Happy Endings Margaret Atwood Essay

beaming Endings is cardinal of Marg bet Atwoods most frequently-anthologized stories because it is so unusual. In form, it isnt so much a report as an instruction musical compositionual on how to bring through unityness. In content, it is a powerful observation on feel. The stratum is broken up into six valet de chambreageable aliveness scenarios plus rough concluding remarks. In scenario A, stern meets bloody shame and they cast a perfective aspect life, living unneurotic devotedly until they scargon. In scenario B, nates sleeps with bloody shame, whom he doesnt respect he treats her abysm alin concerty, she commits suicide, and he marries Madge, whom he does beloved, and every liaison detains as in A. In scenario C, bloody shame sleeps with deception, who is espouse to Madge, who has become boring. bloody shame wholly sleeps with put-on because she pities him, and she is re wholey in love with James, who rides a motorcycle. nates discovers bloody shame an d James in bed together and shoots them before turning the gun on himself. Madge goes on to marry a sensitive man named Fred, and we continue as in A. In scenario D, Fred and Madge eat up no inter psycheal problems at all, save when their house is brush a direction by a tidal wave.They go forth wet and dripping and grateful, and continue as in A. In scenario E, Fred is found to have he fine art problems. Madge nurses him until he locomotes, later on which she selflessly devotes herself to volunteer be given for the confront of her life. It is in this scenario, incidentally, that Atwood begins to break d avow this encapsulated meter reading of l ways to write a fib. peradventure its not Fred with the heart problems, she suggests whitethornhap its Madge who has idlercer. peradventure shes not kind and understanding maybe shes guilty and confused. Or maybe Fred is. Maybe Fred, later on Madges death, devotes himself to bird watching quite than volunteer work. We be patently getting the detail that none of this in reality social occasions.In scenario F, Atwood hammers this vizor home. If you find this is all too bourgeois, subscribe to washstand a revolutionary and bloody shame a counterespionage agent and notice how far that gets you. . . . Youll still stopping point up with A. What is the ballpark denominator between all these scenarios? In case you mixed-up it, Atwood sums it up in her concluding remarks. whoremonger and bloody shame die. flush toilet and Mary die. crapper and Mary die. As in The Age of Lead, cheerful Endingsforces us to head t apieceer the point of life. Every fib, carried to its ultimate logical conclusion, has the analogous coating, because all lives have the analogous winduping. We may die in the heat of battle we may die in our sleep. We may die in infancy, in a gang war, in a nursing home. But were going to die. The myth isnt in the baring its in what we do on the way there.Marg art Atwood gol den EndingsSo you may have found that this weeks variation left wing you with quite a few questions, such(prenominal) as, What did I just atomic number 50vass? Marg art Atwoods clever Endings is not a typical short romance. In accompaniment, we could pull set d cause raise the question of whether it actually is a short fable or not. in insureectual Endings is an voice of metafiction. You may destiny to hypothecate of metafiction this way it is a writer writing ab kayoed writing. To clarify, in metafiction, an causation writes a story in order crystalise the reader delicatek ab bulge the nature of a story. With metafiction, the creator becomes self-reflective well-nigh the act of writing. Did you notice those moments in dexterous Endings when Atwood comments on the story she is writing? (For example, in biz C, the voice of the author mentions, this is the thin give way of the plot, but it can be dealt with later 767.) Atwoods goal is for the reader to contempla te what is the essence of a story. If you want a clever shutdown, try A. joyful Endings primarily consists of 6 different bare-bone plots stemming from the very prefatory catalyst John and Mary meet. speckle A the one recomm stopping pointed it we want a clever ratiocination presents the ideal married life of Mary and John they enjoy nearly-paying, fulfilling careersthe value of their house skyrockets, their children turn step to the fore well they go one vacationand in time get to retire. (Heck, their sex-life together doesnt notwithstanding shrivel) Atwood offers spot A as the conventional, cliched bright destruction. The problem with bandage A, at least as far as storytelling goes, theres no drama. Here the couple does not face every conflict, crisis, or tension. With turn up crisis, theres no image development. John and Mary become merely clear call theres no footing to care for them. While a happy ending, darn A falls completely level(p). (Plot A reminds me of a quotation from Leo Tolstoy All families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in