Reading Notes W 16: TONI MORRISON Part A

Nobel laureate Toni Morrison combines realistic depictions of African American experience with a strong sense of the past’s hold on the present. She often conveys this sensitivity to the power of history by invoking magic or supernatural occurrences. The combination of techniques resembles at times the magic realism of the Latin American Boom; at other times, Morrison's concern with the border between fiction and history seems postmodernist. Her writing also addresses the role of racial and gender discrimination in the contemporary society. In all her work, while drawing on the experimental fictional techniques of the early 12th century, she maintains a close connection to African american oral and literary traditions and to everyday life in the united states.

The story opens with Twyla’s declaration that she and Roberta were brought to the orphanage of St. Bonny’s because Twyla’s mother Mary who dances all night and Roberta’s mother was ill. When they are initially introduced they do not get along. Mary has taught Twyla to hold prejudiced views about people of Roberta’s race. Eventually, the girls begin to bond over the fact that they understand each other without asking questions. They are also brought closer by the fact that they both get F's all the time; Twyla can’t remember anything she learns, and Roberta has not yet learned to read. They are also forced together by the fact that they are excluded from the rest of the children at St. Bonny’s because they are not real orphans. Sometimes Twyla and Roberta are picked on by the older girls or gar girls, who wear makeup and seem scary but are in fact mostly vulnerable runaways.Twyla often dreams of the orchard, but isn’t sure why because nothing really happened there, except one incident in which Maggie fell down there. Maggie is a sandy-colored old woman who works in the kitchen and has multiple disabilities. She is mute and possibly deaf, and has bow legs that cause her to rock and sway as she walks. The story jumps eight years ahead in time. One day, when a Greyhound Bus stops at the diner, Twyla notices that Roberta is among the passengers, accompanied by two young men. Roberta goes to leave without saying goodbye, but before she does Twyla asks how Roberta’s mother is. Roberta replies that she is fine, asks after Mary, and leaves. The narrative jumps another twelve years forward. Twyla is now married to a man named James whose family have lived in Newburgh for generations; the couple have a son named Joseph.She eventually resolves to buy only Klondike bars, because both her son and father-in-law love them. At the checkout, Twyla runs into Roberta, who is dressed elegantly and reveals that she now lives in the wealthy suburb of Annandale along with her husband and four stepchildren. They later catch up over coffee were they talk about Maggie and the incident that made Twyla and Roberta fall out. One day, Twyla accidentally drives past a protest against busing, where she sees Roberta holding a sign that reads “MOTHERS HAVE RIGHTS TOO!”. The women call each other liars because of how they both said the Maggie incident went, and eventually Twyla comes back to join a counter-protest, at which she waves a series of signs that directly address Roberta and don’t make sense to anyone else. The final sign reads: “IS YOUR MOTHER WELL?”, and this seems to cause Roberta to abandon the protest. As time passes again Twyla and Roberta come across each other again during the holidays at a cafe, they both confront each so they can both apologize with one another about everything that has happened between them both.