ENGCW 272 Lecture 5: Class 5 Notes_ENGCW 272
19 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Wolff’s Say Yes
Story Notes
The story was written in 1985, which is why its topic matter may seem rather outdated.
SUMMARY
At face value, it seems to be a story between a husband and wife about interracial
marriage.
The man is not for it, while the wife is.
Gradually we see that this severely upsets the wife. So she asks, “Would you marry me
if I was black?”
The husband is uncomfortable. He considers himself to not be racist, and his wife’s
sudden aggression towards the subject makes him feel hypocritical.
The wife knows he’ll say no, and he tells her no, too.
At the end of the story, it’s bedtime, the husband’s in bed, but the wife isn’t. It’s pitch
black, and the man realizes that the two have become strangers, after all.
Two open-ended questions that we have:
1. What role does darkness play in this story? How is it significant towards the end?
2. Do you think this story is an allegory for a broader theme? Why or why not?
My answers?
1. Darkness plays the role of isolation. The man and the woman are divided by the end
of the story. The wife tells the husband to turn off the light, and when he does, his heart
pounds, and he’s reminded to the times where he and his wife only barely knew each
other. With a shock, he realizes that the two were strangers, after all.
2. I feel like it could be? It definitely involves the degradation of love in marriage and
what it means for the couple involved.
Document Summary
The story was written in 1985, which is why its topic matter may seem rather outdated. At face value, it seems to be a story between a husband and wife about interracial marriage. The man is not for it, while the wife is. Gradually we see that this severely upsets the wife. So she asks, would you marry me if i was black? . He considers himself to not be racist, and his wife"s sudden aggression towards the subject makes him feel hypocritical. The wife knows he"ll say no, and he tells her no, too. At the end of the story, it"s bedtime, the husband"s in bed, but the wife isn"t. It"s pitch black, and the man realizes that the two have become strangers, after all. My answers: darkness plays the role of isolation. The man and the woman are divided by the end of the story.