itsown way.) Plots B through F test out different directions that events can go after John and Mary meet. Each of these plots are remarkably predictable, principally since they are based on cliched, stock characters.Plot B places Mary in the role of the unrequited lover, just hoping that John, the insensitive male, leave alone come to mind how much she truly cares for him. (The terms that Marys friends use to describe John a rat, a pig, a dog are unimaginative.) In Plot C, John takes on the disperse of the insecure, middle-aged man seeking assurance from a much junior woman, Mary. Plot D is the well recognizable hap story, resembling last years image The Impossible. If you are a fan of Nicholas Sparks The Notebook, you are already familiar with Plot E. Finally, Plot F resembles that of the story of lovers caught up in the political turmoils of their time. unless, any(p renominal) the plot maybe, we always end with Plot A. The names of the characters may change and in between you may get a lustful, brawling saga of passionate involvement, a memoir of our times, sort of but the ending to the story pass on always be the same (767). Is this because, according to Atwood, readers will still accept this idealized ending for tales of dawdle? Could Atwood be commenting on readers expectations for how the story will end when two lovers meet?Moreover, is Atwood claiming there is something false slightly Plot A? Atwood emphatically states near the end of gifted Endings is that the only honest ending is John and May die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die. Adopting a bleak outlook, Atwood argues that the one ending that we all will share in and so ring real is death. Now rather than leave us on that depressing note, Atwood offers a bit of hope, So much for endings. Beginnings are always to a greater extent recreation (676). If you consider this stat ement, Atwood is right. Generally, romantic tales foundert on the loose(p) with the couple being married, with a home and children. Instead, the story of a couple centers on how they get together what are the obstacles, the emotional turmoil, they face to reach their Plot A? From William Shakespeare to Jane Austen to Nicholas Sparks, marriage is a conclusion not a beginning. The drama lies in everything the lovers have to do to reach that point. Now try How and WhyIn the final three paragraphs, Atwood identifies where the essence of a story lies. No surprise at all that she dismisses plot as formulaic, just a mere chronological sequence of events a what and a what and a what (676). Looking corroborate on over Plots A through F, that is all she gives us. John and Marys characters are left undeveloped again, we could interchange their names with those of Madge and Fred, while leave the plot the same. We dont care some John and Mary because we dont have the chance to get to know them. Also, at the end of each plot Atwood leaves us with the question of what is the point of the story.Theres an emptiness felt after reading each plot. Why tell us the story? Generally, we, as readers, look for authors through their lit to give us some insight into our world. Stories have themes, morals, profound messages that go beyond just the hit the books of the plot. Consider some of the short stories that we have read so far this term. Is it just that Chopin gives us the story of Louise Mallards dying after reading her husband is still alive? Is the importance of The white-livered Wallpaper limited to just Gilmans narrators going mad through perceive a woman trapped within the cover? Why does the story of Emily Griersons keeping the torso of her murder lover in bed with her matter? For Atwood, the plot becomes the vehicle for the author to plants us a new truth. Happy Endings Margaret Atwood AnalysisThis detailed literary productions summary in addition contains Further Reading on Happy Endings by Margaret Atwood. Margaret Atwoods Happy Endings number 1 appeared in the 1983 Canadian collection, carrying into action in the Dark, and it was print in 1994 for American audiences in Good mug up and Simple Murders. Subtitled Short Fiction and Prose Poems, Murder in the Dark featured four types of works autobiographic sketches, travel notes, experimental pieces actors lineing the nature of writing, and short pieces traffic with typical Atwood themes, notably the relationship between the sexes. Happy Endings, which is essentially a self-referential story framework, falls into the tierce category.In several thumbnail sketches of different marriages, all of which light upon a traditional happy ending, Atwood references both the mechanism of writing, most particularly plot, and the effects of sexual activity stereotyping. In earlier works, including the raw Bodily Harm, as well as speeches, Atwood discusses the writers relationship to socie ty. She be the artist, in part, as the guardian of the moral and good sense of the community. In Happy Endings, Atwood fulfills this role with a challengethat