the Food Emporium in a school parking lot where people are picketing. Roberta is holding a sign that says, "Mothers have rights, too."

Finally, the women meet for the final time in a small diner around the 1980s. The girls share their feelings about what they did to Maggie at St. Bonaventure.

The historical setting of the story is what makes it significant and illustrates the protagonist's main struggle. "Recitatif" is set during a time of great racial tension. Some notable events include the Jim Crow laws, which segregated black and white people. Another notable event included "desegregated bussing," which attempted to balance schools racially. Part of this included the Brown v. Board of Education decision to desegregate schools. Morrison uses racial stereotypes to highlight how inconsequential race is when it comes to the negative effects of isolation, alienation, and social exclusion. Morrison uses the setting as a way to develop the protagonist's struggle with identity. The protagonist struggles with isolation and exclusion, which is reflected by the setting and historical context of the story. The deliberate omission of race also causes the reader to infer the race of either girl and question the basis for their own racial stereotypes.

Protagonists are generally portrayed as sympathetic characters. A sympathetic character is one the author intends for the reader to identify with and care about. At the end of the story, Twyla reflects on her wrongful treatment of a mute girl, Maggie, at St. Bonaventure. She realizes that she and Roberta never physically bullied Maggie, but that Twyla wanted to. Twyla seems to sincerely regret that incident when she says, "I wanted to do it so bad that day—wanting to is doing it."

The story takes place in St. Bonaventure, the shelter.  There is an orchard outside the shelter.  When the story opens, Twyla and Roberta are 8 years old.  Then the story moves up to a few years later.  Then the narration skips again to when they are 28 years old, and then even later.

The title of Toni Morrison's short story, Recitatif," means, among other things, "a recital" of some sort, and the protagonist, Twyla, provides us with a "recital" of her connect with Roberta, also placed in the shelter where Twyla once lived.

Morrison’s parents taught her much about understanding racism and growing up in predominantly white America.

Her father was pessimistic about whites and blacks learning to tolerate each other, but Toni's mother was much more optimistic. It is no surprise, then, that Morrison's themes would address these issues.

The theme of prejudice runs through the story, which Twyla introduces early on when she tells "Old Bozo" that her mother won't like her being placed in a room with a white girl, but Twyla doesn't seem to completely understand this. Roberta's ability to listen and seemingly understand her quickly, pleases Twyla, and they become unlikely friends.

Thy recall the abuse of mute Maggie—one of the workers at the shelter—suffering at the hands of the older girls who torment her as she tries to ignore them; but the abuse of Maggie foreshadows Twyla's dormant sense of "fair play" between whites and blacks.

The first clear indication of bigotry comes at the hands of Roberta's mother when the mothers of girls visit. When Robert tries to introduce Twyla and her mother to Roberta's mother, the other mother's slight is obvious—even though Twyla's mother is a little slow to pick up on the racial slight:

….[I] turned, and saw Roberta smiling. I smiled back... Then Roberta said, "Mother, I want you to meet my roommate, Twyla. And that's Twyla's mother."

...She was big…and [she wore] the biggest cross I'd ever seen...And in the crook of her arm was the biggest Bible ever made.

Mary...tried...to shake hands, I guess. 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 tout of line, walking quickly to the rear of it. Mary was...not too swift when it comes to what's really going on. Then this light bulb goes off...and she says "That bitch!" really loud...

(We cannot miss the irony of this seemingly Christian woman—Roberta's mother—slighting Twyla and her mother: not exactly a "Christ-like" response.)

When the children leave the home, they meet a few more times. The first time, Roberta is going through a hippie-phase, on her way to see Jimi Hendrix—Twyla waitressing tables when Roberta arrives. This shows the first divide between them: a social one.

Next they meet as adults and they seem to enjoy reconnecting. The third time they meet again, it is across picket lines where white women fight bussing that will integrate schools, and both are on opposite sides. There is still a connection, but paradoxically, they are "enemies." The divide here is a racial one.

The last time they meet, Roberta is a little drunk and speaks honestly with her old friend. Robert's preoccupation is about whatever happened to Maggie?

This may symbolize Roberta sense of personal failure for not standing up for the woman—and that she really wanted to hurt he—this may parallel her struggle with Twyla. The story may thematically parallel the struggles between whites a blacks of the time. However, perhaps it also demonstrates that some connections can be made regardless of color, and that once in place, those threads cannot easily be severed. In this we may see Morrison's mother's optimistic view of peace between the races.

Toni Morrison's story “Recitatif” takes place over a period of nearly three decades, yet the story's historical setting highlights the difficulties in race relations throughout the era. The story begins in an orphanage where Twyla and Roberta are both left by their mothers. One girl is black, and the other is white, and we can estimate the time period as being the 1950s, when racial integration was a critical issue. The girls' mothers have both taught them to be prejudiced against other races, but the two become friends anyway.

The story then jumps eight years ahead, and Twyla is working at a Howard Johnson's lunch counter when Roberta enters with some friends. We know that this is some time in the 1960s because of the mention of Jimi Hendrix. Roberta is cool toward Twyla, hardly speaking to her and not even saying goodbye when she leaves. The suggestion is that the racial tension of the era is causing difficulties between the two young women.

The story then moves ahead another twelve years, probably some time in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Racial “strife” is rampant in Twyla's town as the local schools are working to integrate students of different races through busing. Twyla and Roberta end up on different sides of the issue, and they both participate in heated protests, Roberta being firmly against busing and Twyla being for it. This historical issue greatly intensifies the tension between the two women.

Years later, Twyla and Roberta meet again. Twyla's son Joseph is now a college student, so probably another seven or eight years have passed (since Joseph is in junior high in the previous episode). The two women reconnect, and the tension between them fades, although Roberta's long-term issues that reach all the way back to the orphanage are still evident.