Margaret Atwood's Happy Endings

"So much for endings. Beginnings are always more fun. True connoisseurs, however, are known to favor the stretch in between, since it's the hardest to do anything with." Such is true for writing; such is true for life. With her unconventionally structured characters, and sarcastic tone, Atwood still conveys one of the most important concepts of life: Learn to cherish the time in between the beginning and the end, then perhaps you can make your own happy ending.

In comparison to scene A, John and Mary have a “stimulating and challenging sex life” (paragraph 3). While in scene B, the sex life of the characters is more descriptive, as Atwood states that John “fucks her [Mary] and after that he falls asleep” (paragraph 5). There is a shift in tone between these two scenarios. For example, in scenario A, the tone appears to be so optimistic and positive that it is almost impossible to believe that everything is going well with a smooth ending. With this over-positive tone, Atwood inserts an instance of hyperbole where she repeats John and Mary’s lives being “worthwhile” and “stimulating and challenging” to suggest a fairy-tale like story. Within this optimistic tone, a positive diction is also witnessed, throughout the story, when Atwood mentions words like “remunerative,” “worthwhile,” “charming,” “well,” and “fun,” to give the audience a sense of perfect life. At the end, both eventually

The author Patrick Ness quoted, “Stories don't always have happy endings." This implies in the novel Far Far Away by Tom McNeal where the main characters suffer through the obstacles for achieving happy endings. In a small town of Never Better, the boy named Jeremy Johnson Johnson is treated oddly because of his uncommon quality; he hears a ‘voice’, which belongs to the ghost of Jacob Grimm, the elder of the Grimm brothers. The ghost came to Jeremy in order to protect him from the Finder of the Occasion, an unknown creature with internal bad intentions. Jeremy falls in love with a winsome girl, Ginger Boultinghouse. As they found out who the Founder of Occasions was, Jeremy and Ginger face the life threatening danger, but fortunately, are rescued

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.

The narrator addresses the audience to explain that all stories end the same, even if the story has a “happy ending,” with death. She directly states, “[y]ou’ll have to face it, the endings are the same however you slice it” (312). Atwood comes right out and directly tells the reader the point of her short story. She also tells her reader to “...[not] be deluded by any other endings, they're all fake...or just motivated by excessive optimism” (312). The repetition that “John and Mary die.

Personal fitness has never been emphasized too little in today’s society. The various reason consider personal fitness includes health, cosmetic, and competitive sport reasons. However, one side effect from personal fitness that people rarely consider as their main reason to participate is happiness. For me, going to the gym makes me happy because going to the gym relieves stress and gives an opportunity to be social.

The use of character, style, and point of view that Atwood uses to write this story gives you a real feeling of pity for these characters, only having horrible lows or average highs in their relationships. It appears that there is no great place to be in her story. Reading this story for the first time, the reader could assume Atwood has an obsession with bad relationships, boring average marriages, and death. The key to understanding what the author is trying to convey is realizing how the stories all link together and how they all lack the essence of excitement and desire. The author brings the idea that without focusing on the “how and why” of life and only focusing on the “what, what, what” will leave you with an average

Through her claims, Atwood is trying to argue that life itself should always be the focal point of a short story and no one should dwell on the ending of the story. She says this because “…the only authentic ending is the one provided here: John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die.” In addition, in continually saying that “if you want a happy ending, try A,” Atwood is emphasizes that there is no such things as a happy ending, since scenario A is unrealistic and impossible.

In the story of “Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood, we see a story that contains multiple organized plots. Each story has a different version with the same characters with different endings. The plot in “Happy Ending” starts from a perfect life and goes until a terrible one. Each plot begins in the same way, with John and Mary meeting. For instance, in “A,” John and Mary meet, have good lives, rich hobbies, remain deeply in love, fulfilling each other emotionally and successfully, and then, they die.

The ultimate message of Great Expectations is that not all great expectations can be easily transformed into reality based on one’s will, and is accurately modeled by the Piccadilly Ending. As shown in the essay The Two Endings by Rupert Christiansen, the author believes that the Piccadilly ending corresponded with the overall message of the book. Christiansen makes a good point about facing reality when he says “life does not neatly deliver one’s dreams of perfect happiness...even when you have learnt lessons the hard way” (Christiansen, 2). By using the words “neatly” and “deliver”, the author is explaining that life will not cater to one’s wishes and fantasy does not become reality without effort. In addition, even when one has worked persistently

In the story "Happy Endings" the creator Margaret Atwood gives 6 situations in sequential request from A to F of how a couples life could play out finished the traverse of their lives. In these six situations Atwood utilizes parody to underline how exchangeable and straightforward each couples life is. In this story Atwood utilizes character, style, and perspective to berate the longing for the regular normal life and the worry for just the "whats" in life and not "how or why". The utilization of level characters in "Happy Endings" is one of the ways Atwood's mocking tone is particularly underlined. The main characters presented, Mary and John, are scarcely created and we just learn basic insights about their life that gives off an

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,

Arguments for the position held by Atwood with respect to the perfect ending to a work of fiction can be drawn from the societal relationships such as marriages and romantic affairs. These relationships are perceived as beautiful and comes with a form of fulfillment, thus should have a beautiful ending. Life should be easy and relationships should be successful. The ‘happy ending’ adopted by Atwood is an illustration of how easy life should be and how successful relationships such as marriages should turn out. She

I like to read stories that have good endings, but some of the finest lessons we can learn come from stories with unhappy endings.