In Recitatif, Toni Morrison follows the lives of Twyla and Roberta, two young girls who grow up together in a children's home. Morrison is ambiguous about the young girls races which causes readers to infer the girls races based on their own perception of the racially-neutral descriptions. Much like how readers project their own racial biases on Twyla and Roberta, Twyla’s opinion about Maggie and her mother is heavily influenced by her own perception of them. Because of Maggie’s disability, Twyla views Maggie as an immature child who is easily a target to harass. On the other hand, Twyla is also very critical of her mother’s behavior and demeanor because of her promiscuous occupation.Twyla’s perception of her mother and Maggie illustrates the power that abled bodied individuals…show more content… When Twyla first introduces Mary, her mother, she mention how “she likes to dance all night” (244). Although Twyla does not explicitly state her mother’s occupation, one can infer that her mother is a sex worker. In addition, Twyla chooses to use the euphemism to describe her mother almost as if she is embarrassed of her mother’s taboo occupation. When Mary visits Twyla on Easter, she comes dressed inappropriately in green slacks that Twyla “hated even more” and a run-down fur coat, which exposes Twyla’s ill opinion of her mother (246). Throughout the evening, Twyla points out that Mary is “simple-minded” and twitched and groaned throughout the ceremony, which creates an image of a childish Mary. The use of such words chastises Mary’s maturity thus reduces her to an immature individual much like Twyla describes Maggie. After growing frustrated Twyla declares “all I could think of was that [Mary] really needed to be killed” (248). Because Mary does not fit the norms of the other grandmothers at the service, Twyla decides that she does not deserved to acknowledge or
