Happy Endings - Margaret Atwood

A. John and Mary fall in love an get married. They both enjoy there job. They buy and house just before real estate values go up. They are devoted to their 2 children. They have a good sex life and good friends and hobbies. They eventually die.


B. Mary loves John but John doesn't love Mary. John comes over twice a week and Mary cooks for him. They then have sex. He doesn't love her and just uses her for sex. He even makes her take off her own clothes. Marry hope that sex will eventually bring them to love.  Mary starts to cry and her friends tell her that John is a pig and is using her. She thinks that there is a better John inside of the mean John and she wants him. John is seen at a restaurant with a lady named Madge. Mary gets upset, because John never once took her out. Mary then takes sleeping pills with sherry and kills herself, hoping that John will appear in time to save her and to love her. John marries Madge and everything continues as in A.


C. John, who is an old man, falls in love with Mary, who is only 22. She feels bad for him so she sleeps with him on Thursdays. They're together on Thursdays, because that's the only day he can get away from his wife, Madge. Marry is actually interested in another man from work, James, who is also 22 and is a motorcyclist. James comes back from Cali with some hybrid pot. Mary and James get really high and then climb into bed. John walks intro Mary's apartment, because he has a key, and sees them. He is devastated, goes and buys a hand gun, shoots James and mary, and then kills himself. Madge mourns, and marries a man named Fred. Everything continues as in A.


D.Fred and Madge have a wonderful marriage and a house by the sea. A tidal wave crashes through their house, yet they escape. On high ground they clasp each other and all continues as A.


E. Fred has a bad heart. Tehy are kind and understanding until Fred dies. Madge devotes the rest of her life to charity work until end of A. The end could include "Madge, cancer, guilty and confused, and bird watching."


F.No matter what, you'll still end up with A.  All endings are the same. John and Mary die. Beginnings are always more fun. Plots are just what and what and what. Now try how and why.


I loved this story. This story is one big psychological analysis. What really happens in our lives? Everything will eventually lead us to death. This story throws the basic outlines of a story right out in the open; just the bare facts. This Doesn't tell you how something happened or why, just what happened. This story lets our mind create the a separate story for each character while still following their story line. It makes us consider happy endings. When you see a happy couple on the street, do you know their story? Do you know if they're really happy or how they got to be happy? You don't, and that's why you want to know the how and why of every story. You can't judge their happy ending when they're not even at the end yet. Parts of their story may be happy, but everything ends with death.