Tiffany James- English 145

 And A Child Shall Lead Them As children it is anything but difficult to notice everything that is different, on the grounds that as a child you are curious by nature. In the same matter, it is just as easy for them to overcome those differences because their innocence makes them blind and resilient. Likewise, with the story of Recitatif, we see two young girls who originate from two distinct races and two different worlds. We see that they are drawn by their commonalities instead of being isolated by their race. The author never reveals which child is of what race, forcing the reader to arrive to their own conclusion while challenging, perhaps, our own social constructs about race. In the beginning of the story, there are two young girls, from different races being introduced to one another, while being made aware that they will be sharing a room at the St. Bonny’s shelter. “It was one thing to be taken out of your own bed early in the morning -it was something else to be stuc...

This read was hard to follow. The author attempt to make sense of a night at a party which was bizarre and stodgy.  However, he found a way to make it interesting by making the best out of something that was uneventful, such as the tree, “…its distinctive features are exaggerated, and yet the substantial feel of its truck and curve of its branches, or again the way the tips of its leaves are elongated like a tail ---these are all grounded in realistic observation” (1120).   He made the tree for an interesting conversation. The party could be symbolic to the tree, perhaps, illustrating that although the party was boring, like the tree, he found a way to make the story of the party interesting to the reader. The tree was once the central conversation of the party for him, but now the debate between the architect and the beatnik poet, not the to mention the moments following it, is now the narrators point of conversation for the reader.   The authors language makes the ...

Recitatif Roberta and Twyla were two different girls & races from the same world. The only difference is that Twyla was in the foster care system because her mother like to party, however Roberta was in the foster care system because her mom was ill. They were the same age, bullied by the older girls, and both had problems learning. The interaction between Roberta and Twyla mother is interesting because the author without mentioning, alludes the issue of race but leaves it to the reader. Roberta’s mother could have walked away because she did not approve of the way Twyla mother dressed. Maggie symbolizes the girls’ mothers. Maggie could not communicate what she was feeling. She could not express the pain and cruelty she was experiencing at the hands of the gar girls. Likewise, the author compares Mary dancing and Roberta’s mother illness to Maggie. They could not verbally communicate what they were experiencing, both dance and sickness is silent. Both ladies were dealin...

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