Happy Endings

Happy Endings Summary | Detailed Summary

"Happy Endings" is Margaret Atwood's short story about two generic people, whom she names John and Mary. In this story, she writes as if speaking to a person who wants to write a story about a man and a woman. This how-to story describes the basic plotline to achieve a happy ending when writing fiction. Atwood provides Options A through F as general plotlines.

Option A takes John and Mary through a picture-perfect life of love together in which everything is joyous and stimulating in their lives. In the end, they both die. Option B has Mary falling in love with John and John treating her very badly. He never takes her anywhere, but rather uses her body as a tool for his sexual pleasure, which he does not even seem very excited about. John ends up with another woman, Madge, and Mary commits suicide from despair. John and Madge marry, and the happy ending follows as in Option A.

Option C has John as a married man falling in love with Mary, who is several years his junior. Mary is in love with James, who is her own age, though not yet ready to settle into a committed relationship. One night as Mary and James indulge in sexual and drug-induced pleasure together, John walks in on them. He buys a gun and kills them before committing suicide. This happy ending comes as Madge, John's wife is this option, later marries a man named Fred, and the two of them follow the plot of Option A.

Option D has Madge and Fred facing a tidal wave that lowers the value of their home and kills thousands of people. However, the two of them are still able to maintain the life of Option A. Option E leads Fred to and early death resulting from a heart condition, and Madge conducts charity work after his death, otherwise continuing as in Option A.

Finally, Option F points out the ultimate ending for all people everywhere. John and Mary die. Atwood notes that every plot is the same when it deals with the question of "What happened?" It is much more interesting to address the questions of "Why and how did this happen?"