Racism

The idea of racism is a theme in the story, for the implication of the husband's racism is what causes the couple to quarrel. The wife dislikes her husband's beliefs that African Americans are different from whites. He maintains that it is not that he is prejudiced against African Americans, but that they come from a different culture than white people— "they even have their own language." His protestation that "I like hearing them talk"—because it makes him feel happy—reveals much about his personality: his belief that African Americans are inherently foreign to whites, his condescending attitude, and his sense of otherness from himself— he needs something completely unlike himself to bring him pleasure.

The husband's negative response to Ann's question of whether he would marry her were she African American indicates the pervasive and destructive nature of his racism. Though the...