Expository Essay On Happy Endings By Margaret Atwood

Jalisha Givens

October 7, 2014

Expository Essay (Fiction Unit)

Draft: 1

Everybody will die, but throughout the course of their lives circumstances will determine how they live. Margaret Atwood is among the most-honored authors of fiction in recent history. (“Margaret Atwood”.) One of her many short stories I have read is “Happy Endings”. In this story she has a sort of ironic theme. She allows her readers to be aware that no matter what obstacles you face in life you will end up with the same result death. I believe this short story, as well as most of her writing, relates to her personal life. Overall throughout the story she talks about the expectations of women, their rebellious and pessimistic ways, and how she examines life through her own experiences.

Margaret grew up in the 1960’s.

That was a time period where women were expected to become devoted housewives and mothers. In the short story scenario B it describes something very similar to living in these times. “He comes to her apartment twice a week and she cooks him dinner, you’ll notice that he doesn’t even consider her worth the price of a dinner out, and after he’s eaten the dinner he fucks her and after that he falls asleep, white she does the dishes..” (p.289) John does not love Mary as much as she loves him. He thinks she is only good for dinner, sex, and keeping a clean house. Honestly, she thinks it is her place which is why she proceeds to sit around and wait on him to someday change. Of course, he does not change not even a little bit. He rarely notices her, actually if he did he would have made it to her house in time to take her to the

hospital.
I would like to assume that, that is pretty much the type of things that happened in the sixties. Women would fall in love with a man who just to say that they were in love. He would of course do whatever it is he wanted to do even if it involved being with another woman. As long as he received what he wanted I could think he could care less. Just my opinion from as much as I know about that time period.
Margaret steps outside the box within her writing. A great deal of her work is researched and well outside of the norms. (Potts R.) “Happy Endings” is a prime example of her pessimistic ways. Ironically, the title is used to give an impression that what you are about to read is full of happiness. How many people are that excited about dying? Scenario A is as happy of a life that you can get and the rest of the scenarios are depressing, issue filled, and troublesome. Her ways pessimistic view speaks loudly throughout the entire story. She will give a different scenario and allow you to get caught up in it only to kill off the main characters. She sees the negative aspect of life. I think she does that because in the different stages of her own life she has been engaged, gotten remarried, and found out she has her father’s heart condition, but along the way she has accomplished so much. Her heart problems, to me, relates to the character Fred in scenario E.
Atwood was very rebellious just how Mary was in Scenario C. Atwood was determined to become a writer and did not care how her parents felt. Her family was full of scientist. (Potts, R.) Although she enjoyed science her heart just was not in it. Just like Mary she sleeps with John knowing that her heart is not with him. It is actually with James. Mary is a little bit more on the extreme side on rebellion. She gets high. Well in a medical sense she smokes marijuana. The only one it could have been so detailed is if Atwood experienced the feeling herself or did some in depth research.
Personally, she used this story to write about how she feels deep down instead about herself. Each scenario holds something different that she personally went through. Obviously, some things were added to it but all in all she has shared things with her characters. From her relationship problems to her health issues she mentioned it all. If it was not put into plain text she used great metaphors to make it seem like a real story. Atwood has a neat way of writing to take the focus off of herself and keeping your attention on the characters.
The tone changed a lot throughput the different sections. It started off smooth then made its way to extremely harsh and came back down. Despite their individual differences the stories of each of the characters dies in the same manner. She clearly makes a point of commenting on how everybody dies in same manner regarding their life experience. Behind the obvious meaning of these pointless stories lies a deeper and more profound meaning. Love plays a central role in each story and it seems as though love is the ultimate goal in life. Love is not the only factor that creates and maintains a relationship. It has the power to bring people together. In this story Atwood shows the powerful effect love has on people’s life. From my observation love is supposed to represent the “Happy” in the title and death represents the “Ending”.
“Happy Endings” is one of Margaret Atwood’s most frequently collected stories because it is so unusual. It is a powerful observation on life. The story is broken up into six possible life scenarios that depict the lives of typical people, including herself, facing various obstacles plus some concluding remarks. John and Mary die. John and Mary Die. John and Mary die (p.291.) No matter how good or bad of a life you live the end result cannot be altered. The story covers the era of the 1960’s and what roles the woman was thought to uphold. She goes on to include how the women were defiant and how she, herself only see’s the negative outcome of things. Lastly, she allowed her writing to shine light on some of the things she is battling personally.

Works Cited
1. “Margaret Atwood." PWF.cz. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2014
2. Potts, Robert. "The Guardian." The Guardian. N.p., 25 Apr. 2003. Web. 7 Oct. 2014.
3. DiYanni, Robert. "For Further Reading." Literature: Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2004. 288-91. Print.