by Michael Mikolajczyk

Created on: March 16, 2009

In her short story "Happy Endings", Margaret Atwood simultaneously displays her feelings about not only the art of creative writing, but also the equally artistic act of living one's life to the fullest. The story, if it can really be called a "story" in the traditional sense of the word, immediately breaks the thin wall of author/audience by presenting a completely unique structure: that of an outline or a jumbled notebook. By asking the reader, "If you want a happy ending, try A," Atwood is seemingly giving the reader a choice. Since A must be the happy ending, it implies that there are other, more sinister endings yet to be discovered. Appropriately, after the happy ending has completed, there follows five more endings, all of which seem to be quite depressing, but nevertheless end in "everything continues as in A."

Why would Atwood do this? In each of her scenarios, she creates two main characters, John and Mary appropriately boring names for characters that are so underdeveloped and stereotyped as to be almost comedic. It would be possible to call them each protagonists, but they are the very definition of flat characters: dull and undeveloped. In fact, the reader is informed of their personality traits not because Atwood shows them through a conflict or a plot rather, she simply tells them. Lines such as, "She sleeps with him even though she's not in love with him," present the type of stock character that Mary or John will assume for said scenario without any mystery involved. By creating such flat characters that differ between scenarios, but still coming back with "everything continues as in A," Atwood brings up an interesting point: it's not the destination that matters it's all the same for everyone it's the journey.

In fact, after presenting all of her mock scenarios for the characters, Atwood abruptly changes tone to tell the reader an important fact: "The only authentic ending is the one presented here: John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die." After all, at the end of every person's life, regardless of how they lived it or what they experienced, they will encounter death. Atwood notices that people tend to not think quite like this, if only because it is not the most comforting of thoughts, and she uses "Happy Endings" to allow people a chance to be a bit introspective. "So much for endings. Beginnings are always more fun. True connoisseurs, however, are known to favor the stretch in between, since it's the hardest to do anything with." Such is true for writing; such is true for life. With her unconventional structure, caricatures for characters, and sometimes sarcastic tone, Atwood manages to convey one of the most important concepts about life of all. Do not let life become "a what and a what and a what." Learn to favor the stretch between beginning and end, and then, perhaps, you can make your own happy ending.

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