In Recitatif, by Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison

           The racial identity of Roberta and Twyla is an doubtful part of the story. From the start, it is apparent that Roberta and Twyla are of different races. They were both "stuck in a strange place with a girl from a whole other race." Throughout the story, each character is developed more and more, though it does not necessarily lead to a conclusion as to what race each girl. Many of the traits could be indicative of either a black or white girl. More so, it confuses the issue even more by leading the reader to decide one way and change his/her mind a minute later. However, in the scheme of this story, I think that is just the point. 

In the beginning, my first initial reactions were that Roberta was the black girl, while Twyla was white. During the time period in the beginning of the story, a negative attitude was taken toward black people. It seems as though Twyla's mom had warned her about the black people who "never wash their hair and they smelled funny. Roberta sure did smell funny.”. Twyla also tells the Big Bozo, "My mother won't like you putting me here." A white mother did not want her white daughter to be roomed with a black girl. Furthermore, Roberta does not seem to understand this. "Roberta asked Twyla “Is your mother sick too?'" In my interpretation of how things were in those times, a white person may be offended to be paired with a black person, while the black person may not care. In this case, Twyla shows concern for being put into the same room as Roberta, while Roberta does not seem to notice any hatred.

Following this incident in the story, Twyla encounters Roberta in Howard Johnson's. Roberta "is sitting with two guys smothered in head and facial hair. Her own hair is so big and wild that Twyla could hardly see her face." This implies to me a sort of "Afro" hairstyle for both Roberta and her escorts. Even her clothing and jewelry seen to suggest that she is black. "She has on a powder-blue halter and shorts outfit and earrings the size of bracelets," similar to the earrings worn by African women. She is also on her way to see Jimi Hendrix, a black musician, and snubs Twyla for not knowing who he is. Though this is not entirely indicative of a black person, it is more likely to be a black person. This once again contradicts the previous conclusion of Roberta's race. The line between who is black and who is white gets very hard to tell the difference.

This brings up another important issue in the story. Society has given blacks a negative marking, a negative "brand." Even black people begin to find the black race as offensive and digusting. Regardless of which girl was black, this could have led them both to have the yearning to "hurt" Maggie. This leads to my primary point. Genetics and appearance do not make people different from one another. The difference between a black person and a white person to distinguish without visual features that maybe there is actually no difference between them except for the visual features. Even these features are sometimes absent in a mixed race person who is still considered black (non-white) due to genetics, but white due to appearance.

Zelzah: A Tale From Long Ago

We usually forget that happiness does not come
as a result of getting something we don’t  have, but

 rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do love 

This story was amazing. In Zelzah: A Tale From Long Ago its about a girl named Zelzah, seems to be quite different compare to her siblings. She does not complain about anything and does not ask for anything as well. Zelzah's siblings got marry and have kids, but not Zelzah. Zelzah was forced to marry her cousin. Having to share one room with her parents and her sisters, it was hard for her. Her parents wanted her to go to America. She had to meet up with her aunt and her uncle. When she had gotten to America everything was not the same where she lived, it was like a culture shock.

She arrived at the house with her aunt and uncle to meet her one cousin that she had to marry. She thought that he was cute. During her visit in America, Zelzah had to learn to speak English,her 

first language was Yiddish. It was quite hard to be

 able to speak and write English.

One thing that I thought was the most interesting part is when Zelzah had found out that her cousin had a secret thing for this special girl named Grace. This story is quite interesting because Zelzah and her cousin were suppose to marry each other. Grace was pregnant with Zelzah's cousins' baby, however Grace had died given birth to the baby. Zelzah had asked her cousin if he still wanted her in his like she was going to be there. He said no because he was still grieving over the lost of his wife. Zelzah's Aunt promise that Jake will make her a good wife which Jake secretly wanting to marry Grace. Zelzah did request if Jake would not mind her to be his wife as Zelzah can help care for the child. Zelzah does not complain instead she laughed even when her Aunt apologize to her when things does not go as it plan. Why would she laugh? She seems to be a kind of girl where she wanted everyone to be happy, like she does not fit in this family so she's trying to fit in by filling in family position. After that she work her way up to her goal as she received education through high school and college. She worked at the textile. She traveled like she said she want to and she became a teacher. Ruth knew Zelzah was different. Ruth does not understand how Zelzah was able to put up with textile factory. Zelzah seemed to just appreciate everything she receive no matter what happen. After all those years where she had to intrigue into American culture. It took her years and years to learned American's languages, money system, phrases, and behavior.

Love is not what you are searching for your own happiness . Zelzah has a different opinion of Happiness. She's just being grateful for what she have received in life. This could be one of the reason that people who tend to have too much high expectation for themselves or goal would try to aim for their happiness than those people who do not. When you at least expect happiness, it will come eventually.