There are neither good or bad stereotypes of men and women. Most of them are just inaccurate representations of genders, but, if focusing on whether they are negative or positive, in Margaret Atwood 's "Happy Endings", she targets the negative stereotypes in society. She begins the story with "John and Mary meet", then she sets up that sentence with different endings, starting with A and ending with F (Atwood). The first ending, ending A, seems pretty ordinary. The other endings, such as B and C, have a turn of events, but eventually at the end of each story, the characters die in some way. The characters in endings B and C showed four adverse stereotypes of men and women. Atwood 's characters are models of the negative stereotypes that are
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Atwood must view society as very corrupt. The story endings that Atwood writes clearly send a message that people are weak, selfish, and full of flaws. Atwood must see society as hopeless because none of the corrupted characters in her stories try to fix or better themselves. They only rely on death to fix everything. In ending B, Mary kills herself and in ending C, John kills himself along with Mary and James. This can be connected with how society handles situations today. Society depends on ending things that can be bettered or fixed. If something is a problem, society tends to push it aside and completely get rid of it rather than trying to solve …show more content…
Yes, women today are still expected to be pretty, clean, and presentable, always. They are expected to want to settle down and have children. On the other hand, they are not expected to be housewives anymore. Today in society it is difficult to be a stay at home mom. Women are now expected to get an education and get a job. Today, men are still expected to be "the man of the house". They are expected not to cry and to just "tough it out". Men will always be held to these high standards because they have always been seen as the stronger gender. It is usually frowned upon if a man is not "masculine" or if he shows signs of weakness. Society has always been very judgmental and these stereotypes have existed years and years before today. Although society is changing, it is still unusual to people if gender roles are switched. Women are not supposed to be masculine and men are not supposed to be
Atwood must view society as very corrupt. The story endings that Atwood writes clearly send a message that people are weak, selfish, and full of flaws. Atwood must see society as hopeless because none of the corrupted characters in her stories try to fix or better themselves. They only rely on death to fix everything. In ending B, Mary kills herself and in ending C, John kills himself along with Mary and James. This can be connected with how society handles situations today. Society depends on ending things that can be bettered or fixed. If something is a problem, society tends to push it aside and completely get rid of it rather than trying to solve …show more content…
Yes, women today are still expected to be pretty, clean, and presentable, always. They are expected to want to settle down and have children. On the other hand, they are not expected to be housewives anymore. Today in society it is difficult to be a stay at home mom. Women are now expected to get an education and get a job. Today, men are still expected to be "the man of the house". They are expected not to cry and to just "tough it out". Men will always be held to these high standards because they have always been seen as the stronger gender. It is usually frowned upon if a man is not "masculine" or if he shows signs of weakness. Society has always been very judgmental and these stereotypes have existed years and years before today. Although society is changing, it is still unusual to people if gender roles are switched. Women are not supposed to be masculine and men are not supposed to be