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Friendship In Toni Morrison's 'Recitatif'

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Toni Morrison is a famous American author who used to write about racial segregation in the United States. In this perspective, she wrote "Recitatif". In this short story, she talked about the particular story of Twyla and Roberta, two girls from different racial origins. She has shown that their friendship faced many rebounds depending on their age and the place they were. The goal of this essay is to analyze their friendship during each period of their lives. The first part will discuss their relationship when they first met at the orphanage. The second part will be about their meeting at the Howard Johnson 's restaurant. The third one will look at their meeting at the new shopping mall. Then, on the picket lines and the last time they met in a coffee shop during the Christmas period. The first time that Twyla and Roberta met was at the orphanage, they were eight years old. There, Twyla did not want to get along with the other girl. In fact, when "the big bozo" introduced them each other, she said: "My mother won 't like you putting me in here." (Morrison, 1983, p1). With those words, she meant that she did not want to share the room with Roberta. She used very aggressive words to her like "The minute I walked in and the Big Bozo introduced us, I got sick to my stomach" (Morrison, 1983, p1) or even "If Roberta had laughed I would have killed her" (Morrison, 1983, p1). The main reason that she did not want to share the room with her was that she is "a girl from a whole

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