✨“John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die.”✨
Margaret Atwood, in her short story 'Happy Endings', employs a unique structure through which she brings focus to the most underrated aspect of a romantic story.
Narrated in a mix of the second and the third person omniscient narrative style to accomplish her goal of a disconnected narration and introspection, Atwood comments on the essence of the genre - it almost becomes a satire.
Broken into six sections, A through F, the short story focuses on the protagonists, John and Mary who fall in love with each other. In section A, the ending is a happy one where they get married, live a happy life and eventually die together. And from B to F, the sections start out in an extremely different manner- it still is related to the story of the protagonists but with different beginnings and the same ending as illustrated in section A. Thus, conveying the message that the endpoint of relationship doesn’t matter rather the beginning and the duration is of significance. She highlights the fact that every relationship, no matter how successful, always has one ending and that is death- this seems ghastly but it is the reality.
By employing the third person narration, Atwood creates a barrier between the characters and the reader, in turn, drawing attention to the plot and its structure which helps her to highlight her point that the readers should be concerned with the ending of the relationship but the process of it. And she also cleverly uses the 6 section structure to let the reader arrive at the conclusion by ending all the sections by writing, “...and everything continues as in A.”
This is neither a plot-driven story nor a character-driven story- the story is driven purely by the actions observed and presented by the third-person narrator, and the readers’ curiosity. This is not the traditional way of writing a work of fiction and this is also atypical of the romance stories which asserts Atwood’s point- “so much for endings. Beginnings are always more fun.”
The brilliance of the story does not end there- Atwood also employs the second-person narrative style at the beginning of the short story and at the end. She breaks the fourth wall- the story opens, “John and Mary meet. What happens next? If you want a happy ending, try A” and concludes the story by directly addressing the reader to interpret the story and the characters however they wish to but the ending will still be the same.
Although written in a manner which makes the reader feel detached from the story, it still remains relatable- we are all Johns and Marys and all the sections from B to F are obstacles that make reaching the ending portrayed in A difficult.
I would recommend this short story to everyone who loves a story that is familiar yet unconventional, self-reflective and leaves you with wonderment.
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