This literary study will focus on the importance of plot resolution as a way to understand or comprehend the core meaning of short stories that are presented in “Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood, “The Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, “”story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin. Atwood’s differing endings for a potential storyline are found in the choices that she provides in the A-F ending varieties, which reveals the choices that author’s can follow in firm resolutions, but importantly, the ambiguity of endings that can be chosen. Atwood’s literary expose on “happy endings” defines the parameters of meaning and non-meaning that are also found in Carver’s narrator finally finding the faith to trust Robert when drawing a cathedral onto paper. This is also
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For instance, “Happy Endings” defines a variety of story endings ranging from A through F that show a gradually ambiguous and unhappy set of ending that being with A. In ending A, John and Mary fall in love, get married, have children, and remain in love to the end of their lives: “hey go on fun vacations together. They retire. They both have hobbies, which they find stimulating and challenging. Eventually they die. This is the end of the story (Atwood 47). This traditional “happy ending” defines one aspect of a solid and typical plot resolution,. However, Atwood goes to the opposite extreme and makes John and Mary’s relationship becomes a satirical commentary on the spy genre in which John is a revolutionary and Mary is a counterespionage agent in ending F: You’ll still end up with A, though in between you may get a lustful brawling saga (50). Humorously, Atwood defines the real ending of “Happy Endings” as being part of these choices: “Don’t be deluded by an other endings, they’re all fake” (50). These are important aspects of endings, which Atwood challenges as part of Carver and Chopin also utilize in the short story …show more content…
Carver’s ending is somewhat ambiguous, but it shows how the narrator allows himself to be guided by Robert in the drawing of a cathedral on a piece of paper. The narrator cannot describe a cathedral (as seen on TV) to Robert because he has not faith or belief in what he sees. However, Robert allows the narrator to draw central in order to show him what it may look like in drawing. The final sentence of Carver’s story resolve the disconnect between the two men in a compelling, yet ambiguous way: “My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn 't feel like I was inside anything. "It 's really something," I said” (Carver para.78). In this ending, the narrator may not have found the “faith” to trust in Robert, but he has become aware of the interactive role that he plays in showing Robert the form of a cathedral. In this manner, Caver alludes to the materialization of abstract concepts in the plot resolution through Robert and the narrator’s
For instance, “Happy Endings” defines a variety of story endings ranging from A through F that show a gradually ambiguous and unhappy set of ending that being with A. In ending A, John and Mary fall in love, get married, have children, and remain in love to the end of their lives: “hey go on fun vacations together. They retire. They both have hobbies, which they find stimulating and challenging. Eventually they die. This is the end of the story (Atwood 47). This traditional “happy ending” defines one aspect of a solid and typical plot resolution,. However, Atwood goes to the opposite extreme and makes John and Mary’s relationship becomes a satirical commentary on the spy genre in which John is a revolutionary and Mary is a counterespionage agent in ending F: You’ll still end up with A, though in between you may get a lustful brawling saga (50). Humorously, Atwood defines the real ending of “Happy Endings” as being part of these choices: “Don’t be deluded by an other endings, they’re all fake” (50). These are important aspects of endings, which Atwood challenges as part of Carver and Chopin also utilize in the short story …show more content…
Carver’s ending is somewhat ambiguous, but it shows how the narrator allows himself to be guided by Robert in the drawing of a cathedral on a piece of paper. The narrator cannot describe a cathedral (as seen on TV) to Robert because he has not faith or belief in what he sees. However, Robert allows the narrator to draw central in order to show him what it may look like in drawing. The final sentence of Carver’s story resolve the disconnect between the two men in a compelling, yet ambiguous way: “My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn 't feel like I was inside anything. "It 's really something," I said” (Carver para.78). In this ending, the narrator may not have found the “faith” to trust in Robert, but he has become aware of the interactive role that he plays in showing Robert the form of a cathedral. In this manner, Caver alludes to the materialization of abstract concepts in the plot resolution through Robert and the narrator’s