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Whether we want to admit to it or not, in today’s society we all play a role. To start we are all initially divided by gender. Therefore; by our gender alone we are automatically stereotyped by those around us. Then we may be narrowed down even more by our social class, finances, intelligence, appearances, race, etc. This is our reality. If not physically, we have at least all mentally set people apart in our heads and stereotyped them. In Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings” she uses literary elements such as word diction, perspective, character description, an unreliable narrator, tone, and motif to personify these stereotypes. She is attempting to attack the way we think about each other just through one short story. She touches on class …show more content…
structure, gender roles and most distinctively she seems to be calling out relationship roles and how they are viewed in society. This story portrays women as weak in relationships and men as the stronger half. However; this is not the only stereotype Atwood makes you question. She forces the reader to think about social classes and their normality. Lastly, she makes the reader question their own life and if they seem to be falling into the same habit of only focusing on the beginning and the end and forgetting that the middle is what sets us apart. The first thing the reader notices about this story before even reading the content is the format of the piece. It seems bizarre to have three short sentences stacked above the body of the text the way they are. Take notice to the first sentence alone, “John and Mary meet”. It’s super simple and closed with a period. The third sentence down, “If you want a happy ending, try A.” comes across in the same way. Here Atwood is using the placement of the text, the simple and stern punctuation, and word diction to set the tone for the entire piece. This is why after reading these first three lines you, as the reader, already subconsciously have a sense of sarcasm while you're reading. This sense of sarcasm is also carried into Part A of the story.
Atwood continues to use short simple phrases to describe two people’s lives as vaguely as possible. The author uses motifs here such as the words; “worthwhile”, “stimulating”, and “challenging”. This is done to reinforce the concept of the character’s mediocre lives. Not only does the author describe their lives in an extremely mundane way, but she also chooses to give them very plain names. The names; “Mary”, “John”, “Fred”, “James”, and “Madge” are all very simple names, none of them tend to stand out. This is where the author draws a parallel between the average name and the average lifestyle. If you were to switch out the names John and Mary in Part A and replace them you would most likely not have to change any of the facts and the story would still apply. That is because this is the generic, cookie cutter, average lifestyle that most people find themselves living. It could apply to anyone. There is nothing special or extraordinary about it. To reiterate her point, Atwood even tells the reader to continue with certain characters using the exact plot in Part A, but with different people. For example, “Madge, …, marries an understanding man called Fred and everything continues as in A, but under different names.” This directly shows how stereotypical and similar most middle class lives are. This entire piece was made to force the reader to reanalyze their life and the way they are living it. It makes the reader wonder if their life could also be summed up into the vague description in Part
A. However, there are some things in life that are inevitable to have in common. In reality we all do follow the same track in life. We are all born, we all attend some kind of schooling, we find a spouse, start a family, retire, and die. This is one of the points that Part A is trying to make; the point that we are all basically the same. The point that most of us tend to fall into the same simple pattern as everyone else. Atwood is calling out a common stereotype of the middle class “suburban” lifestyle in hopes that we will aspire to live life a little differently. However; the other point being made by the remainder of the piece is what makes us different. The “How and Why”. Parts B and C of the story show us Mary and John’s each individual “How and Why”. This is what sets them apart and this is the part of the story where a simple name change will not suffice because no one’s story is quite the same. Towards the end of the piece (Part F) the narrator takes on a different tone when the message is being delivered. The narrator becomes more straight forward with the reader by repeatedly using words and phrases to address the reader; such as “If you think…”, and “You’ll have to face it”. By doing this the narrator is becoming more personal with the reader. The narrator almost even seems to admit that not all the endings were authentic throughout the story. However; the story then reveals the only, 100% true, ending; “John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die.” Not only is the author very straightforward, but she also repeats the phrase three times in a row. Thus attempting to get her point across and to push the reader to realize the ultimate fact. No one lives forever. No matter where they started nor what chaos went on in between, the fact of the matter is they still died. To draw in her point, Atwood formatted “Happy Endings” this way completely on purpose. The author provided you with a simple summary of nearly everyone’s life in Part A. Then by sectioning off the other scenarios the author was attempting to show you how different the story could have been, and how differently it impacted the various characters. Followed by the four scenarios