Gender In A Happy Ending

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The story Happy Endings is a meta fiction. This format works well in portraying the various archetype of men and women in relationships. Both men and women are portrayed in a realistic light and are portrayed from the stereotypical to the unimportant. There is a difference of the portrayal of the characters in the different parts. The male gender is portrayed in part A as simply a male that falls in love and lives out the stereotypical desired life that involves buying a house, having children, having friends, enjoy vacations with the spouse, and dying after living the ideal upper middle class life. On page 32, the author states that “if you want a happy ending, try A” setting up that this is a representation of what the western world considers the highest goal for living a happy life. The female gender is essentially portrayed in a similar form. She falls in love, lives out the stereotypical “happy ending.” Story B begins the experimentation by giving the first twist of the happy life. In this story, the male is presented at in an antagonistic way from the viewpoint of Mary. The …show more content…

John no longer feels fulfilled with his wife and falls in love with Mary. John is portrayed as a cheater who refuses to divorce because of society. Mary doesn’t love John back, but feels sorry for him. She continues to see John, but she is in love with another man. John finds out and commits a double homicide and then commits suicide. John’s wife – Madge – remarries and has her happily ever after. John is portrayed as a weak man who doesn’t leave a dying relationship, but also fails to see that Mary doesn’t love him back. This is like story B, but the male is in a similar situation to the female from B. Marry also seems to be portrayed negatively as she leads John on. She doesn’t love him, but doesn’t cut him off. Madge and the other male here doesn’t seem to be developed enough to know what type of person they

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