Say Yes

The Husband remains unnamed throughout “Say Yes,” though much of the story follows his perspective. He helps his wife with the dishes and is seen as a “considerate” husband because “he really [pitches] in on the housework” (1). Although it’s never mentioned how long he has been married to his wife, it is suggested that it has been many years since “in another thirty years or so they would both be dead” (3). The husband believes African Americans and white Americans should never marry because they will never be able to fully understand one another. He doesn’t believe his stance to be racist and claims to like Black Americans. However, he sees their culture, perspective, and race as completely foreign to his understanding of life.

That the husband is unnamed and only his gender, marital status, and somewhat his race (likely white) are known suggests that he represents the white, male, married set of the American population. Despite being relegated to a stereotype, the husband does undergo some development in the story. The story opens with the husband believing he and his wife are so alike that they’re basically the same person, as we see in the opening scene. After the disagreement with his wife, the husband reconsiders his behaviors—as we see in the scene with the stray dogs—tells his wife that he would marry her no matter her race, then sees his wife no longer as a part of himself but as a stranger.