“The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power.”
– Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison is a prized American novelist, but she can also undoubtedly be viewed as one of the most renown activists as of today. Through her many works, she has not only helped provide retrospect on the many injustices of the past and shed light on those we face today, but also ones which we can help prevent in the future.
With that said, this section will be focused on one of her critically-acclaimed writings: the short-fiction story “Recitatif”.
“Recitatif” focuses in on its two main characters, Roberta and Twyla, and questions the nature of racial profiling by introducing a number of situations to the reader that would require some knowledge as to which woman was white and which was black in order to reach a full understanding. She never does reveal that information, though. In turn, this provokes every individual reader to consciously explore stereotypes of either race in an attempt to assess the correct one to both characters.
As a result, “Recitatif” has indubitably gained recognition for its portrayal of modern-era racist topics and has clearly been labeled a solid work in black literature. After all, the Nobel Prize Organization has said themselves “[her] works revolve around African-Americans”. [1]
However, there are other apparent themes to the story rather than just this one that I believe Morrison wished to bring to the table as well.
Critiques have long been made about this work since it was published, but the majority only focus on its racial values. There are other subjects with which “Recitatif” is concerned with that seemingly remain oblique to most of its readers, still. One of these themes is on disability discrimination, and it circles back to one other important character in the story: Maggie.
Maggie assumes the role of an older, crippled worker at the orphanage in which Twyla and Roberta grew up. Throughout the text, she is mentioned several times by the girls (This should say something about her character’s implication). At one point in the story, readers must be a witness to the cruel, unfair behavior that is inflicted upon the innocent worker as she is seen beaten up by the orphanage’s “gar girls”. [2] Other times, her character acts as a burden on both Roberta and Twyla, because the thought of Maggie’s “fate”, per se, on that particular day she was abused remains a mystery to the both of them (see point 3 below).
In many ways, Morrison is using Maggie to discuss truths about the disabled population in today’s world:
- she is a cleaning woman in a shelter (low-wage), which certainly reflects upon the socioeconomic barriers that are set against her.
- In addition to her low-compensation that is often seen with disabled workers, Maggie is a target for the “gar girls” (and perhaps even Twyla and Roberta, as well, at the time) [2] simply because she is perceived as being helpless and, for a lack of better words… not equal in the eyes of the girls due to her physical setbacks. In the words of Sandra Stanley, author of “Maggie in Toni Morrison’s ‘Recitatif’: The Africanist Presence and Disability Studies”, “All the girls regard Maggie, despite the fact that she is an adult, as a helpless child.” [3] Stanley also notes that Twyla comments on the kids-like hat with ear flaps that Maggie wears as being “even for a mute, dumb.”[2] The keyword here is even, implying that disabled people are generally more dumb than those without a disability (yet another stereotype).
- Just as Morrison uses Twyla and Roberta to force the reader to make stereotypes in order to give them plausible identities, she implies the same concept with Maggie’s character. Through the re-occurring quote from the girls “What the hell happened to Maggie?”[2], the reader is forced into some sort of sympathetic engagement with the disabled worker AND forced into questioning her identity too, on top of the main characters’. By questioning her identity, it is apparent that you also might be questioning her function as a disabled individual as perhaps being more than just prosthetic. That is the lesson behind Maggie.
In these ways, Maggie serves as a template for all disabled persons.
Sandra says, “One may argue that Morrison uses Maggie…but also as a ‘master trope of human disqualification’ that forces us to interrogate the ideology that would disqualify her.”[3] In reading through her experience, we may very well question this ideology that circumferences her identity, and thereby reconsider who she is really is rather than just someone of lesser value just because she is physically restricted, enabling her “disability”.
Sources:
[1] Toni Morrison – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2018. Mon. 3 Dec 2018. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1993/morrison/facts/>
[2] Morrison, Toni. Recitatif. New York: Morrow, 1983, pp. 1174-1185.
[3] Stanley, Sandra Kumamoto. “Maggie in Toni Morrison’s ‘Recitatif’: The Africanist Presence and Disability Studies.” MELUS, vol. 36, no. 2, 2011, pp. 74-75. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23035281
Enabling The Disabled 