matters is not the ending‚ but what takes place in the middle. In part A of “Happy Endings” the characters‚ John and Mary lead what seems to be a simple and healthy life (Atwood‚ pp.
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“Free speech is not to be regulated. The audience that hissed yesterday may applaud today‚ even for the same performance.” –Michael Douglas Undoubtedly‚ a speaker moulds his/ her speech by the principles of purpose‚ and the audience who are to receive the given speech. More than this however- the responder’s context also shapes the way in which they interpret a speech. Michael Douglas- famed actor and movie director‚ contrasts an audience’s response in his quote‚ to emphasise that a responder’s
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Writing Task C Rationale I chose to write an extra chapter for the book ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood. This book is about the Republic of Gilead‚ a dictatorship‚ where most women are infertile due to nuclear waste. The few fertile women become ‘Handmaids’‚ birth-mothers for the upper-class. The main character is Offred‚ who became a Handmaid after attempting to escape Gilead with her daughter and husband‚ Luke. She was separated from them became a Handmaid in the house of the
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Women’s Liberation Movement Kalanit Knackstedt “Rape Fantasies‚” by Margaret Atwood is a short story about the narrator‚ Estelle‚ recalling to an anonymous male a controversial conversation she has with a group of her female co-workers during their lunch hour. Estelle is critical of her female peers’ rape fantasies; however she fails to see the fallacies in hers. Estelle portrays herself as a heroine who tells stories to threatening males to compel them to not assault her.Atwood uses a temporal setting
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Variations on the Word Sleep By Margaret Atwood In Variations on the Word Sleep the narrator of the poem immediately addresses his/her conscience need to connect with the other person‚ and they also recognize the hopelessness of this goal: "I would like to watch you sleeping‚ which may not happen"(1-2). The opening to the poem‚ as we see here‚ could be considered typical of Atwood’s writing in the sense that one person longs to bond with another‚ and recognizes the difficulty. It is this type of
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Author Margaret Atwood’s writing has been shaped by one particular movement- the push for women’s rights in the 1960s and 1970s. When Atwood was a college student‚ “a woman was expected to follow one path: to marry in her early 20s‚ start a family quickly‚ and devote her life to homemaking” (“The 1960s-70s”). Employers assumed that the females who did work would soon become pregnant‚ so ladies were unlikely to advance in their careers. What money they did earn was controlled by their husbands
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A Restless Liar The Penelopiad‚ written by Margaret Atwood‚ is a story based on Penelope’s life experiences. Penelope‚ Queen of Ithaca‚ provides this information while in Hades‚ but speaks as if she were from modern times. Most of The Penelopiad is about Penelope’s life; however there is another major story line. The maids that assist Penelope in her everyday work also voice their hardships they are subjected to throughout their lives. The reader gets both Penelope’s and her maid’s points of view
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(Ayatollah Khomeini turned Iran into an Islamic Republic.) Not only were alarming events like these happening in Middle Eastern countries like Iran‚ they were happening in our own backyard. Neuman goes on to say: By 1984‚ in the United States‚ the gains women had achieved during the previous decade had come under attack from several directions. During Ronald Reagan’s presidency‚ women made up an increasing percentage of those in the lowest-paid occupations‚ and they made no gains or lost ground
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Margaret Atwood’s poem “Siren Song” is a story that has been retold for generations; a tale of beauty‚ distress‚ and the ultimate betrayal. Margaret Atwood’s allusion‚ and the title of the poem itself set the stage for a story in which the readers already know the ending. As the siren leads her victims to their death‚ she seems bored‚ unamused‚ and ultimately unhappy. However‚ the siren uses her appearance‚ and her ability to gain sympathy in the minds of her targets‚ to lead them to their demise
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Margaret Atwood’s ‘‘Happy Endings’’ first appeared in the 1983 Canadian collection‚ Murder in the Dark‚ and it was published in 1994 for American audiences in Good Bones and Simple Murders. Subtitled ‘‘Short Fiction and Prose Poems‚’’ Murder in the Dark featured four types of works: autobiographical sketches‚ travel notes‚ experimental pieces addressing the nature of writing‚ and short pieces dealing with typical Atwood themes‚ notably the relationship between the sexes. ‘‘Happy Endings‚’’ which
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