Say Yes
Say Yes“If you were black…”
“Say Yes”
By Tobias Wolff
The short story written by Tobias Wolff in 1985 entitled “Say Yes”, manages to remind us with mostly the written dialog of the story that there were and possible still are conflicts within society of whether Caucasians and African Americans should marry. What’s more, is the author also getting across the point that no matter how much we think that we know someone, we really don’t. Although the husband loved his wife, Ann, he was beginning to realize the contrast between then because of her persistence about interracial marriages.
This short story is written in limited omniscient allowing the reader to only have access to the husband’s thoughts and because he is the one that the story follows at all times. This is established by Ann “walking from the kitchen into the living room” and by the story following the husband as “he picked up the garbage pail and went outside” (1387). As the husband was observing the stars to the west, “he felt ashamed that he had let his wife get him into a fight” (1387). The only two characters in this story are the husband and his wife and the topic of “whether white people should marry black people” came up while he was assisting with the dishes (1385). Ann takes a static stance on her beliefs, while the antagonist husband is barely dynamic in nature. In brief, “all things
considered, he thought it was a bad idea” until he wants to “make it up to [her]” (1385, 1387). Ann, on the other hand, “doesn’t see what’s wrong with a white person marrying a black person” (1385). Growth
As soon as the characters start talking about this subject the plot begins to graph the rising tension causing the equilibrium to be off. This discussion between them causes a conflict of person -vs-person by Ann wanting to know whether he would have married her if she would have been black and demanding an answer of “yes or no”(1386). The husband contributes to this conflict by snapping at her with anger(1385).
From the opening of the story to very end, the story leaves out any definite setting, which suggests that this conflict could occur anywhere. Furthermore, the husband stated that “they don’t come from the same culture as we do”(1385), implying in an indirect way that this augment could be other...
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