Themes and message

The main themes of the short story “Say Yes” by Tobias Wolff are interracial love and marriage – and racism – but also that of domestic power conflict, because the spouses fight to impose their opinion on the other. The author’s message seems to be that sometimes a theoretical debate can push couples apart when behind their debate are totally opposite views and a strong power for control over the relationship.

Interracial love and marriage

The story explores this theme at a theoretical conversational level. There is no interracial couple in the narrative, but a white couple discussing this idea. While the husband argues that, practically, neither love nor marriage could lead to a happy ending for interracial couples, the wife believes true love could make such a couple work.

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Racism

Racism is a sub-theme related to interracial love and marriage. In the short story, it is mostly explored through the character of the husband. Although he argues that he gets along “just fine” (p. 52, l. 19)...

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Domestic power conflict

Another important theme of the short story, which is not as obvious at first, is that of domestic power conflict. Because the topic of the debate between the two spouses is very sensitive, we may tend to dismiss this theme and focus on the racial aspects.

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