"Recitatif" by Toni Morrison

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9718XxkF2E

                The story “Recitatif” was written by Toni Morrison. She made this story interesting, on the black and white problem. Also, this story was confusing for me too. I do not really understand the purpose of this story. It is interesting because it is different than other stories in the book.

                I wondered if Twyla was white. Or black? Because this story was not clear, and I also do not know what color Roberta is either. It seems that Twyla is white and Roberta is black. I wanted to know why does Twyla’s mother dance all the night. What kind of sickness does Roberta’s mother have? I do not understand why both of them are put in orphan while their mothers still visit them? Why would orphan kids never wash their hair? Do they (St. Bonaventure) not have enough hot water provided?

                Why do the orphans call the caretaker Big Bozo instead of her real name, Mrs. Itkins? I wonder what the term “Big Bozo” means. I wonder what is so special about the orchard to Twyla. When she mentioned that the cooker, Maggie, at St. Bonaventure had a parenthesis legs, I immediately knew that was a bowlegs because I researched a lot on it in my high school on my own time. She also said that Maggie is mute, and said that she wore really stupid hat, this made me wonder if she is not just a mute, but not high-functioning?

                I wonder why does 8 years old girls, Twyla and Roberta, already is learning Civics already at that age while most of us are learning it in our high school years. At age of 8 I wouldn’t put on wet socks even though they are pretty, I hate the feeling of wet socks. How can Roberta deal with that? I wonder what exactly is wrong with Twyla’s mother. I know that she is not all there in the head but what exactly?

                I thought it was horrible that Twyla’s mother did not bring any picnic food to share with Twyla. I will never do that to my kids, I will make sure they have food. I wonder why not Roberta acted the same when she saw Twyla again after many years. I wonder what made her change from sweet girl to snobby young woman, then married and kind of nice woman, then she is against Twyla, then she is apologetic? I now wonder what happened to Roberta’s mind because she kept sprouting weird things that Twyla did not remember.

                I wonder if the protesting is about segregation of black and white kids. At the beginning, Twyla says that her mother is Mary and she dances all the night, now near the end of the story, Twyla says that Maggie is her mother and she dances all the night. This is confusing, why did she say that? I wonder what does the word “Recitatif” mean. I looked it up and it said that it mean the tone or rhythm peculiar to any language.

                This story is interesting because it is not clear what kind of races those two are, and it is also confusing because they keep talking about weird things. Like getting the race of the cooker wrong, and changing who is mother of Twyla and who dances all the night. This was an extremely

long story.

Zelzah: A Tale From Long Ago by Norma Fox Mazer

Once again, there are problem with the video, just search for the play button.

The story called “Zelzah: A Tale From Long Ago” is really extremely long, and it was written by Norma Fox Mazer. It is lovely story about sisters and Zelzah’s transition to America’s life from Jewish life. It was well written and easy to read kind of story. I would like to see what other stories Norma have wrote.

I thought the name Zelzah was pretty name, and I thought that the meaning of that name is cool. Shade-in-the-Heat seems to be nice meaning to be given to someone. Also I wondered why the mother named Anna that name, and its meaning does not match her, because she is not graceful. Other daughter’s name Shulamith does not match her name meaning too, she is not peaceful; she is fiery girl who wants everything to be fair to her. She does not like having her territory to be crossed. Ruth is not all there in her head, and the mother’s name is Adah, and it means ornament. In actual reality, she is poor. I think it is funny because none of their name matches to their personality or life.

I think that it is sad that the mother was poor and this made her name her kids with these meaning in hope that it will make her kids future better. But it seems that it doesn’t work. She wished that Shulamith would be peaceful, and be a comfort to people. She wanted Zelzah to be someone that people will go to feel a relief from problems. I feel bad that all the girls have to share one bed because that’s all they could afford.

The house they live in has only one room and everything is in one room. That shows how poor they are. I wish that Jewish people has more money so they could be better off instead of being poor and barely have enough of anything. I know this because my family is poor and we have some money and it is not always great, and now I look at Jewish, they are worse off than we are. This made me wish they had little more money so that they could have some more stuff to have. 

I wonder what attract Ruth so much about a stick, a bug, and a crushed leaf. This looks like to me that she has autism because they have a fascination with some objects. I thought that it was odd that Aunt Hannah would marry off his son, Jake, to Zelzah while they are cousins. That is a incest to this day, I would understand if they were second cousins or farther but they are first cousins. I wonder how cheap is the boat fare was back in then compared to today’s boat fare.  I wonder was Zelzah’s tear is of joy or sadness? It looks like a joy because she made to America. 

It looked like that Zelzah was overwhelmed by everything in America and Aunt Hannah’s house. They are not poor compared to Jewish village. Once again, I felt bad for her because she was so grateful that she has better bed, she kept saying that her aunt is too kind. When Zelzah said that her cousins Jake and Ephraim is beautiful and handsome, this made me think that at Zelzah’s old home there is many  not handsome men available.

I can feel that Zelzah really missed her families because she kept crying into her shawl, and said that the house is so quiet compared to her home. She kept waking up to listen for noises usually made at her old home. She said that her heart is full of terror and loneliness, and that it lessens when Jake shares with her in bed. It seems that Zelzah needs someone in her bed to keep her terror and loneliness away.

I wondered why did Jake secretly marry with Grace, who was Ephraim’s girlfriend while he was supposed to marry Zelzah? It is horrible that he cheated on Zelzah. I think it was wonderful that Zelzah became more confident in herself and got job in New York City. I thought it was weird that Zelzah still doesn’t mind to be wife for Jake even though he cheated on her. I thought it was wonderful that Shulamith came to America and stayed with Zelzah. But her temper is still there and she still rages at everything.

I think it’s wonderful that Aaron married Shulamith even though she got a temper. Other thing I thought was wonderful is that they got many things done fast, like marrying, having kids, going to college, and have jobs. It looks like they are adapting to America life pretty well. I wonder why doesn’t Zelzah want to get married and have children. Is it because what happened with Jake?

The story was very good and I really liked it because it is actually a story, not really short one. It is long and just right for me. I thought it was well written story, and I would like to see if Norma has written other stories. I loved to see what those name mean in Jewish. It gave me more inspiration to name my kids with cool names, like mine.