Introduction
In the short story “Happy Endings,” the Canadian novelist and poet Margaret Atwood discusses the nature of relationships, the importance of love, and its impact on human life. The author delivers six different scenarios making the main characters’ lives full of challenges and joy. In the ideal scenario (“A”), John and Mary have an ordinary but happy life and eventually die together. In version “B,” Marry sacrifices her life to beloved John, who does not love her, uses her body, and treats her as a housekeeper. Eventually, unrequited love causes Marry to commit suicide, whereas John marries another woman, Madge.
The next version depicts the mid-life crisis of an older man who has an affair with a young woman, Marry, to escape the burdens of his ordinary life. John ultimately kills his lower, her young boyfriend, and himself after finding out the young couple loves each other. His wife Madge then marries Fred, and the “A” scenario repeats. In version “D,” the husband and wife have satisfying life despite surviving a natural disaster. Similarly, version “E” adds various health issues to the original story, while the last one explains the author’s main idea. Atwood tries to show that no matter which context is, the ending will always be the same: death. The real story is not about a fictional ideal ending; instead, it is about how characters face challenges, motivations, and desires.
Background
Real-life is full of challenges, issues, and different events that determine the overall satisfaction with life. Although love is something precious that everyone wants to feel, it may also lead to stupid decisions with appalling consequences since it has immense power. For instance, a related life situation was depicted in the famous Shakespeare tragedy Romeo and Juliet. At the end of the story, Romeo comes to Juliet’s tomb to check if she is actually dead. The latter seems lifeless; thus, the despaired man decides to end his life by drinking poison. When Juliet finds her beloved lying dead, she proclaims, “I will kiss thy lips. Haply some poison yet doth hang on them, to make me die with a restorative” (Shakespeare V.iii). As a result, the love story ends in both ridiculous and terrible tragedy indicating that love and hate, life and death are inseparable.
In her short story, Atwood also addresses similar topics and highlights the process’s superiority over the ending, as the latter is always the same. What is more, the Canadian novelist uses a third-person point of view to provide fewer emotions to the narrative and make it as factual as possible. In version “B,” she breaks the fourth wall by deploying her own point of view (second-person narrative) that makes readers question the genre’s clichés and conventions.
Thesis: No matter what type of goal in life people pursue with their ambition, love, or passion, death is the only ending to each and every story. Some people will have it as a happy ending to their good life while others will face it sadly. But the truth of the matter is so apparent that every soul will have an end with mortality.
In this story, the author talks about endings. She says, “don’t be deluded by any other endings…” What does the author mean by this? And what does this says about relationships in general?
In this story, the author means that there is an end to every life, so people should not bother much to have a feeling as mistreated by their loved ones. There will always be differences between people’s living standards, such as emotional, financial, and mental issues, including social affairs. What is the sense of getting jealous or obsessed with someone else’s lifestyle or surrounding it since each story will have just about the same ending? Death is, in fact, the only end for every soul. In relationships, this story is telling the audience to avoid exaggerating their ambitions for their love, passion, and the way they handle each other issues in general. Instead should have self-care, patience, and precautioned plans in hand for every stage of a relationship.
There is no immortality for no one in this world. Therefore, people should take things in life easy, not so seriously in which is the author’s idea in this story. “The only authentic ending is the one provided here: John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die.” (Atwood 3). In this quote, the author uses repetition to emphasize giving a message to the audience in which all endings in life are about the same. People in their daily life do naturally have a relationship, fall in love with someone, and as the next stage, they may even get married in some cases. The very same people may even cheat on each other to pursue something better as they push on their ambitions and passion for a new goal. But they do not realize that death will be the only end to their story.
How would you dissect Atwood’s style of writing in the story ending “B” (think about voice and diction)? Please use textual support
In the story ending “B,” Atwood’s writing style is fascinating and drifting. She uses diction and voice in a way in which the reader can comprehend the situation in a much better way. She also uses the right kind of vocabulary suited for her story. For example, her diction: “This other John will emerge like a butterfly from a cocoon, a Jack from a box, a pit from a prune if the first John is only squeezed enough” (Atwood 1). This quote demonstrates her style of writing, enriched with a simile to enable the reader to imagine things easier in his/her mind of what the author is saying.
As important as her diction, her voice makes her story sounds unique and more impressive. For example, “Mary collects all the sleeping pills and aspirins she can find and talks them and a half a bottle of sherry. You can see what kind of a woman she is by the fact that it’s not even whiskey” (Atwood 1). The author uses symbolism to show the unseriousness of Mary in the story. If she were serious enough about committing suicide, she would have drunk those pills with whiskey as a stronger spirit to kill herself easier and faster, instead of sherry. As the example above shows, Mary’s story ended sadly because of her passionate love for John and her ambition to get married to him failed. Mary did not have enough concentration on the fact that she was not immortal.
If you had the opportunity to add another ending to this story, what would you write about? Please ensure it is a logically sound story
John and Mary love each other since their teenage years, and finally, they get married. She becomes a doctor and works long hours in a hospital. John is a real estate agent and likes to enjoy happy hours after work at a local bar. One day he meets Madge in the bar, and they start having an affair in a short time. Madge is an attorney who handles divorce cases. On a day off, Mary wants to do the laundry and finds Madge’s business card in John’s shirt pocket and gets annoyed. But she plans not to ask John about who she was.
Mary decides to watch John constantly with careful eyes, so she hopes to figure out if he is up to anything. On a night when John thinks Mary is staying out at work for overtime, he asks Madge to drive him to his block and stop the car about fifty yards before his house. Not knowing that Mary is following them in her car, the two lovers start having long kisses before John steps out of the car. With tearful eyes, Mary whispers in a tone of regret, “Why did I lie to John about my overtime at work? Oh Lord! Did I have to see this crap?”. Being so angry, Mary does not give a damn about plotting a terrible thing to hurt them. She kicks the gas pedal towards Madge’s car and reaches a great speed in a few seconds. With no hesitation, Mary keeps driving on and hits Madge’s car head-on. Mary believed to come out alive in a way, but all three of them die at the scene.
Conclusion
To conclude, Margaret Atwood’s short story defies the conventions and clichés of the romance genre. No matter which life events occur, or how people interact, everything has its inevitable end. The author believes that successful relationships end with death, instead of divorces and breakups. A love story can occur in different contexts and have its own plot twists, but it always ends with a loss. In this regard, Atwood’s notion resembles the central meaning of “Romeo and Juliet” story that life and death, love and hate could not be separated. The author’s conclusion, though, is not as morbid as it seems. She encourages us to focus on details, enjoy moments of true love and pleasure, and be ready to face possible upheavals or let someone go.
Works Cited
Atwood, Margaret. Happy Endings. Coach House Press, 1983. Napa Valley College. Web.
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet: No Fear Shakespeare. SparkNotes, 2020.