Margaret Atwood Happy Endings

“Happy Endings” In the story “Happy endings” by Margaret Atwood, the theme is, the only similar part of life for all of us is death. But what is different is how people in this story live and die. In the story Margaret wrote, “You’ll have to face it, the endings are the same however you slice it.” It is the beginning and the end of our lives are similar, but the middle separates us from how we lived. What the author tries to say in this story is that all situations start the same and end the same, the difference is what happens during the life and how death occurs. Atwood also states in her story that by the beginning and the middle of the life you can guess the end, by predicting what happens next, “John marries Marge and everything continues as in A.” When a child is born, all parents wish their baby grows up healthy, and then goes to school, college, finds a good job, starts a family and lives happily ever after. But not all lives go as they were planned. In the story Atwood wrote. “Beginnings are always more fun.”
The middle of the life makes us all unique.
It doesn’t matter how much money you have made and what position in society you have. Someone’s life can be colorful and full of achievements like the lives of Mother Teresa or Oprah Winfrey. Also, life can be simple but colorful by the amount of events that happen during a life time. For example, my grandmother was born and lived all her life in a small Ukrainian village, but she lived through the Revolution, Collectivization, World War II, and the Golodomor starvation along with raising five kids as a young widow. Her life was different but unique on its own way. By knowing the middle or the end we can predict the other. If a person was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole, we can predict how or why it happened, that he or she might have murdered somebody. It seems we can guess what happened in someone’s life by knowing the
end.
Nobody knows what life can bring in the future, how it can be turned around and which path it will take. The only thing we know about life is the natural death at the end. Margaret Atwood said in the story. “The only authentic ending is the one provided here: John and Mary die.”
In my own interpretation it is not about death, it is about life. Living is important that’s why we were born. To think about death keeps us from what we are really were born for. Yes, we are all doing to die someday; this is an obvious fact and part of the living process on earth. In my opinion the story is about how John and Marry lived. Was it passion between them? What made they are relationship unique that they lived happily ever after in part A of the story. Maybe it is love between two people made the life perfect? Love between people can be different, some last forever, some comes and goes, but it is worth to try even it will last a short period of time. In the part B and D life was finished tragically, but whose fault it was? Maybe it was Mary’s fault to sleep with someone she wasn’t in love and even didn’t like. She shouldn’t waste her time on someone who she didn’t care about. Love is two way street and a beautiful mutual feeling. When one of a spouses dies in early age from illness it is sad, but it is worth trying to live and experience love, have something to remember. We need to focus on life no matter what not pathetically on death. What is more important to be remembered for? The way you were born, the way you lived, or the way you died?