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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 RememberMaggie (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 Recitatifthrough Maggies powerlessness

absence and connection to the girls.