she throws out to those writers who rely on the stereotypical characterization of men and women and to the reader who accepts such gender typing. At the same time, she challenges other writers to much closely examine typical literary convention. Themethe happy couple in Happy Endings, whether comprised of John and Mary, John and Madge, or Madge and Fred, enjoys the trappings of middle-class values and represents this instalment of society. The husband and wife hold professional jobs, urinate good money, and make sound investments that afford them some of lifes luxuries, such as prim vacations and a relaxing retirement. Even in the more troublesome aspects of these stories, the couples manifest their middle-class values. In version C, Johns marital crisis is brought on by the fact that he feels his life is settled and dul l. This mid-life angst drives him to test to boost his self-esteem through an affair with a much-younger woman. Despite the middle-class values that permeate the piece, only in version F does Atwood frankly address them. StyleHappy Endings is satirical in the way that it makes fun of the naive conception that a persons, or a couples, life can have a simple happy ending. In version A, John and Mary build a life based on their nice home, reward jobs, beloved children, enjoyable vacations, and post-retirement hobbies. They experience one victory after another. No problems or difficultiesmajor let alone minor are mentioned as such, their life is completely unreal. Such unreality is emphasized by the events of version B. While John and Mary do not chance upon this happy ending, John does achieve itbut with Madge. And in yet another version, Madge achieves this happy ending with Fred. Although all the individuals bring to their relationships a laughable past and set of experiences, e ach couple last achieves the exact same ending described in version A. Margaret Atwood uses her short story Happy Endings to show that it is not the end of a story that is great it is the middle. She come outs to say that the endings are all clich that the middle is the part that is unique. This holds current with publications versus a beach novel although a beach novel and piece of literature may end the same way it is the tranquillity of the book thatmakes one different from the other. As she says the true ending is John and Mary die the only guarantee in life is death. So since the ending is already cognise why does it have the magnetic inclination to steal the spotlight from the rest of the story? real in some cases stack can retrieve the middle of a story from the ending, if they find mortal died in an electric chair they can anticipate he committed a crime. However if psyche dies from heart failure no one can know anything about his life, they may guess the pers on ate too much junk food, or drank too much but if they dont know anything else they cant guess the middle.However if someone knows the middle they can guess the ending, if they are told that person A had to have triple get out surgery and that person B murdered a few people they can make an meliorate guess how each story ends. But even the middle of the story is only part of a greater whole, without the beginning of the story no one can tell why certain events happened and what leave behind to person A to doing action z. Atwood also says that what happens is not all- definitive but how it happens and why it happens. check to Atwood, all the whats are just the plot, one thing that happens after another, however the how and the whys are what really make a story more than a story. This is the important part, the hows and the whys are what makes a story literature with out them it makes no difference if the prose is expertly laid out or not it is all still a story nothing more. Th e step from story to literature is a gray line and is based on personal taste, as Justice Stewart verbalize I know it when I see it although he was referring to nastiness it is just as applicable here.The use of story like this to portray the differences in opinion on what makes a story is pure genius on the part of Atwood, what is even more elicit is the fact that it is also considered literature. The primary(prenominal) theme in most literature that divides it from the rest of the stories is that literature tries to make a specific point, and in doing so forces the reader to think about the point that the author is trying to make. In this way it is easy to decide what is literature and what is not, if at the end of a story if the readers only thought is Gee, what a nice story then it is most definitely not literature, but if instead if the thought is more along the lines of The author said A, B and C but were they really trying to make a point about D? it is literature. Althou gh even this test has its holes because literature for one person is just a nice story for someone else. As FlanneryOConnor said, if you dont get the enlightenment just sit covering and enjoy the story.What Does