In her Preface to her essay collection Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination, Morrison writes, "The only short story I have ever written, "Recitatif," was an experiment in the removal of all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial" (xi). Authors and readers alike sometimes use a character's race to assume a number of characteristics about that person. Morrison wants to make the reader aware of this practice. By denying the reader the code through withholding the knowledge of which character is white or black, the reader must refrain from assigning characteristics based on race. Making such a predominate aspect of identity indeterminate raises awareness of how American society has traditionally inscribed race. Morrison's desire to point out the construction of art—that is, to show art as artifice—is part of the larger aim of postmodern art.

Twyla and Roberta seem to have parallel stories at first. Both were left in an orphanage because their mothers were unable to care for them. They had to learn to survive in an institution. They were unable to bond with the other girls because they were not genuine orphans, as their mothers were still alive.