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The title of the story is a directive to pay attention to the things Twyla and Roberta say, and don’t say, to each other. The word recitatif is a term that refers to the freestyle narrative and dialogue that is sung during operas. The story told in Morrison’s “Recitatif” is made up of five different encounters, or episodes, between Twyla and Roberta. Morrison implies that it is the mundane moments, the words said to one another, that make up the most significant portions of a person’s life. The plot of “Recitatif” is not Twyla and Roberta’s separate life stories, but rather the moments when the women’s lives intersect. 

Each time Twyla and Roberta run into each other, their dialogue is layered with meaning. The dialogue removes all racial codes while implying racial identity is an important part of both Twyla and Roberta’s respective identities. During the protest scene, dialogue tags are mostly left out, making it difficult to know which character is speaking. At one point, Twyla and Roberta even repeat the same line as they speculate about why they thought the other one was different. The implication is that they thought the other was different from other people of their racial background. The dialogue once again highlights that the women hold prejudiced views toward the other’s race. Morrison also offers a statement about racial assumptions many people make about everyday speech by calling attention to the dialogue. Everyday speech is laden with vernacular and slang, which can create unconscious biases in readers. By removing stereotypical speech from the dialogue, Morrison further obscures Twyla and Roberta’s races and forces readers to reckon with their own unconscious biases.

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