Apr 26 2008
“Say Yes” by Tobias Wolff
Say Yes, by Tobias Wolff is a story about racism, the belief that race accounts for the differences in abilities or personalities of human beings. The theme is conveyed through an argument between a husband and wife over whether a marriage between people of different races is possible or not. The husband is unconsciously racist. He believes African Americans and Caucasians cannot take part in an interracial marriage because “a person from their culture and a person from our culture could never really understand each other” (808). In other words, interracial marriages are not possible because people of two different races come from vastly different backgrounds and could not relate to each other. His wife continues to ask him about why he believes mixed marriages cannot work. She then poses the hypothetical question, “Let’s say I am black, but still me and we fall in love. Will you marry me?”, expecting her husband to say yes. Instead he says, “If you were black, you wouldn’t be you.” His statement reveals that he thinks race influences personality. His wife poses the question again, and he replies with a no. His wife takes this to mean that her husband does not love her. She thinks that if she belonged to a different race and nothing else had changed, her husband could not overcome the barrier to their marriage presented by the color of her skin. In reality, her husband is too racist to see that she could be the same person but belong to a different race
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