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Roberta is a main character and Twyla’s foil. Like Twyla, her race is never explicitly stated, only that the other children refer to them as “salt and pepper,” which implies one of the girls is white and the other is Black. Roberta’s mother leaves her at the children’s shelter because she is too sick to care for her. In contrast to the neglectful Mary, Roberta’s mother brings her real food. The fact that Roberta comes from a home where she is properly cared for shows the girls’ differing socioeconomic backgrounds from the outset. As a young adult, Roberta can afford to follow the famous musician Jimi Hendrix on tour rather than work like Twyla. Later in life, Roberta marries a wealthy IBM executive and lives in luxury. However, her comparatively privileged life does not exempt her from the pain of being left at St. Bonny’s or from losing her mother to illness. Like Twyla, Roberta’s anger at her mother is misplaced onto Maggie. However, Roberta fails to achieve the same kind of peace over her desire to hurt Maggie. Unlike Twyla, she thinks wanting to hit Maggie was just as bad as actually doing it, and the story closes with her lamenting not knowing what truly happened to Maggie. The lack of closure Roberta feels around Maggie’s fate suggests she still grapples with the pain and unpredictability of her mother’s illness.

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