was a harsh reality. The reality that we all die, but we should all live differently. That is why the piece itself is separated into multiple sections. They all represent the different life choices we could make, or in other words the different “middles” we could choose. Another stereotype that the author seems to be calling out in her piece are the roles that each gender plays in a domestic relationship. Atwood is wanting the reader to see Mary as the protagonist and John as the antagonist. She does this by constantly putting John down and in return pushing the reader to sympathize with Mary. Phrases such as; “ He merely uses her…”, “he doesn’t even consider her worth the price…”, and “John is a rat, a pig, a dog…” are all combined together so that John will come across to the reader as repulsive and we will pity Mary’s situation. By playing with the audience’s emotions Atwood is subconsciously making you realize the stereotype that women are insignificant to men. The stereotype that women are assumed to be the weaker, more dependent half in the relationship, and that the man is the provider, the decision maker, the leader, etc. This can be seen not only by how John views Mary, but by how Mary views herself. Situations like John never taking Mary to a restaurant show that Mary is settling for the little attention she receives from John. Relationships like these are the reason that society stereotypes women as dependent, desperate, needy, etc. and that is exactly what Atwood is trying to point out. For example; “she hopes he’ll discover her… and then they can get married”. This clearly shows how dependent Mary is on John and how desperate she is for his attention. She is willing to go as far as to killing herself in “hopes” that he might realize her and finally give her the time of day she has so desired. Even further, she is then willing to forget the past and considers marrying him. Though the reader may view Mary, and her situation, as pathetic Atwood is clearly addressing an honest stereotype. The situation may have been exaggerated, but that is what the author had to do in order to force the reader to realize the problem. Atwood is pushing us to ask ourselves how we view the role of gender in a relationship. Do we also see women as inferior to men? Is that how it should be? Are you subconsciously falling into the mindsets and stereotypes of our society? Questions like these are the reason for the piece “Happy Endings”. Atwood was wanting us as the reader to look deeper and see how we view others around us. If that was the outcome of “Happy Endings” for you then Atwood accomplished everything she intended to with one short story.
...re the reader is not able to make any solid connection with any of these characters. It is arguably only through the stories foreshadowing where both authors prepare us with little details like the mileage of the car written down by the grandmother in O’Connor’s story likewise the boys preparation of the stones in Jackson’s Lottery that would inevitably help the reader to comprehend how both these author’s reached the horrifically shocking climatic endings in both short stories. I believe the authors similar use of these three variables help the reader to understand the message being delivered through these stories of the human condition and its effects on a society that only embraces its traditional moral beliefs and values.
“Girl” written by Jamaica Kincaid is essentially a set of instructions given by an adult, who is assumed to be the mother of the girl, who is laying out the rules of womanhood, in Caribbean society, as expected by the daughter’s gender. These instructions set out by the mother are related to topics including household chores, manners, cooking, social conduct, and relationships. The reader may see these instructions as demanding, but these are a mother’s attempt, out of care for the daughter, to help the daughter to grow up properly. The daughter does not appear to have yet reached adolescence, however, her mother believes that her current behavior will lead her to a life of promiscuity. The mother postulates that her daughter can be saved from a life of promiscuity and ruin by having domestic knowledge that would, in turn also, empower her as a productive member in their community and the head of her future household. This is because the mother assumes that a woman’s reputation and respectability predisposes the quality of a woman’s life in the community.
about marriage that our society assumes to be true today. These include ideas about single
Margaret is an intelligent, articulate, and ambitious woman who desires to rise up in social status by marrying a man of higher social rank. She attends to those above her, in hopes of elevating her status as she becomes closer to the upper-class. As a minor character, she plays a small yet crucial role in advancing Don John’s plot to slander Hero and spoil her wedding. As a lower-class character, Margaret serves as a foil to the rich girls, particularly Hero, who embodies every attitude and mindset Margaret does not. But she also offers an alternative perspective on the upper-class characters in the play. Because Margaret is victimized because of her social ambitions, punished for wanting to rise above her ...
First of all, emphasis is placed on the daily struggles endured on a daily basis by the middle-class. Much like George and Lennie, they worry about having enough money to survive, for shelter and for clothing. Also, there seems to be the fear of loneliness that seems to surface throughout the novel. Despite the on going quarrels between George and Lennie, the two men are afraid of being alone on their own. In addition, it seems the two main characters find themselves in positions that are beyond their control. These are the conflicts one finds in this novel.
