Recitatif. By, Toni Morrison

I check on website to check author’s background and I found that ‘‘Recitatif’’ is the only published short story by African-American novelist Toni Morrison. ‘‘Recitatif’’ tell the story of the conflicted friendship between two girls. One black and one white from the time they meet and bond at age eight while staying at an orphanage through their re-acquaintance as mothers on different sides of economic, political, and racial divides in a recently gentrified town in upstate New York. In addition, I do feel that I connect to this story because I do feel that racial divides does still happen today. The story explores how the relationship between the two main characters is shaped by their racial difference. Morrison does not, however, disclose which character is white and which is black. When story open with a description of St. Bonaventure, the shelter where Twyla meets Roberta, when they are both eight years old. Twyla recalls that her mother once told her that people of Roberta’s race smell funny, and she objects to being placed in a room with Roberta on the grounds that her mother wouldn’t approve. Twyla, however, soon finds Roberta understanding and sympathetic to her situation. This first part of paragraph impact me so hard because I realize that I can identity smell different between black and white