Amanda Shaw

English 1006T

Truth in Society

“Happy Endings”

by Margaret Atwood (1939- )

This short story was written by Margaret Atwood and was published in 1983 (the year most of us were born !!). Atwood, a Canadian began writing poetry and short stories and now writes novels and essays as well. This anthology says that the majority of the themes that Atwood writes about concern “…sexual politics, power in relationships, victimization and feminist perspectives…”. The short story that The Nelson Introduction to Literature published “Happy Endings” is a prime example of Margaret Atwood’s use of satire in her writing.

This short story begins with three lines, “John and Mary meet. What happens next? If you want a happy ending, try A”. Six scenarios, A, B, C, D, E, and F follow this quotation. Each of these four scenarios provides different circumstances and endings to the story of John and Mary. Only one of the endings is a “happy” one and it just so happens that this ending is the shortest one and has the least amount of detail. The reason that “happy” is in quotation marks is because Atwood ends this scenario with, “Eventually they die. This is the end of the story.”

It is very interesting to follow Atwood through the lines of this short story because in every scenario everyone dies at the end. “Happy Endings” is reminiscent of the old Choose Your Own Adventure novels that everyone remembers form elementary school. No matter which scenario you choose whether A (supposedly ‘happy’) or B (Mary falls in love with John, John doesn’t fall in love with Mary etc…etc…etc…) or C (John, an older man, falls in love with Mary, a younger woman, and Mary feels sorry for him etc…etc…etc…) or D or E or F they all come to the same conclusion. Everybody falls in love with someone but soon they will all die. How morbid?!?