47 pages • 1 hour read
Toni MorrisonRecitatif
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1983A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Quiz
Reading Check, Multiple Choice & Short Answer Quizzes
Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.
Reading Check
1. Why were Roberta and Twyla sent to St. Bonny’s?
2. Why do the other kids at St. Bonny’s ostracize Roberta and Twyla?
3. How is Maggie characterized when Twyla first introduces her to the reader?
4. What is Twyla concerned about as she approaches Roberta in the diner?
5. What does Twyla note about Roberta’s appearance in the grocery store?
6. Which memory from St. Bonny’s does Roberta correct for Twyla?
7. What does Twyla dwell on after her conversation with Roberta in the grocery store?
8. What do the other protesters do to Twyla while Roberta watches?
Multiple Choice
1. Where or how did Twyla learn to dislike people of different races?
A) from her teachers at St. Bonny’s
B) from her father
C) from her mother
D) from her personal experiences
2. Why does Roberta receive Fs in school?
A) She is depressed.
B) She is distracted.
C) She has social anxiety.
D) She can’t read.
3. How does Roberta’s mother’s rejection of Twyla and her mother bring Twyla and Roberta closer together?
A) Twyla is comforted that Roberta seems embarrassed about her mother and that she doesn’t note Mary’s odd behavior or dress.
B) Twyla realizes Roberta’s mother is much worse than Mary.
C) Roberta stands up for Twyla and her mother.
D) Roberta tells Twyla that Mary is a wonderful person.
4. In what way is Roberta’s experience with St. Bonny’s different from Twyla’s?
A) Roberta was physically abused by Maggie.
B) Roberta returned to St. Bonny’s twice after her first stay with Twyla.
C) Roberta is now on the board of St. Bonny’s.
D) Roberta was happier at St. Bonny’s than Twyla was.
5. What is Roberta’s explanation for not engaging with Twyla when they met in the diner?
A) Roberta had been nervous the boys she had been with would like Twyla more.
B) Roberta had been too high on dope to process Twyla’s presence.
C) Roberta had been embarrassed to run into someone from St. Bonny’s.
D) Roberta had been held back by the racial issues in those days.
6. When Roberta and Twyla confront each other at the integration rally, what statement do they both make for different reasons?
A) “I’m not doing anything to you.”
B) “You really think that?”
C) “I hated your hands in my hair.”
D) “I wonder what made me think you were different.”
7. In what way does Roberta accuse Twyla of hypocrisy?
A) Roberta reminds Twyla she never stood up for her when Roberta was being bullied.
B) Roberta reminds Twyla she can send her son to a perfectly good school in their own neighborhood.
C) Roberta accuses Twyla of kicking Maggie, a Black woman, when she was down on the ground.
D) Roberta accuses Twyla of assaulting her.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. In Twyla’s memory, what were the reasons she and Roberta became friends at St. Bonny’s?
2. What does Twyla like about her mother Mary?
3. Twyla characterizes her husband as someone who is “as comfortable as a slipper” (Paragraph 55). What does this imply about her life with James?
4. As an adult, laughing with Roberta again, what does Twyla remember from their childhood as an implicit reason for their connection?
5. How do Twyla’s feelings about school integration differ from the attitudes she sees on television?
6. How does motherhood come into the debate between Twyla and Roberta at the integration protests?
7. What is significant about Roberta’s reaction to the danger the other mothers inflict on Twyla?
Quizzes – Answer Key
Reading Check
1. Roberta’s mother was sick, and Twyla’s mother danced all night. (Paragraph 1)
2. Twyla and Roberta aren’t real orphans; their mothers are alive. (Paragraph 9)
3. mute and stupid, with a strange walk and silly clothing (Paragraph 10)
4. Twyla is not sure if Roberta remembers her, or even if Roberta wants to remember St. Bonny’s at all. (Paragraph 36)
5. her diamonds and expensive clothing (Paragraph 69)
6. that the girls in the orchard had pushed Maggie down (Paragraphs 116-119)
7. She refuses to believe that she would have forgotten or mis-remembered the memory of Maggie’s fall. (Paragraph 149)
8. rock Twyla’s car with Twyla inside (Paragraph 173)
Multiple Choice
1. C (Paragraph 2)
2. D (Paragraph 8)
3. A (Paragraph 33)
4. B (paragraphs 125-127)
5. D (Paragraph 140)
6. D (Paragraphs 166-167)
7. C (Paragraph 175)
Short-Answer Response
1. No one else will talk to them, they both do poorly in school, and both have dysfunctional mothers who are still alive and involved in their lives. (Paragraph. 20)
2. Twyla appreciates that she has a mother. She realizes that a flawed, live mother is better than a perfect, dead mother. (Paragraph 28)
3. Twyla implies she finds a sense of security she never had growing up with James. Though their hometown is changing drastically, James and his family are still comfortable and happy. (Paragraph 55)
4. Twyla remembers that, as a child, she had appreciated how both girls had an understanding not to ask too many questions. Even as adults meeting in the grocery store, they keep their conversation jovial and surface-level, continuing their tacit understanding not to ask too many questions. (Paragraph 92)
5. Everyone else has passionate feelings for or against integration, but Twyla feels that she’s simply watching something happen. (Paragraph 150)
6. Roberta, who did not grow up with a mother, defends the mothers at the protests as protectors by referring to them as “just mothers.” This defense is lobbied against Twyla’s allusion to Bozo, which develops a parallel between Bozo and mothers. (Paragraph 169)
7. Roberta puts Twyla in danger but then does nothing to help her. This repeats a situation from their childhood when Roberta didn’t defend Twyla and Mary to Roberta’s mother. (Paragraph 173)
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