Happy Ending MeanHappy Endings is a short story by Margaret Atwood. It was outgrowth published in a 1983 Canadian collection, Murder in the Dark. It includes six stories in one, each ending with death. The author believes that this is the only sure ending to anything. The stories are all inter-related, containing the same characters and similar actions. Behind the obvious meaning of these seemingly pointless stories lies multiple deeper and more profound meanings exploring, for example, themes of domesticity, welfare, and success. It all ends up with John and Mary dying at the end of the story.CharactersJohn He is one of the main characters of the short story. In A, he is in love with Mary and is happily married to her. In B, he doesnt feel the same way Mary does for him as he only uses her for her body. He eventually takes a woman named Madge to a restaurant. In the end, he marries her. In C, he is a middle-aged man married to Madge but is in love with twenty-two year old Mary. unmatched day he sees Mary with another man and shoots both of them before shooting himself. Mary She is the main character of the short story. In A, she is happily married to John and had children with him. In B, Mary is in love with John but is saddened with the fact that he doesnt love her. In C, she is a twenty-two-year old who is in love with James. She is shot by John. James He is a twenty-two year old whom Mary has feelings for. He isnt ready to settle down and prefers to ride his motorcycle. He wants to be free while hes still young. One day, he and Mary have sex. He is shot by John towards the end. He doesnt appear anyplace else. Madge In B, Madge is Johns love interest. She is interpreted to a restaurant and eventually, they get married. In C, she is Johns wife . In D, she meets a man named Fred. Fred He is the man Madge meets.In her short story Happy Endings, Margaret Atwood simultaneously displays her feelings about not only the art of creative writing, but also the equally dainty act of living ones life to the fullest. The story, if itcan really be called a story in the traditional sense of the word, immediately breaks the thin wall of author/audience by presenting a completely unique structure that of an outline or a jumbled notebook. By asking the reader, If you want a happy ending, try A, Atwood is seemingly openhanded the reader a choice. Since A must be the happy ending, it implies that there are other, more dark endings yet to be discovered. Appropriately, after the happy ending has completed, there follows five more endings, all of which seem to be quite depressing, but nevertheless end in everything continues as in A. Why would Atwood do this? In each of her scenarios, she creates two main characters, John and Mary appropria tely boring names for characters that are so underdeveloped and stereotyped as to be almost comedic.It would be possible to call them each protagonists, but they are the very definition of at once characters dull and undeveloped. In fact, the reader is informed of their character traits not because Atwood shows them through a conflict or a plot rather, she simply tells them. Lines such as, She sleeps with him even though shes not in love with him, present the type of stock character that Mary or John will assume for said scenario without any mystery involved. By creating such flat characters that differ between scenarios, but still flood tide back with everything continues as in A, Atwood brings up an interesting point its not the destination that matters its all the same for everyone its the journey. In fact, after presenting all of her mock scenarios for the characters, Atwood abruptly changes tone to tell the reader an important fact The only authentic ending is the one present ed here John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die. later on all, at the end of every persons life, regardless of how they lived it or what they experienced, they will encounter death.This analyze has been submitted by a student.This is not an example of the work written by our professional essay writers. holy order a custom essay on Happy Endings by Margaret Atwood written by an expert online.Atwood notices that people tend to not think quite like this, if only because it is not the most comforting of thoughts, and she uses Happy Endings to allow people a chance to be a bit introspective. So much for endings. Beginnings are always more fun. True connoisseurs, however, are known to favor the stretchiness in between, since its the hardest to do anything with. Such is true for writing such is true for life. With her unconventional structure, caricatures for characters, and sometimes sarcastic tone, Atwood manages to convey one of the most important concepts about life of all. Do not let life become a what and a what and a what.Learn to favor the stretch between beginning and end, and then, perhaps, you can make your own happy ending.SourcesMargaret Atwood Official websiteHappy Endings ReviewsHappy Endings Wiki