Examples Of Happy Endings By Margaret Atwood

In her short story “Happy Endings”, Margaret Atwood uses different literary techniques that can alter the interpretation of the story’s theme. The story starts off with a generic “fairy tale” ending in which a husband and a wife live a happy life together and eventually die. However, as the story progresses, Atwood’s style and tone makes the alternate scenarios of John and Mary give off a sense of uncertainty of what main ideas she is trying to convey. Good opening and thesis.

A powerful quote said by pre-socratic philosopher named Democritus says “Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul”. In other words, happiness does not come from materialism but instead from the things money can’t buy. In the article The Secret of Happiness the author David Myers writes directly to Americans about how he believes we need to obtain a new “American Dream” that emphasizes personal happiness instead of materialistic happiness. Myers also believes happiness resides in the soul and he says people that think money is the key to happiness are actually less content with themselves and he uses various ways to prove this point. With that being said materialistic happiness vs personal happiness is an important issue, and Myers made a strong use of Logos by showing surveys and studies, Ethos by showing credibility in his argument but he could have used more Pathos by using more emotion and enthusiasm in his argument.

In the essay “Fairy Tales and Modern Stories”, Bruno Bettelheim argues that fairy tales can provide children more reassurance than realistic stories. Bettelheim used examples like “The Little Engine that Could”,”The Swiss Family Robinson” and “Rapunzel” to show how realistic stories and fairy tales both affected children’s thinking. The author claims that modern stories don’t compare to fairy tales, because they can’t provide an outlet for children to work through their problems and emotions. Bettelheim explains that fairy tales give children the reassurance and hope that there's a better future that is waiting for them. He argues that fairy tales can have a more impactful effect because it can offer “escape” and “consolation” for troublesome events in their lives. He even claims that modern stories fail to give the reader “encouraging

In the familiar more traditional version, Cinderella is a poor maid girl that, with the help of fairy godmother, gets a chance to meet prince charming. They fall in love, get married, and live happily ever after, and then what? What is a happily ever after? Is this even a realistic thought? In the dark comedic poem Cinderella, Anne Sexton forces the reader to examine this question. Utilizing literary devices such as tone, imagery, and style, Sexton encourages the reader to think about how silly and unlikely a fairy tale ending actually is.

True Happiness in The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut and Hans Weingartner's The Eduakators

Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings” is not a typical short story. With remarkable brevity, it provides readers a gold mine for discussion on the nuances of relationships and storytelling. Best described as metafiction, “Happy Endings” self-consciously draws attention to its artificiality; it is less a story and moreover an instruction manual on how to write one. From a surface level, the author parodies storytelling conventions. Upon deeper examination, however, the story is actually a satire on on the collective psyche of the middle class. This essay will explore the story’s meaning from these two levels.

People seem to mistake being happy from true happiness. Montag for example was the happiest he could ever be, but once Clarisse asked him this life changing question, “’ Are you happy’” (Bradbury, 10) he slowly comes to believe he was not happy. I think this demonstrates how little anyone was urged or permitted to be divergent and look beyond the required living status. In Fahrenheit 451 everyone is “dead” they are not happy nor living their life to the fullest, the people were thinking they were happy but they were not mistaking what is true happiness for the fake happiness of living with “the relatives”.

As we grow up we all hear stories. Stories of wizards, elves, dwarves, and little men who hunt for rings, or stories of wars in far off galaxies. Or even of caped crusaders, who always seem to win against all odds. Regardless of the genre of the story, they all have one thing in common - a happy ending. An ending in which everything ends up all right, the hero wins, and the villain is defeated. But as we grow up, we see that in real life there are no such things as perfect storytale endings. Despite this, we still tell ourselves stories of hope, stories of utopia, and of dreams of a better place. We pass these on to children, and to all the subsequent generations that will succeed us. But after the devastation of human caused World Wars, countless mass genocides,the losses of millions of lives, and massive impact on such a

Story A of Happy Endings, is the ultimate story of love. Everything is smooth throughout the whole story and both characters are happy and live happy lives. We as the readers find out that John and Mary go on “fun vacations” and that their children “turn out well”. This is by far my most favorite story out of all six. I find it interesting and funny that Atwood uses

Happy Endings is an oddly structured, metafictional story; a series of possible scenarios all leading the characters to the same ending. Atwood uses humour and practical wisdom to critique both romantic fiction and contemporary society, and to make the point that it is not the end that is important, it is the journey that truly matters in both life and writing.

In the story “Happy Endings” the author Margaret Atwood gives 6 scenarios in alphabetical order from A to F of how a couples life could play out over the span of their lives. In these six scenarios Atwood uses satire to emphasize how interchangeable and simple each couples life is. In this story Atwood uses character, style, and point of view to chastise the desire for the everyday common life and the concern for only the “whats” in life and not “how or why”.

With the majority of children’s books today ending with a Disney like, fairy tale ending, “The Paper Bag Princess” ends unexpectedly, with the princess walking happily into the sunset by herself. Even though the story ends with an unusual twist, as the prince and princess don’t marry and live happily ever after. Its message is still strong and clear, that if someone isn’t nice and appreciative to you, it is not worth it and to move on. The message is clear and evident, to be strong, brave and resourceful and to accept one for whom they are, as the princess shows her strength and independence, by being able to walk away merrily into the sunset without a care in the world. Demonstrating that not all stories end the way we expect them to and that sometimes an unexpected ending can be just as satisfying.

In the text, Why Happiness, Why Now? , I believe Sara Ahmed's main points are discussing what happiness means, what is justifies, and how it is measured. In short, she is looking deeply into happiness. I generally agree with her major ideas, but one point I do not fully agree with is that happiness makes societies better. In the text Layard states, "the best society is the happiest society."

The idea of a happy ending, to the common person, is the cliche ending of a story in which the protagonist gets the damsel, saves the world, and survives near death. However, this is a very simple way to look at the concept of a “happy ending” and neglects the grand scheme of things, just as there are more complicated equations in mathematics as one progresses in school, there are more complicated elements in a story as we look to dig deeper into literature. A story that has a complex happy ending is Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the story of a man seeking revenge on his family that has caused him much despair. If we look at this play in a simple manner, we will probably not look at the ending as happy ending as our beloved characters die,

Atwood uses “Happy Endings” in identifying and explaining the type of ending fictional stories should have and why. Works of fiction should have a happy ending which Atwood terms appealing to our ethical nature and therefore moral. Atwood provides a number of stories that implies different endings. However, the ending in the first story is referred in all other stories as the befitting ending. Atwood acknowledges the desires of works of fiction to bring out creativity by bring out intensity and passion, but this is only possible in the introduction and the body of a fictional story. All fictional stories have to end in the same way, a way that appeals to the human