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Lydia Pelzer
Mr. Newman
English 101: Rhetoric
12 November 2014
The Feminine Critique
The idea that the female is the weak counterpart of the male has always been a prominent
topic in our society. Traditional gender roles cast men as rational, strong, protective, and
decisive: they cast women as emotional (irrational), weak, nurturing and submissive.(Tyson
85).There continue to still be restrictions on women in the workplace and women still need to
fight for their equal footing in society. Through the endeavors of the mothers, the way the girls
act and the absence of men, Toni Morrison confirms the idea that the traditional ideas of
feminism remain accurate.
One prominent idea of feminists is they believe that women can shape their own identity.
The mothers of Twyla and Roberta act especially bold and imply they agree with that idea. The
mothers of the two girls moxie out and dance and get sick (Morrison 1) to quote Toni
Morrisons book Recitatif. While the actions of the mothers is not the uttermost appropriate
behavior, they still show that they will not be ruled by the constraints that society has placed on
them. The feminists say that women wish to be detected as equal to men and these women will
definitely showing the world what they demand. The inferior position long occupied by women
in patriarchal society has been culturally, not biologically, produced. (Tyson 86) Women let the
world walk over them for a lengthy time. The mothers definitely showed they meant business.
Also, when the mothers come to notice their girls, Robertas mother has a Bible, which shows
that she longs to pick her religion. Twylas mother suggests that her choices define her. When

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the girls mothers come to church with them, Twyla watches as her mother moved around during
the service and how the mother swore in church. Also, the way the mothers acted also made
Twyla hate them. She had on those green slacks I hated (Morrison 2). This quote shows what
Twyla thought of her mother. Twyla is also implied to enjoy judging Robertas mother owing to
she describes Robertas mother as immense and the fact that Robertas mother jerked Roberta
away when they were walking into the church. This shows how Robertas mother was racist and
that Twyla was aggrieved by the gesture.
The gesture aggrieved Twyla as Robertas mother was indifferent to her. Twyla and
Roberta emulate that behavior as they are indifferent to those around them at the orphanage.
Twyla and Roberta hint they continuing to be indifferent to those around them. Roberta and
Twyla determine not to let the senior girls at orphanage realize that they were anxious. Roberta
and Twyla were afraid of the senior girls, such that they were originally not willing to comfort
Maggie when she fell. Eventually, they gained control over their fears and called the girls
atrocious names. Roberta turned into the senior girls at the orphanage in a way on the grounds
she went so out-of-the-way as to kick a black woman, or as the reader finds out later was
Maggie. Roberta also showed that she was extra independent; the reader identifies she learned to
read and she married a rich man. When the girls meet in the checkout line, they went to lunch.
There, they collided heads a little and Twyla ended up calling Roberta a bigot. Twyla was
showing her independence in that moment as she showed she would not be pushed around by
Roberta. The girls also decided to vote for womens rights in a picket line, which was not ideal
or common during their time. They decided to undertake this in order to protect their children.
They realized that the women in the picket line were not the best, so they tried to leave. The

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other women rocked the car they were in, however Twyla and Roberta were not worried as the
reader can recognize.
The reader will recognize men remain unmentioned much in this story. The fathers of
Twyla and Roberta achieve no major role in the story as they are not even discussed in a little
detail in the story. When Twyla and Roberta meet at the diner, Roberta casually mentions who
the young man adjacent to her is and suddenly drops the subject. In their following encounter,
which is in the checkout line at the store, Twyla and Roberta mention their husbands and say that
their husbands are cordial and genuinely wonderful husbands. The husbands are considered the
accessories of the women instead of the opposite being true. Both women say they are pleased
with their husbands, even though they avoid the subject of their husbands comparable with the
Ebola scare. Another way that men are a miniscule component of this story is the fact that the
women say they required boys and how they received what they yearned. When they talk of their
kids, Twyla casually mentions that her son is bussed to school and all at once, Roberta obtains a
defensive attitude. Even though the children preform no critical role in the story, the girls are
unquestionably protective of their children.
Feminism is still an element of our culture. Toni Morrison executes an efficient job
showing how females challenge social norms. While a few of the ways that women challenge the
things as they are not admirable, the idea is still revolutionary. Women need to make the move to
step up for themselves.

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