Scenarios In Margaret Atwood's Happy Endings

When it is told that Mary "sleeps with him even though she's not in love with him," it presents the social stereotypical character that is involved within each story. While having such dull characters in each of the differing mock scenarios, but still coming back with "everything continues as in A," Atwood emphasizes the point: it is not the end that is of importance, because everyone will eventually get there, but it is the road traveled along the way.

Cinderella discovers at one point in the story the king is giving a festival to find his son a bride. Her stepmother tells her she can go if she picks out all the lentils that they threw in the fireplace. Cinderella agrees and calls to all the birds under heaven that come and help her with her task. Yet no matter what she did, her stepmother had no intentions of letting her go to the festival. After the others leave, Cinderella weeps on her

The prince has every girl in the kingdom try on the slipper. Once the prince arrived at Cinderella’s house her two stepsisters immediately did whatever they needed to do to get their feet to fit in the slipper. The first one cut off her toe, and the second cut off her heel. When Cinderella came out, because it was her slipper, her foot slipped right in. On the day of the wedding the two stepsisters came and tried to benefit from Cinderella’s good fortune, but pigeons came and pecked their eyes out, punishing them to be blind for the rest of their lives for the malicious way they treated Cinderella. We assume that Cinderella and the prince marry, and of course, lived happily ever after.

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 same happiness the step-sisters are close to stealing is ruined by the dove. Cinderella's protector, the dove, speaks to the prince and announces his obvious mistake in choosing

"Happy Endings" is a short story written by Margaret Atwood. The story is different than what readers may be used to because it doesn't follow a traditional plot line. Instead, Margaret's story follows an experimental "narrative progression". This type of story progression is a way that an author can manipulate, contort, or obscure the "5 Stages of Plot" structure (Hillard, "Point of View in Fiction"). In this essay, I will explore how experimental "narrative progression" is used in "Happy Endings", how it works in the story, how it relates to the story, and my opinion on experimental "narrative progression" in Margaret Atwood's "Happy Endings".

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

Eventually, it was the two sisters turn to try on the slipper. Both had small feet, but not small enough to fit into the slipper, so they each cut off a piece of their foot in hopes of fitting into the slipper. They almost succeeded too, but the birds from Cinderella’s mother’s grave would tell the messenger the truth, and each sister was sent back home. When messenger returned to the house the prince went with him and he asked Cinderella's father if he had another daughter, Cinderella was called for, and she tried on the slipper which fit her foot perfectly. When the wedding day came the doves that had help Cinderella picked out the stepsisters eyes and blinded them as punishment for their wickedness (J. Grimm and W. Grimm 85-93).

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.

For example, John wanted an affair with Mary, but she never accepted his feelings and she began seeing James. John then began to purchase a weapon to murder on Mary, James, and after the horrific events, he commit suicide. Even Atwood stated this, “John, who has a key to Mary’s apartment. He finds them [...] He's hardly in any position to be jealous, [...] He purchases a handgun [...],and shoots the two of them and himself”, (Atwood).

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”.

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

Cinderella is a fairytale for children that displayed love, loss and miracles; however, when it is further analyzed, it has a deeper meaning. Cinderella is a story about a young girl who became a servant in her own home after her father remarried a malicious woman with two spoiled daughters. She was humiliated and abused yet she remained gentle and kind. She received help from her fairy godmother to go to the prince’s ball after her stepmother rejected her proposal. Cinderella and the Prince fell madly in love but she had to leave at twelve o’clock and forgot to tell him her name but she left her glass slipper behind. He sent his servants to find her and Cinderella was the only maiden in the kingdom to fit into the shoes. She

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

In “Pillow Talk” the main plot is about a married couple where one of the spouses is a alcoholic and the other wants to leave the relationship but does not because they believe they could not find anyone better as said on (pg.30-31). “‘ You’re an alcoholic bore but not violent and i’m too old to find anyone better”’ (pg.31). In “Happy Endings” one loves the other and the other does not feel the same way, for example “ Mary falls in love with john but john doesn’t fall in love with Mary” (pg.96). There are also several other plots in “Happy Ending” such as, an older man falls in love with a younger girl and she just feels sorry for him “ John, who is an older man, falls in love with mary, and mary, who is only twenty-two, feels sorry for him because he’s worried about his hair falling out”’ (pg.96). Another plot is “they get along exceptionally well and are good at working out any little difficulties that may arise” (pg.97). For the last two plots in “Happy Ending” the couple is in love but one dies and the other devotes herself to charity work, and lastly “ John is a revolutionary and Mary a counterespionage agent”(Pg.97). Even though one story had several different plots and one story only had one they were still