Happy Endings Analysis

Happy Endings

By, Margret Atwood

Quote:

"That's about all that can be said for plots, which anyway are just one thing after another, a what and a what and a what. Now try How and Why." -Narrator

In this  short story I was given  one life description after another by the Author.  The seemingly  content  people in part A, are comfortable and in some ways living out an  "ideal" life cycle. However  there was still something missing. The upper middle class cookie cutter  lives they were living out gave off a feeling of being boring, easily forgotten, and lacking of emotion and passion one associates with a lives that have been lived to the fullest. The unsatisfactory air that Mary and John life stories give off in part A, are much like the narrators tone when describing them-matter a fact and emotionless.  At first when I pondered why this was, I thought i must be because there was no challenge or obstacles the couple faced and overcome that left the description of their marriage up until death so hollow.  Yet even  when the author moves on the less than desirable descriptions of people lives who do face obstacles, challenges, and conflict there is still a sense of unfulfillment when there end has arrived.  The reason I find the quote above to be so compelling is  that gives a extremely wise answer to my questions and pondering. It is not  necessarily the actions that take place in one's life  that claim primary importance .  For as Atwood would put it a life, like a plot  is "just one thing after another, a what and a what and a what". There fore since all life will come to an end  no matter which way you have lived it so far, what should rest heavily on a person's mind is the "how and why".  I believe Atwood was trying to persuade the reader to arise at question such as: how are you living your life and is this in anyway conductive to the attainment of true happiness and personal fulfillment? Or , why are  you living and what is your motivation and aim in this life so that you can die at peace with all you have done and experienced? These are all essential questions that it seems the charters in Atwood's story  never stopped to truly consider. I say this because in all of the life descriptions the characters seem to be searching for something that they usually believe they can find in another person. However in the end they end up disappointed because they never looked to themselves as a potential source of happiness and fulfillment.