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The Unwanted and Excluded

A new title that I would give to Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif” is “The Unwanted and Excluded”. I believe that this phrase is a sufficient title for the story because it accurately describes Twyla and Roberta’s lifelong journey that we observe. St. Bonny’s, where the pair live as children, essentially represents the theme of social alienation that is repeated throughout the story. Simply being at St. Bonny’s is a reminder to the girls that they are unwanted. Furthermore, Twyla and Roberta are outcasts within St. Bonny’s, an institution that is meant for "outcasts". The extreme exclusion that Twyla and Roberta experience in their childhood is a factor of the title “The Unwanted and Excluded”.

 The theme of exclusion follows Twyla and Roberta into their adult lives, as the girls find themselves on opposing sides of a protest over school integration much later in the story. Roberta says “they want to take my kids and send them out of the neighborhood.” She is objecting to school integration, and claims throughout this part of the story that it is being forced upon her children. She wants her children to stay within their own community. From the perspective of a civil rights activist, this can be seen as active support towards segregation. Roberta comes to be on the opposite side of civil rights activism. Because she doesn't want her children to learn in a different community, she is excluding them from the presumably higher quality education that is possible. This is why I believe the title “The Unwanted and Excluded” is adequate for Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif”. 

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