Cohesive Strangers in Tobias Wolff’s Say Yes

The short story “Sweat,” by Zora Neale Hurston, seems to exemplify the epitome of a bad marriage. Hurston uses foreshadowing and irony to demonstrate the disintegrated relationship between the abusive husband and the diligent wife. Throughout the story, it becomes obvious that the husband does not oblige by the motto, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Hurston’s use of irony and foreshadowing helps reveal the fact that “the good will prevail” and Sykes will finally get what he deserves.

There was no clear understanding of each other. Each acted on their own perception and did not talk out to each other. John worked all day and Ann was feeling lonely in the marriage. She either did not talk to her husband. She goes on an adventure by sleeping with his neighbor on john family bed where he finds them.

Tannen effectively opens with an anecdote about how she was at a gathering for a women’s group and men were invited. She talks about how one guy was very talkative, offering ideas and telling stories, while his wife was sitting in silence. Towards the end of the evening Tannen commented that “women frequently complain that their husbands don’t talk to them”. The man quickly agreed with Tannen and admitted that his wife was the talker in their family and if it weren’t for

Bartels explains that wives often let out their stress induced, pent up anger on their husbands. He uses his own life and instances he has experienced with his wife to support himself. He describes his wife as tired, angry, and wanting to take that out on him (Bartels 58). Bartels has experienced this spousal anger firsthand, giving him credibility to write about it. He understands how the cycle of spousal anger works. However, his lack of other means of support makes his article fall short in some areas. Whereas telling a personal story may appeal to one reader, it may not appeal to the next. Bartels lacks a balance of logical and emotional appeal. The emotional appeal that Bartels uses is successful, though. He says that at times his wife is so negative that is “threatens to grind [his] spirit to dust” (Bartels 59). This use of emotional language is well executed because any reader will either be able to relate to him or feel sorry for the situation he is in. However, some women may sympathize with him less as they take the side of the wife in his story. His stance is flawed because he comes at this argument at an obviously subjective position. Bartels overlooks the idea that many women will not feel sorry for him if they disagree with what he has to say.

Throughout the beginning of the story, the wife continually references the things “John says” (844-5). That indicates to me that she is timid and perhaps frightened of him. “John says this,” and “John says that,” shows me that our narrator doesn’t feel permitted to have a thought that is her own. The story’s unilateral male, as well as unilateral female conversations are friendly and comfortable. However, male to female conversation in the writing is dominant, aggressive, assertive and sometimes dangerous. Female to male exchanges appear delicate, soft and understanding, always agreeing with the male perspective. I would consider women in this time period to be viewed as a pet or toy to the male, dominant figure in her life. The use of the words in this short is very important, and gives you the information to interpret the story. For instance, on page 845 it says, “It was a nursery first, then a playroom and gymnasium. I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children.” This discloses that our woman has post-partum depression. At the very least, she feels as if she is trapped or in an asylum within her own home. Perhaps this feeling of entrapment lends itself to driving her mad. It is no surprise that the woman feels trapped behind the pattern of the yellow wallpaper. Her days and nights are filled with constant repetition of the same nothingness. She is left with little to

In his article, “Children of Interracial Parents Face Special Difficulties”, Frank A. Jones argues that biracial children, especially black males, face difficulties due to their parents raising them based on white parenting standards without considering the way modern society will treat them. Jones describes how biracial children think they are different, which builds up the fear of getting judged and leads to racism. Frank emphasizes the need of not just love and affection in raising a child or more specifically a biracial child but “guidance, discipline, self-perception, and survival perspective” and also the importance of education being a must and not an option. Biracial

I have always thought and been taught that racism was a form of ignorance; people used stereotypes are the easy route, instead of looking at the individual outside of the whole. But Kelley’s thoughts on the topic rang very true to me—“Racism is knowledge…is learned behavior…” (7). When we are babies, we don’t notice or care if someone is of a different race, socioeconomic standing, sexuality; we just see them as people. It’s through repeated actions that we learn what separates us from the “other”. As a young child, my neighbor was my best friend. We played every day until I moved, but our families still kept in touch. It was until probably the 3rd or 4th grade that I realized he wasn’t like me, he had Down syndrome. Of course, that didn’t make a difference to me then or now, but I find it to be a striking example in my own life that as a young person, I was unable to see anything different about us, to me we were the same, we were