Characterization plays an important role when conveying how one’s personality can disintegrate by living in a restrictive society. Although Kat is slowly loosing her mind, in the story, she is portrayed as a confident woman who tries to strive for excellence. This can be seen when she wants to name the magazine “All the Rage”. She claims that “it’s a forties sounds” and that “forties is back” (311). However the board of directors, who were all men, did not approve. They actually “though it was too feminist, of all things” (311). This passage not only shows how gender opportunities is apparent in the society Kat lives in, but also shows the readers why Kat starts to loose her mind.
Love caused his logic and sensibility to fail him, and provoked him to commit monstrous acts that destroyed many lives. Through analysis of “Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood, it can be concluded that one of her many intended lessons was to show the value and the powerful effects of love. Atwood successfully proved this lesson by using powerful examples of both successful and disastrous relationships to illustrate the positive and negative effects of love. Atwood truly demonstrated what it is like to follow your heart.
Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings” is an Author’s telling of societal beliefs that encompass the stereotypical gender roles and the pursuit of love in the middle class with dreams of romance and marriage. Atwood writes about the predictable ways in which many life stories are concluded for the middle class; talking about the typical everyday existence of the average, ordinary person and how they live their lives. Atwood provides the framework for several possibilities regarding her characters’ lives and how each character eventually completes their life with their respective “happy ending”.
Gender identities and gender relations are determined by the culture of a society. Culture makes gender roles meet certain inescapable beliefs, assumptions, expectations, and obligations. Gender politics camouflaged by cultural norms and governed by patriarchal interests and manifested in cultural practices like female genital mutilation, make the life of women difficult and burdensome. Alice Walker’s fifth novel Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992) discusses a tabooed cultural practice called female genital mutilation, camouflaged by gender politics, that is used to subjugate women, to protect the interests of men. Female Genital Mutilation is a painful procedure considered to be a mark of true womanhood in certain cultures. The procedure
John, the narrator's husband, represents society at large. Like society, John controls and determines much of what his wife should or should not do, leaving his wife incapable of making her own decisions. John's domineering nature can be accredited to the fact that John is male and also a "physician of high standing" (1). John is "practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of thi...
human race of the 20th century is birth control. It’s because birth control has increased women’s rights by
The main character tells us that she has a nice family that consists of her husband John and a little baby, but John does unusual things that someone would not expect in a normal marriage. She says, “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.” (Gilman 647). Men back then did not treat or think highly of women due to men being more superior than them. John also seems to complain
Names represent a kind of social identity, and Oates' main interest here is in exploring what might happen when her character's social framework and the comfortably predictable life that goes with it are suddenly, and irrevocably, taken away. This, of course, is precisely what happens. What then, Oates seems to be asking, would be left? The answer, which is feverishly detailed in the remaining thirteen pages of this sixteen page story, is something this woman would never have asked for nor anticipated.
Jane does not experience a typical family life throughout the novel. Her various living arrangements led her through different households, yet none were a representation of the norm of family life in the nineteenth century. Through research of families in the nineteenth century, it is clear that Jane’s life does not follow with the stereotypical family made up of a patriarchal father and nurturing mother, both whose primary focus was in raising their children. Jane’s life was void of this true family experience so common during the nineteenth century. Yet, Jane is surrounded by men, who in giving an accurate portrayal of fathers and masculinity in the nineteenth century, fulfill on one hand the father role that had never been present in her life, and on the other hand the husband portrait that Jane seeks out throughout the novel.
Individuals who do not know what gender role they are disliked and shamed by society because they are not what society calls “normal”. The definition of normal is conforming to a standard or conforming to the expected. Society should not have the power to make an individual conform to anything. Does a person have to be born female to be female? The answer is simply no. Jenna Talackova is a prime example of this because she was born a man but knew he was a female from the beginning. These people who were born with a specific genetic gender have no control over their chemical make-up, but they do control what gender role they decide to be and no one should tell them to pick one that fits the normal standards of society. Judith Butler writes about gender is her book and how it should not be a preconceived notion. People who have non-normative gender roles struggle daily with the fact that they cannot express who they are because the public would disgrace them and society would not accept them, which are problems that can be solved by a simple lesson of not judging a book by its cover.