Kathryn Lockhart

Mr. Newman
English 101: Rhetoric
12 November 2014
The Importance of a Variety of Voices
Throughout the story entitled Rectatif by Toni Morrison, the story is primarily told
from the main character Twylas perspective. Twyla is a little girl who is put in an orphanage
with another girl named Roberta, and how they go from being friends to finally realizing their
differences. Since the story is told from Twylas perspective, the reader only gets one view of the
entire situation. The use of this technique, in this style of writing causes the readers to miss out
on key details from the story because the readers will miss out on seeing the whole picture.
To begin, the reader misses out on a less biased view of the story when it is told from the
main characters perspective. Since Twyla is telling the story, the reader only receives her
thoughts, views, and opinions, but the reader does not hear anyone elses view like Roberta or
Maggies views and opinions on the events in the story. This causes the characters to lose their
complexity as subjects (Wyatt.2). The technique of using one character to tell the story makes
the story very one-sided, and very opinionated. For example, through some of the arguments
that take place in the story between Twyla and Roberta, the reader primarily sees Twylas view
and why she feels the way she does, instead of seeing Robertas view and why Roberta feels the
way she does. This technique causes the story to lose many key details.

In the same way, the reader would also receive a very feminist atmosphere while reading
this story. With the story being told from a females point of view, the story loses the different
opinions and the different atmosphere that male roles may bring to a story. By using this
technique the author would be taking away from the story, instead of adding to it. For example,
The desire for identification moves the subject toward an illusory unity of self and other that
erases difference and threatens the perception of the other as other (Wyatt.3). Some may argue
that females are very sensitive and tend to focus on details more than males. If this story was
told from a males perspective the reader would not get all of the details a female might find more
important than a male, and vice versus if the story was told from a males perspective. The point
of view expressed throughout the story might take away from the effectiveness of the story, by
skipping over important moments and details.
In a different way, having a female main character tell the story can be very useful. The
readers may get a softer side of the story rather than if a male main character told this story. If a
male told this story you might get a broad description of this story instead of a story with lots of
details and emotions. For example, on the one hand, hearing what the other says in her own
terms requires temporarily adopting her perspective; on the other hand, hearing what the other
says in her own terms requires some corrective to the imaginary tendency to draw the other into
identification and so confuse her perspective (and interests) with ones own (Wyatt.4). For
example, in the story Roberta and Twyla get into an argument over education and schooling.
Since the story is told by the main character Twyla the reader sees her emotions, thoughts, and
reasoning for her side of the argument. The reader also receives how she feels after the argument
and why. If the story was told by a male the reader may not see all they see when a females
perspective is shown, like it is in the story when it is told by Twyla.

In Summary, though there are a few reasons why using a female main character as the
narrator of a story is a bad idea, it also has its positive aspects as well. From causing the story to
be biased to losing key details, these are just a few examples as to why having a female main
character tell the story is a bad idea. Though these may be true, using a female narrator can also
cause a story to have more details and have a softer tone to the story as well. This technique, of
using a female character to tell a story, can be either useful to a story or harmful to a story.