Gender, Race and Identity: Identity as a Social Construct and Performance in Morrisons Recitatif and Chopins A Respectable Woman

University of Wisconsin-Madison Breanne Sommer

Sommer 2 Chopin uses the characterization of Mrs. Baroda in The Respectable Woman to illuminate how human beings identities are socially constructed in relation to others, similar to the experience of identity between Twyla and Roberta in Morrisons short story, Recitatif. Firstly, the authors show that the self is constructed through socialization that makes identity merely a performance in the social sphere. Furthermore, this performance is perpetuated through binary opposition stemming from bodily differences, such as male/female or black/white. Indeed, Morrison provides an analysis of racial identity that cannot exist without the binary opposition of black and white, while Chopin uses her story of Mrs. Barodas awakening to illuminate that gender is performative and is constructed through the binary opposition of male and female. By proving gender and race are bodily cues that construct identity the authors show that human beings do not possess an individual identity, because it is always intrinsically linked to the way one performs in relation to the norm, which is commonly white and male. Both authors use different, yet intersectional issues of gender and race to illuminate that an individuals identity is inextricably linked to dichotomies and that binary opposition creates an inherently socialized identity. Chopin evokes the use of performativity in constructing Mrs. Barodas character signifying identity is socially constructed in response to a social norm. Chopins choice to refer to her protagonist by the name of Mrs. Baroda, rather than her first name, constructs her identity intrinsically in relation to her husband. Her lack of individual identity is juxtaposed to that of her husband, Gaston, whom Chopin addresses by first name, placing him in the position of superiority in the domestic sphere. This is a deliberate act of performativity on Chopins part signified as Butler explicates, the call is formative, if

Sommer 3 not performative, precisely because it initiates the individual into the subjected status of the subject (Butler Gender is Burning 101). This performative nature of language that Chopin uses when referring to her protagonist as Mrs. Baroda gives her a gendered, social existence, in being transferred from an outer region of indifferent, questionable, or impossible being to the discursive or social domain of the subject (Butler Gender is Burning121). This is evident when Mrs. Baroda leaves to escape Gouvernail and Chopin narrates, When Gaston arose in the morning, his wife had already departed (187). Chopin uses diction of his wife as performative, possessive language, solidifying Mrs. Barodas identity as tied to her husband due to the socialization of gender roles in marriage where the man is deemed superior to a subordinate wife. Chopin chooses to address her female protagonist only with the performative use of Mrs., to show Mrs. Barodas identity as inextricably linked to her male counterpart, proving that she does not have a concrete identity that is exempt from gendered distinctions. While it seems that Mrs. Baroda has the option to follow her natural impulses toward desire and extract herself from her gendered role as wife, Chopin, through her ambiguous ending, makes it clear that her protagonist will not achieve a sense of a free identity, because she is continually identified by society in respect to the male norm. Chopin further exemplifies that a womans identity, when deviating from the norm of the social role of respectable wife, is still an identity based on the binary opposition of male and female gender roles, not an individualized, authentic identity. This idea, that there is no true self is exemplified in the third wave feminist theory that there is no subject prior to its constructions, and neither is the subject determined by those constructions (Butler 124). In this statement, while Butler states there is no true essence of identity until

Sommer 4 one is constructed in relation to society and its norms, she is implying that an individual can act out against these social constructions that subject one to a discursive identity, which is exactly what creates Mrs. Barodas internal conflict. This conflict between her expectations as a respectable woman and succumbing to her role as submissive wife versus surrendering to the impulse of her desires is ambiguously implied when she exclaims, I have overcome everything! You will see. This time I shall be very nice to him (187). This line can be interpreted two different ways, showing the extent of her internal conflict, between denouncing her role as Mrs. Baroda in search of following her true feelings and going against societys expectations of a wife, or remaining in a gendered identity role. These two options that are implied in Chopins concluding language proves that Mrs. Barodas identity will always and inextricably be gendered, because she is viewed by society in her relationship to men. If she leaves her husband at the end, her identity would be characterized as an unrespectable woman, signifying society will continue to view her in relation to men. Using the ambiguous lack of resolution to Mrs. Barodas internal conflict, Chopin demonstrates there is no essence of identity, but rather, identity is socially constructed based on bodily differences in binary opposition. While Chopin exemplifies gendered identity based on dichotomies, Morrison analyzes the racial dichotomy of black and white and illuminates that this binary opposition forms a socialized identity. Morrison strips her protagonists of racial identity, yet includes racial cues to express that race does not exist without an opposite identity, or norm, on which to base. Twyla and Roberta base their identities in relation to how they act towards one another, creating a socialized identity, which can be analyzed through the