Dorothy Allison, author of the personal narrative, “Context” (1994), explores the idea that two people from different backgrounds can form a union in a relationship. Dorothy Allison develops her narrative by bringing her rich, northern girlfriend to the south, where she feared exposing her to her penury lifestyle. Allison’s purpose was to emphasize on the different backgrounds, in order to show how where you come from should not affect genuine love. The intended audience is any reader from any social class, and the relationship established between the author and the audience would be the idea that where you stand economically does not define who you are.

In Adichie’s remarks, she explains the effects of single stories through forms of racism. While racism is a huge issue, I wanted to bring in a different example of when single stories were used in my life. These were connected with my religion and the religion of others.

His crew went onto Hollywood Boulevard to ask white people whether they have a black friend, and the audience of the show predicted their response. This provides an informal setting to talk about and bring to mind the importance of this social delicate topic. As an example, a white woman from Sydney admits that she does not have one as “there aren’t very many in Australia”, while a black person was asked

The communication theme in this story is much more serious than the one in "A Small Good Thing," the reason being that the narrator has less or no communication whatsoever with his wife. This is vividly shown in the story where the narrator says "When the time rolled around, my wife went to the depot to pick him up. With nothing to do but wait, I was having a drink and watching TV."(41) This deficiency of intimacy, intercourse led the narrator to be ignorant but very thoughtful. However the narrator's thoughtfulness did not lead him to understand that his lack of tolerance was much more serious than he knew it was.

After this first point of contact, the couple enters the next interpersonal stage of 'involvement,' as they get to know one another. Despite their differences, they become convinced that they have a future together and view their differences as potential positives rather than negatives. The couple moves in together and begins to establish greater intimacy. Unfortunately, it is at this juncture that the relationship begins to fall apart, as they try to establish a more private form of 'intimacy,' even though they are publically a couple.

Marriage is a full-time job on its own and people should communicate with each other in order to have a healthy marriage for them to love and appreciate each other so they can grow old together. Most of us know by now that the fairy tale happily ever after stories are full of holes. Carver emphasizes that when there is no communication in the marriage the wife starts to feel unhappy and frustrated with him. The wife’s attitude with her husband suggests that the marriage doesn’t seem to be working for her. Carver states, “My wife finally took her eyes off the blind man and looked at me. I had the feeling she didn’t like what she saw. I shrugged (38). ” There was unhappiness in the marriage and the narrator and his wife didn’t seem to get along. In other words the

"Say Yes" is an emotional sorry of love and its pitfalls. The husband loves his wife dearly but fails to really know that all she wants to hear is affirmation of her proposal of love despite the racial undertone involve. The Husband does not come to the realization of this concept until the end of the story when he accepts the proposal and puts forth the effort to "make it up" to Ann

Fowler, in a letter from his wife, is again exposed for never taking sides. "You say that we've always tried to tell the truth to each other, but, Thomas, your truth is always so temporary. (110)" Because Fowler always tried to be objective, it even influenced his own marriage. His wife couldn't trust him because he never chose sides; he never developed his own opinions and stuck by them. Fowler's truth was always temporary because while staying objective, he never got involved enough to make himself care to maintain one position. "‘I'll have done my best'- aren't you thinking that? What would you do if I cabled "Yes"? Would you actually marry her? (109)" Fowler's wife calls him out on the fact that even though he is asking her for a divorce and essentially the right to marry Phuong, which he does not name, even if she does grant him what he's asking for Fowler won't be able to act on it. This ‘truth', that fowler says he's in love with Phuong, is only temporary. If fowler were to truly love Phuong and really want to marry her he would then be in the position of choosing sides. He would finally be saying that he really isn't objective, he isn't the ‘reporter' that he thinks he is. This is what his wife sees and therefore called him on it.