Happy Endings By Margaret Atwood Analysis

The Beauty of Life: How Atwood Constructs Her Message in “Happy Endings”
Readers around the world are drawn to happy endings. We thrive on the “happily ever after,” the tying up of loose ends that ignores the frays in the strings – the consequences of the conflict, the other sides of characters, and the scenes that made us take a step back, but are tolerable in the end because the last page has been turned. The universe that we left behind on our bookshelf is fine and dandy, so the intricacies that led to this perfect knot are best left in the text. The question persists as the elephant in the room: is this practice – insisting on the ending, rather than the triumphed “middle” – correct? In her work of metafiction entitled “Happy Endings,” Margaret Atwood parodies narrative elements, including the
Atwood describes the “stretch in between” as the most difficult part. Atwood blatantly tells the reader that “the only authentic ending is the one provided here: John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die.” Atwood’s inclusion of romantic literary tropes, tried-and-true themes, and basic conflicts adds dimension to a flat story that lacks the twists and turns. Contemporary bibliophiles agonize over endings and make the conclusions of great works into analytical epicenters; however, audiences often fail to realize the pertinence of and the adoration they carry for the spiral that creates life-changing protagonists and stories that power a generation. Atwood’s message is not nihilistic. She recognizes that nothing matters, indeed, and that death is inevitable, but Atwood also recognizes that human lives should not lose their purpose because of mortality. Our lives are plots, a “what and a what and a what.” The final sentence of “Happy Endings” resonates with the idea that the beauty of life, not the end of it, is what is important: “now try how and