Sommer 5 lens of symbolic interactionism that argues gender, or in this case, race is performed in interactions (Holmes 48). These performative interactions are labeled displays that are mostly non-verbal forms of behaviour, which are very structured in ways that determine how we interact with people (Holmes 50). These displays are the racial cues Morrison provides, testing the inherent racial displays already inscribed in todays public discourse. For example, Morrison evokes the performative of racial cues in the two girls names that would appear to have foundations in racial discourse today: Roberta as a white girls name, while Twyla can be seen as black. Along with the performative use of names, Morrison also includes lines such as, we looked like salt and pepper and thats what the other kids called us sometimes (112), to establish a binary racial identity for the reader to infer. This racial identity is constructed in this sentence by using the metaphor of the girls as salt and pepper, which appropriates minerals found in the natural world to bodily difference of white and black, signifying these racial differences are, like the minerals, a natural occurrence that is manipulated into identity by society. Morrison uses performativity through racial cues in her short story to illuminate that identity is socialized and performed through interactions to binary opposition. Morrison furthers her argument that identity is formed by interactions in society to show that it is constructed based on how individuals act in response to socialized bodily differences in binary opposition, signifying human beings can never rid themselves of a socialized identity. Although Morrison provides racial displays, she never states the race of the girls, leaving the reader to analyze the racial cues that are ingrained in our own interpretation of their race. With this tactic, she is exemplifying the way others mold an individuals identity based on the body. Firstly, it is necessary to

Sommer 6 analyze the identities of the two protagonists with the mindset that the interiority is an effect and function of a decidedly public and social discourse, the public regulation of fantasy through the surface politics of the body (Butler Bodily Inscriptions 110). While Butler is talking about the body as gendered here, it can also relate to a racialized exterior reflecting on the interior as Morrison exhibits. In this sense, the identities of Twyla and Roberta are based on the exteriors of the body and how these do or do not deviate from the norm in society. It is continually apparent that the girls base their ideas of themselves off of their bodily differences when Twyla sees Roberta at the store later in their lives and she comments, Everything is so easy for them. They think they won the world (115). This statement effectively characterizes each of the girls based on their opposing races because Twyla, due to socialization, sees Roberta as privileged because of her race, while she, in turn, is on the lesser margins of society due to her bodily differences. Roberta further impacts their identities in relation to each others differing races when she recalls her offensive, standoffish behavior in the diner where Twyla worked and blames it on how it was in those days: blackwhite (116). This shows they acted in relationship to one another, giving them raced identities based on socialization. Morrison concretizes her idea that identities are based on race due to the presence of binary opposition of white and black and the socialization that black is a deviation of the norm when Twyla notices, Actually my sign didnt make sense without Robertas (117). The signs showing the opposing stances on education for which they are picketing symbolize their conflicting and opposing racialized identities. With this statement, Morrison solidifies that dichotomies define identity in public discourse because their signs, or rather, identities, wouldnt make sense without the other. With

Sommer 7 these examples of Twyla and Roberta inextricably basing their identities off of their bodily differences that are in binary opposition to one another, Morrison shows that individuals can never be free from racialized identity because identity is based on social ques. Both authors create characters that exhibit a socialized identity that is performed in relation to binary opposition in gender and race, respectively. While Chopin focuses on the inability to escape a gendered identity and find a liberated self, Morrison illuminates the similar theme with the issue of racialized identity. In some contemporary theory, individuals do not have a concrete sense of self before society constructs their identity based on social norms. Chopin and Morrison utilize this theme in the characterization of their protagonists to demonstrate that human beings can never realize a self that is not defined by bodily deviations from the norm.

Sommer 8 Works Cited Butler, Judith. Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions. Pg. 163-180 in Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge. 1990. Butler, Judith. Gender is Burning: Questions of Appropriation and Subversion. Pg. 121-140 in Bodies that Matter. 1993. Chopin, Kate. A Respectable Woman. 1894. Holmes, Mary. Learning and Doing Gender in Everyday Life. Pg. 34-57 in Gender and Everyday Life. London, New York: Routledge. 2009. Morrison, Toni. Recitatif. 1983.