Lilly Judd
Hensley
Honors English 11/ Fourth Period
26 January 2017
Summary of Margaret Atwood?s Happy Endings
Margaret Atwood?s short story Happy Endings begins simple. She states that her two main characters meet and asks the reader what happens after. Atwood then gives the reader six alternate stories that follow the character?s meeting. These endings are labeled as A,B,C,D,E, and F. The author then suggests to the reader if they require a happy ending then try reading ending A.
In option A Atwood states that John and Mary fall in love then marry. She then describes their life together. The two are both happy with their occupations and Atwood writes that the couple find their jobs as stimulating and challenging. The happy couple …show more content…
However she only starts a romantic relationship out of pity with John and is actually in love with a young man named James who isn?t ready to settle down. Atwood describes John as a man that is bored with his settled down life. And so he meets Mary at her apartment every Thursday. John is married to Madge; however he won?t leave his wife due to conmenintment. James one day comes back to town and him and Mary get together at her apartment. John finds the two in Mary?s apartment and becomes upset. He then kills Mary, James and himself with a handgun. Then his wife Madge remarries and has the happy ending in ending …show more content…
Atwood?s option F states that if the reader wants to make the story more action packed the add spies and a passionate love story. Then the author states that no matter which ending you still end with the end of option A. She tells the readers that endings are fake optimisms with the goal to deceive the reader or be sentimental. Atwood then tells the reader the only true ending is that two characters die. Then it is stated that beginnings are more interesting. Atwood concludes the story by telling the reader to focus on the why and how rather than the whats and the whats of the plot of a