the other
orphanage girls making fun of Maggie. Maggie was powerless. She could not fight back because
of her ailments. Just like the girls mothers. Twylas mother could not fight the need to dance all
night and Robertas mother could not overcome her sickness. Maggie was trapped in her own
body and there was nothing she could do about it. Maggies inability to fight back and her

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powerlessness makes Twyla and Roberta think of their mothers and relate Maggie to their
mothers.
Maggie also reminded the girls of their mothers because her mind was absent just like
their mothers were absent from their lives. Maggie was bullied by the older orphanage girls
because she was disable. Sometimes Twyla and Roberta joined the older orphanage girls in
making fun of Maggie. Once they were yelling Dummy! Dummy (Morison 2) at Maggie
hoping for a reaction or a response but nothing happened. Roberta and Twyla were eager for a
response because their moms were not responding to them when they lived with them. They
wanted some attention from their moms just like the wanted Maggie to turn around to their
insults.

As Twyla and Roberta begin to grow up they have started their own families they have
put the past behind them and they have started to live their lives separately until they run into
each other at the supermarket. They decide to go for coffee and talk about the days when they
lived in the orphanage. They go on and on about St. Bonnys and all the memories they created
there. Twyla gawks Remember Maggie (Morison 7) and the memories came rushing back,
this is when Twyla and Roberta start realizing who Maggie was to them and they start to
question their ideas of what happened to Maggie . Later in the story Twyla is recalling the day
her mother came to visit her in the orphanage and she immediately connects the day Maggie fell
and the day her mother came to visit. Clearly Twyla associated her traumatic memory of
Maggie falling down with her mothers visit, which she recalls as another site of humiliation.
Twyla depicts he mother as a fallen woman. (Sandra Kumamoto Stanley 76). Twyla thinks

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of her mother as a woman who has fallen and cant pick herself back up again so she abandons
her daughter to go dancing.
In the end of the story Twyla and Roberta run into each other again but this time Roberta
has some different ideas as to what happened to Maggie. She says . Shed been brought up in
an institution like my mother was and like I thought I would be too. And you were right. We
didnt 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 thats not true. And I dont want you to carry that
around. It was just that I wanted to do it so bad that day-wanting to is doing it (Morison 12).
This shows how Maggie was connected to Roberta because Maggie and her mom grew up the
same way. She also connected with Maggie because she wanted to hurt Maggie like her mother
hurt her. This forces Roberta to think about Maggie the same way she thinks of her mother. At
the end of the story Twyla tells Roberta that her mom never got better and then Roberta tells
Twyla that her mother never got well either and then Roberta says Oh shit, Twyla. Shit, shit,
shit. What the hell happened to Maggie? (Morison 12). Roberta makes the connection that if
their mothers lives never got better that must mean that neither did Maggies.
As critics read Recitatif they made connections from Twyla and Roberta to Maggie.
Critics showed how Toni Morison meant to make Maggie similar to Twyla and Robertas
mothers so that we could understand how they felt about their mothers. Critics such as Sandra
Kumamoto Stanley has pointed out many details that clearly makes the point that Toni Morison
did not want to describe the mothers directly but indirectly and she used Maggie to do so. Many
people may have an opposing view on whether or not Maggie was supposed to symbolize Twyla
and Robertas mothers but Sandra Kumamoto Stanley has showed how Maggie could represent

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Twyla and Robertas mothers in Toni Morisons Recitatif through Maggies powerlessness
absence and connection to the girls.