This dominance can be the institution of racism or even sexism. By inserting my own experiences into this story, I unknowingly reinforced negative structures such as discrimination. When reading this story, as well as throughout my life, I have tried to work against making generalizations and have attempted to challenge racial discrimination.
However, by specifically reading Twyla as black, I ended up strengthening the stereotypes that I work so hard to avoid. Although neglectful mothers can be of any race, I assumed that Twyla must have the black mom because I grew up with black classmates who had distant mothers with different priorities than their children. Similar to Able, mid-to-late twentieth-century black feminist Audre Lorde was also concerned with attacking structures of dominance and bringing awareness to the racism within the feminist community.
At the Second Sex Conference on October 29, , Lorde gave a speech in which she discussed the separation of feminists as a result of racism and homophobia. She argued that in order to work together against sexism, feminists must find unity. Feminists must learn from each other in order to fully challenge patriarchal society, and not get tied down by racism. Personally, I need to be conscientious about how I read characters and how being white influences what I interpret.
With every piece of writing I analyze, I should reflect on how my interpretation may be damaging to a non-dominant group, and take steps to reconcile my perceptions. One character, named Maggie, plays a significant role because she is assigned different races by both of the characters. At first, Maggie serves as a point of contention between the two characters, as Twyla believes that Maggie was not black and cannot recall kicking her, while Roberta remains adamant about her stance.
Towards the end of the story, the two characters meet after a long period of time and after some small talk their attention is brought back to Maggie.
While they argued throughout the story about her race, it ultimately does not matter whether Maggie was black or white—what remains in their minds is how others treated her. Their mindset moves past race to focus on victimization and guilt. The way the content is organized and presented is seamlessly smooth, innovative, and comprehensive.
Themes and Colors. LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Recitatif , which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. Related Themes from Other Texts. Compare and contrast themes from other texts to this theme…. Find Related Themes. How often theme appears:. Race and Prejudice Quotes in Recitatif Below you will find the important quotes in Recitatif related to the theme of Race and Prejudice. Recitatif Quotes. Related Characters: Twyla speaker , Roberta. Related Themes: Friendship vs.
Page Number and Citation : Cite this Quote. Explanation and Analysis:. Related Characters: Twyla speaker , Maggie. Related Themes: Outsiders, Outcasts, and the Unwanted. Related Symbols: The Klondike Bars. Related Characters: Twyla speaker , Joseph Benson. Related Characters: Twyla speaker , Roberta speaker. Cite This Page. Home About Story Contact Help.
In the story we know one girl is white and one is black but we are never sure which one is which because Morrison never comes out and says it. Also by removing stereotypes and putting the girls in similar life situations Morrison continues to prove a point that we are equal and anyone could be any race.
This book was enlightening and really made me think. Down below is a link to a YouTube video where she talks about her motivation for writing. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. One girl is black and one girl is white. The race of Maggie is undetermined. She is portrayed as a girl from a lower-middle class family from who desires to assimilate whiteness in order to gain recognition and respect and not be judged by her skin color.
Both women are not content with being black or white and in the end Clare die unsatisfied and Irene, although rid of Clare now, has not won anything. Therefore, Larsen has both characters suffer due to their negligence of others around them while they strived to find who they are. In using passing, Larsen delves into the deeper issues in America, the strive for racial conventions and identity.
The fluidity and ambiguity with which both women are able to pass into the white world calls upon the inherent ideas of race. Larsen shows how race is a social construct because despite the fact that white people have ways of distinguishing the blacks from others through different traits, they are easily fooled by two women who pass into their world.
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