Summary

“Say Yes” by Tobias Wolff begins with Ann and her husband doing dishes one evening. The man takes pleasure in helping Ann with house chores. While at it, Ann opens a delicate subject of conversation, mixed-race marriages. The husband does not approve of mixed marriages, and Ann questions him about his motives, seemingly distressed. The husband argues that he is not a racist – because he has lived and worked with blacks – but that mixed marriages are doomed to fail because the spouses come from different cultures. He believes there are irreconcilable differences between the culture of whites and that of blacks which will eventually lead to the failure of mixed marriages as statistics also show. Ann infers that this also implies her husband is against marriages between foreigners, and the ma...