The short story, “Recitatif”, of which was authored by Toni Morrison, is a story of two girls, named Twyla and Roberta, who live in an orphanage for about four months, but these four months connect their relationship for the years to come, and it connects them later in the story. Narration within this story was told in first person point of view, and the narrator of this short story is Twyla. However, the narrator this story presents can be debated on whether or not she is a reliable narrator. Reliable narration is the concept of whether a narrator has credibility as to their viewpoints and whether what they’re saying is true or not. Twyla, the narrator of this story, is not a reliable narrator because of the concept of how unrealistic it is…show more content… This concept is unrealistic because childhood is such a small portion of one’s life that it 's hard to remember every little detail that happened in that short span of time. Especially here in “Recitatif,” Twyla is only in the orphanage with Roberta for four months when they were both eight years old. Remembering every single detail in that short time of four months that didn’t seem to have much importance and keep it forever is something that is almost impossible because of the sheer amount of details involved within that and how aging will cause new memories to go on top of that. The way of remembering little details is unrealistic is shown in how the memories that Twyla and Roberta specifically remember affect their relationship entirely. Specifically, this was referred to in the interaction between Twyla and Roberta at the Howard Johnson which occurred as Roberta was leaving the diner without saying goodbye to Twyla right after Twyla and Roberta had an awkward conversation as Twyla didn’t understand Roberta’s reference to Jimi Hendrix: ““How’s your mother?” I asked. Her grin cracked her whole face. She swallowed. “Fine,” she said. “How’s yours?”: “Pretty as a picture,” I said and turned away.” (Morrison 137). The one thing Twyla was able to ask Roberta was only about her mother, and she only thought Roberta was referring to her mother when she was referring to Jimi Hendrix. This event reflects the…show more content… The forgetfulness of the narrator and the concept of remembering one’s childhood having the most difficulty especially in a short time period helps to display what the author may have been intending to do. The story’s title, “Recitatif”, stands for “Recitative”. Recitative stands for a rather free musical style that shows typical dialogue of which is commonly used in opera. However, with this style, it is usually in the background and doesn’t have as much importance as the melody would have. In this short story, Toni Morrison turns the “Recitative” of Twyla and Roberta’s memory of the four months they spent in the orphanage on top of its head. For example, Roberta and Twyla regularly ask each other in each of their encounters, “How’s your mother?”. While this may seem small, it shows how the past has strung the relationship between Twyla and Roberta throughout the ages as this little part of the background has been of importance into how they’ve developed as friends. However, this connects to the idea of how the concept of how unrealistic it is to remember one's childhood completely relates to this title because this title reflects how Toni Morrison flipped little details that would be hard to remember right on top of the head and made it central to the story. Within this story, Twyla’s inability to remember some little aspects of the time she was in the orphanage with Roberta is used to string
