A critical issue that Toni Morrison highlights in “Recitatif” is the presence of racial stereotypes in today's society. Morrison plays with the reader's conscious effort to categorize each of the story's characters while withholding each character's race. Because people tend to dismiss racial fads, readers will draw latent conclusions about the people in the story. Morrison wants the reader to draw conclusions about Twyla and Roberta's race by attributing questionable traits to both characters. Morrison uses generalized stereotypes associated with class and wealth when describing Twyla and Roberta. Additionally, Morrison uses Roberta and Twyla's attitudes towards each other and racial issues to demonstrate racial classification (Bennett). Toni Morrison hides the racial identities of the characters to construct the idea that racial conclusions are based solely on culturally constructed stereotypes. In “Recitatif,” Morrison blinds the audience to the racial identity of every individual in the story. In doing so, the only information she gives the reader is that Twyla and Roberta are not the same race when Twyla states that she and Roberta “looked like salt and pepper..” (Morrison). Twyla also said that she would "be stuck in a strange place with a girl of a whole other race" and then expressed that her mother would not want her to be placed with Roberta (Morrison). Throughout the story, Morrison never reveals each girl's race, rather he describes them in such a way that the reader consciously decides each girl's skin color. You would use character names to assume the race of both individuals. In today's generation, characters are assumed ...... middle of paper ...... entities and strategically sets up each of their lives with specific stereotypical details to force the audience to draw a conclusion about their race. Additionally, Morrison plays with typical generalizations associated with names, wealth, and political opinions to confuse the reader about each character's identity. At the end of the story, the reader is still questioning Twyla and Roberta’s racial identity with the use of the character Maggie when Roberta states, “Oh shit, Twyla. Shit, shit, shit. What the hell happened to Maggie” (Morrison). Placing this statement as the final word of the story detracts from the conclusions the audience has drawn about each character's racial identification. Morrison uses Recitatif to make clear that another's generalizations are produced by culturally constructed racial stereotypes.