“The School” vs. “Happy Endings”: The Topic of Life and Death

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A Synthesis of “The School” by Donald Barthelme

There are many books and stories which are dedicated to the topic of life and death. All of them present different perspectives, and views and approach the theme from various angles. Numerous philosophers in the history of humanity shared their complex understandings of what life and death are and how they affect a person. Yet, sometimes, excessive complexity prevents individuals from recognizing the fact that certain phenomena do not have any profound meanings and must be simply taken for granted. In “The School” by Donald Barthelme, the reader is exposed to the idea that death always surrounds people to the point where it ceases to be a tragedy and becomes a normal part of life.

Barthelme utilizes the means of absurdity which gains momentum and reaches its climax as the short story progresses, making the audience more confused with every sentence. The author starts by introducing the main character Edgar who works as an elementary teacher with a class of thirty children. Edgar acts as the narrator and talks about a series of events that involve deaths, beginning with trees that the class wanted to plant (Barthelme, 1974). At first, the deaths that the reader learns about are insufficient since they mostly affect animals such as snakes and gerbils. Yet, then, the reader becomes confronted with the passing of Kim, an orphan adopted by the class from Korea. His demise triggers other human deaths, including of children’s parents and some of the students themselves.

The author’s idea here is to show that death is meaningless and can occur without any reason and in any situation. He uses absurdity to stress this notion by listing various scenarios involving death that seems disturbing for both the reader and the children. The school here is a metaphor for a human society in which death is inherent. It is interesting that when Kim dies, the students become sad and question whether there is “something wrong with the school” (Barthelme, 1974, p. 2). Yet this assumption is refuted by the narrator, who says that it was not the school problem since he saw ones that were both better and worse. Thus, the author says that death is not a societal problem; it is simply part of life that must be accepted. Finally, the scene where the children call death “a fundamental datum” demonstrates how humans attempt to attach some philosophical meaning to death which simply constitutes a set of words that do not make any sense. Yet, as shown in the last scene of the short story, people fear death and cannot accept it and try to escape it by watching entertainment. This is why the children ask the teacher to make love to his assistant in front of them.

“The School” by Donald Barthelme seeks to show the audience that death is inescapable, meaningless, and can happen at any moment. The school described by the author constitutes a metaphor for society, and the children are the members of society who cannot accept death as a given because of their fears. To stop being frightened, they attempt to shift their focus toward other phenomena and particularly entertainment.

A Synthesis of “Happy Endings” By Margaret Atwood

All people have pretty similar lives, which consist of the same elements; people are born, go to school, find a job, get married, retire and die. The only difference lies in the unique situations, emotions, and motivations individuals experience during their lifetime. In “Happy Endings,” Margaret Atwood explains to readers that just like in life, all fictional stories have one end, everyone dies, and every author’s mastery is demonstrated through their answers to questions “How” and “Why.”

Atwood masterfully presents the essence of fiction by establishing common life scenarios which many people have observed and even experienced themselves. The author begins the writing by providing the reader with several possible endings of one story, namely, “John and Mary meet” (Atwood, 1983, p. 1). The audience can choose the one they like the most, ranging from the most optimistic one, A, to an extremely depressing one, C. The author’s intention here is to show that the plot of every story is just a series of repeating events, “a what and a what and a what” (Atwood, 1983, p. 4). Moreover, the outcome of every plot is predetermined since no one can escape death. Thus, every writer, according to Atwood, must write not about what occurs in the life of characters but about how and why it does. In other words, people who decide to write a book have to concentrate on exploring the intricate parts of the life of their characters rather than simply document their actions. The readers will be much more interested in learning about the personal motivations, intentions, and thoughts of the characters and not a recitation of the events they encounter.

“Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood highlights the fact that all plots have the same ending, the death of the main characters, and suggests that writers have to focus on other aspects when composing stories. The author provides the reader with several conventional plots which essentially end in the same fashion, despite being optimistic or pessimistic in general. Atwood’s main idea here is that writers should prioritize describing their characters’ intentions and other intricate parts of the plot instead of listing events one after another.

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“The School” vs. “Happy Endings”: The Topic of Life and Death

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