Happy Endings by M. Atwood

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Main body
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

M. Atwood, being called a classical writer of today, is a truly outstanding novelist, poet, short story writer. The matter is not included how much one writes, but rather how applicable and deep it is. The works by Margaret Atwood are found to contain deep context, enclosed within the novels, poems and even the shortest stories of hers. Besides, she is the writer, who puts her soul within the works. So, she is really concerned with the issues she writes about and with the matters she brings up within her writings. The short story called Happy Endings is not an exclusion from a general rule as Margaret Atwood managed both to put a deep context within a two-page-story and to reveal her own viewpoint to the reader of the story. The plot of the story, presenting some options of one and the same volume of people is able to still be the deepest thought within itself, being interpreted in a right way.

Main body

Firstly, after the reading of the story it occurs that it is a psychological story. This approach is being used frequently by Atwood, as it has been revealed by Rose Wilson in her study Intertext in Atwoods psychological text reverberates with mythic significance, giving us courage to face themes of sexual politicsin literature, society, and our lives. (Wilson, xv). Atwoods story evokes some non-material symbols and feelings in ones sub-consciousness. The same characters are playing different roles each and every time, wandering from A part of the story to E part. And reading the same names within it one is forced to think why?. Why the same people appear to be in different life situations for five times. Probably, there is something missed by the reader or the author is eager to say something important by that. The same characters, used are piercing through the story, being a red line of it are used with a purpose, the author is to reveal only at the end of the story. Though all the stories are really different, they all have one and the same uniting factor, which is the same ending of them. Not only it a uniting factor for the stories, it also plays as a main symbol and a message of the story.

Then, the symbolism of the story can not be lost on the reader. As the characters have their place and functions, words are meaningful and the message itself is symbolic. In the short story like Happy Endings it is an impermissible way to put meaningless or spare words within. M. Atwood, being aware of it, puts much of the context in such a few content, that it makes one respect the author. The feeling of the deeper thought, enclosed in the plain content is evoked by miscellaneous devices, used by the author. For example, the repetition of some phrases like Fall in love, get married, stimulating and challenging, real estate values, the repetition of these words or phrases aims at emphasizing that no matter what the script of life is, people come across the same things during their lives. Whether it be John or Mary or James and Madge or whoever more, the obstacles, met by a person within his or her life denotes that the person is alive and moreover, is able to overcome them. Then, Margaret Atwood enlarges on the topic and proposes the different scripts with quite different endings to show, that a person has a right to choose. For example, it the section B, where Mary commits suicide it is well depicted. Actually, she thought that John would save her, take her to the hospital, repent and they would get married finally. But the brutal reality is that John is to decide for himself what he is to do in the life. And no matter how much Mary wants to see other decision, he is the only person to do this, and he made his choice. So is Mary to decide what to do. Having picked up the way with the medicine, she nothing but showed that she is a weak creature, who decided to follow the flow, not to resist the circumstances of her life. In this situation John was not the one, determined for Mary and being a great and tidy woman, very concerned about her man, she would have managed to find a better fortune for herself. But there was John, near, twice a week and she did not try to change the situation somehow, fully subordinating her own desires to Johns ones. Or in the C section, the topic of jealousy is being explored by the author. Being blinded with his jealousy, John kills Mary and her young lover James and himself. The choice he made, influenced the end of two lives and one more, the life of his wife Madge. The complicated interrelations of human beings are really hard to depict. But the short story by Atwood shows them in a best of her skills how they work.

It is really necessary to mark that the repeated word-combination real estate plays an important role as the other phrases used with it are also symbolic in the story. So, in the A section, the real estate values go up, then in B section John with his wife managed to buy their house before it happened, while in D section one finds to come across the tidal wave and the real estate values go down. This is an interesting psychology as it nothing but shows that no matter what might happen in our life, no matter what values are to go up or to go down, the most important thing to maintain is human relations, which are the eternal value in this world. By this the human are driven. Because of the relations one might live happily or die silly. A human relation is a treasure to keep. The relationships is a topic M. Atwood dwells on broad-mindedly, as it has been investigated Like her fiction, poetry, and essays, many of Atwoods visual works, sometimes untitled or undated, present Gothic images of female-male relationships in fairy tales, myth, legend, the Bible, literature, popular culture, and history (Wilson, 36).

Besides of the above mentioned symbols, there are different gender images found within the text of the story. Margaret Atwood is among all, a famous feminist writer. Being a woman writer is marked by her writing style and also causes some translation difficulties. Rose Wilsons work devoted to the study of M. Atwoods contextual implications states that Atwood is a woman author, and she uses fairy tales dramatizing cannibalism and dismemberment of females. Thus, one of Atwoods major themes is sexual politics; recent feminist theory (Wilson, xii). The evidences of the gender belonging are found in the general feminine and masculine images found in the story. The feminine image, which arises at the end of the story is a loving, caring and sacrificing one, like in the sections A, B, then compassionate, like in the C section, dedicated as in F. While men are not always presented as worthy and dignified creatures, as for example B section, or C section, which make the reader reflect what pigs are they, how come that such a worthy woman may come across such a contemptible man and destroy all her life to only satisfy him. Moreover, it is characteristic of the author to depict patriarchy way of relations &power structured in so that one groupmalescontrols anotherfemales (Wilson, XIII).

Still, among all these rich devices one appears to be unseen. The author, being a good psychologist presents at the end of the story a sentence, not repeated until the end of the story. It is eventually they die. At the end of each section the reader comes across the phrase, mentioning that and the rest of the story goes like in section A, meaning that they lived happily ever after& and& eventually died Margaret Atwood suggests this thought to the reader at the very end of the story, at the F section, saying that the end is one Mary and John die. What should this mean? Is the author a pessimist, who does not believe in happy ends and made fun of this phrase, having entitled her story like that? No, she is rather a realist, who understands, that everyones life eventually finishes with death. And the part that the reader fails to remember this phrase while reading the story suggests that it is not the end which is important in the life of a being, but it is rather his or her life, that really matters and sticks in ones memory. The story message boils down to a simple axiom that one is to value life today, now, but not look for happy endings.

Conclusion

Inferring, it might be said that Margaret Atwood is a truly remarkable writer of today, who is presented as a classic writer. She manages to combine the deep thought enclosed within the shortest text, which make her stand out. At the example of a given story, she shows her psychological aptitude, giving the reader rich images and issues for reflection within a two-page-story. Using miscellaneous devices the author presents her viewpoint on the matters brought up in the book and finally, she resorts to the psychological device of using the phrase, which is not repeated in the text though implied in each sub-story. This device detects and reveals the message of the story, which is to value life.

Works Cited

Donald R. Gallo. Sixteen: Short Stories by Outstanding Writers for Young Adults, Laurel Leaf, 1985.

Jean A. McConochie. 20th Century American Short Stories, Volume 1 (Student Book), Heinle ELT; 2 edition, 1995.

Thomas E. Barden and Ira Mark Milne. Short Stories for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Short Stories, Gale Cengage: Detroit. 2001.

Wilson, Sharon Rose. Margaret Atwoods Fairy-Tale Sexual Politics. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1993.

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Happy Endings by M. Atwood

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