A Strong Moral Separation

For this week's post, I read Tobias Wolff's story "Say Yes." This is a story about a disagreement about interracial marriage, and it stirred up some powerful feelings in me to the point that I'll be writing about them more in depth for another project for my class, which I may post on here later.

In the short story, an older married couple is washing dishes when the wife asks the husband what he thinks about interracial marriage. He says that "all things considered" he thinks it is a bad idea. His wife persists in asking him why he thinks so even as he tries to change the subject. 

 He denies being racist, saying "I went to school with blacks and I've worked with blacks and lived on the same street with blacks, and we've always gotten along just fine. I don't need you coming along now and implying I'm racist." 

 As his wife begins to get upset, he tries to explain what he’s thinking.

 “They don’t come from the same culture as we do,” he says – like that makes it okay.

 This heats up the conversation. Then the wife accidentally cuts her thumb on a knife. The husband, who already sees himself as incredibly considerate for helping with the dishes, runs up stairs to get a Band-Aid in order to rescue her.  

 While he holds her thumb to bandage it, she looks accusingly at him.

 “So,” she says, “you wouldn’t have married me if I’d been black.” She says this as a statement. Not a question. She already knows she’s right.

 He attempts to tell her she’s being ridiculous.

 “But say that I’m black, but still me, and we fall in love. Will you marry me?” his wife asks.

 He thinks about it, and he responds, “Jesus, Ann. All right – no.”

 She stalks out of the room. To atone for his sins, he mops the floors and takes out the garbage.

 After some time to cool down, he says he’ll make it up to her. “I’ll marry you,” he whispers.

 “We’ll see,” she says. “Go on to bed.”

 Now the story takes a mysterious turn. The tone of the final paragraph is eerie.

“Then he heard a movement across the room. He sat up but couldn’t see a thing. The room was silent. His heart pounded as it had on their first night together, as it still did when he woke at a noise in the darkness and waited to hear it again – the sound of someone moving through the house, a stranger.”

I think the ending of the story implies that their strong moral separation has erased all of their years together and made them strangers. A feeling I can identify with all too well.