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Jalisha Givens
October 7, 2014
Expository Essay (Fiction Unit)
Draft: 1
Everybody will die, but throughout the course of their lives circumstances will determine how they live. Margaret Atwood is among the most-honored authors of fiction in recent history. (“Margaret Atwood”.) One of her many short stories I have read is “Happy Endings”. In this story she has a sort of ironic theme. She allows her readers to be aware that no matter what obstacles you face in life you will end up with the same result death. I believe this short story, as well as most of her writing, relates to her personal life. Overall throughout the story she talks about the expectations of women, their rebellious and pessimistic ways, and how she examines life through her own experiences.
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That was a time period where women were expected to become devoted housewives and mothers. In the short story scenario B it describes something very similar to living in these times. “He comes to her apartment twice a week and she cooks him dinner, you’ll notice that he doesn’t even consider her worth the price of a dinner out, and after he’s eaten the dinner he fucks her and after that he falls asleep, white she does the dishes..” (p.289) John does not love Mary as much as she loves him. He thinks she is only good for dinner, sex, and keeping a clean house. Honestly, she thinks it is her place which is why she proceeds to sit around and wait on him to someday change. Of course, he does not change not even a little bit. He rarely notices her, actually if he did he would have made it to her house in time to take her to the
The narrator, throughout the story, progressively breaks away from the role of women during the nineteenth century by doing things that women were not supposed to do. Women were considered as the ones who must stay home and take care of the children. Gilman shows this aspect of a women’s role by having the narrator live in a room that is supposed to be a nursery. (1661) John and his sister, Jennie represent society during this time. During the story the narrator is constantly writing when no one is around because it is frowned upon for women to write. “There comes John, and I must put this away-he
One of my favorite poems is “Happy Ending?” By Shel Silverstein, and the poem is published in his book “Falling Up.” The reason why this is my favorite poem is because it makes a lot of sense to me. I find it naïve to think that everything must have a happy ending, but in this poem Silverstein states the opposite of that. In this poem he admits that endings are very sad, but then states that a beginning and middle should be happy to compensate for the sad ending. The poem makes sense to me, the reason for it being my favorite, because in it he is surrendering to the fact that endings can be sad, but he hopes to make the beginning and the middle of the situation a pleasant one.
The theme of this novel is to look at the good you do in life and how it carries over after your death. The moral of the book is; "People can make changes in their lives whenever they really want to, even right up to the end."
Mary grew up receiving her education from a local country school for girls. At school, Mary learned many things that a housewife should know such as sewing and other household chores. As Mary got older, she noticed that her father was abusive towards the family. Mary’s grandfather made a fortune from being a master weaver. Her father used this money on multiple farming ventures, that proved to be unsuccessful. Due to his failures, the family was forced to move multiple times. Mary’s father felt pressured from them constantly moving and from his venture failures, and this caused him to become an alcoholic. By the age of 19, Mary left home to go on her own and make a living for herself and to get a better education.
Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings” is an Author’s telling of societal beliefs that encompass the stereotypical gender roles and the pursuit of love in the middle class with dreams of romance and marriage. Atwood writes about the predictable ways in which many life stories are concluded for the middle class; talking about the typical everyday existence of the average, ordinary person and how they live their lives. Atwood provides the framework for several possibilities regarding her characters’ lives and how each character eventually completes their life with their respective “happy ending”.
In the beginning of the story, the first thing John does to exercise his power is to isolate his wife from family, friends, and society as a whole. In response to her worsened state of mind due to her depression, he feels that it is his responsibility as the man to make the decision to isolate her in a large house outside of any town (285). By deciding on what should happen without consulting his wife herself shows the effect that gender roles have on both of them. John, believing he is the only one to make logical decisions due to his role as a man, puts his wife in her place by isolating her. She draws the attention of the reader to the fact that she is suffering at the hand of her husband throughout the story, yet she justifies his behavior by saying that she is a burden and that he is “Very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction” (285). The way she brings up this recurring behavior of John guiding his wife, it is further shown the dominance he has over his wife and the decisions he lets her make. Despite the fact that John forces his wife to stay in the house, she admits how much she craves society and the people she loves (285). Although she tries to share this with John, he doesn’t listen and she...
"Why does that which makes a man happy have to become the source of his misery"
Elizabeth confuses me with her emotional roller coaster. At the last four lines of her poem, she becomes happy or pleased once again to find that what was at the end wasn’t “Death” at all, but love
...age between her mother and father in which she remarks that her “father had particularly admired [her] mother for her sweetness” (Beeton, p. 67). Also the barmaid from the primary sources does receive help from a male figure who accompanied her home and made sure she was not “molested” (Beeton, p. 260). An elderly working woman, Frau Hoffman, describes a rather positive and long marriage between her and her husband and stresses that a woman must “be faithful and good to her husband and honor and love him” (Beeton, p.364). But due to the extreme poverty found in the working class, the conditions in factories, and the evidence in popular songs for the abuse of women it can be assumed that many working class women did not experience pleasant marriages and their economic and legal vulnerability allowed for negative male relationships to occur for a majority of women.
Some roles women had were non-traditional. In the same story that was represented in the preceding paragraph Mary Anne show some of her own non-traditional roles. She becomes very fond of military paraphernalia and even blackens her face with charcoal and carries around an M-16 (102). Her hygiene also becomes second hand. "No cosmetics, no fingernail filling. She stopped wearing jewelry, cut her hair short and wrapped it in a green bandana"(98). Here she is taking on masculine features and her feminine ways are forgotten. Mary Anne also starts staying out late, and once even does not come in until the next day. Some nights the men would go out and look for her, and her boyfriend even accuses her of sleeping with other men, because of her awkward ways.
In Margaret Atwood’s short story, “Happy Endings” she establishes a meeting between a man named John and woman named Mary. She lets the reader choose between six hypothetical situations that could occur after their initial meeting, but she notes that that option A is the one to try if you prefer a happy ending. In Option A John and Mary are the “perfect couple”. They both have good jobs, they marry and then have kids when they can afford it, they retire and both find meaningful hobbies and then they die. The other five options are paralleled to option A however Atwood’s portrayal of the women in the options provides an alternate meaning of the story.
...r’s household most women in this period had no self-respect and were controlled by their husbands.
Margaret Atwood’s short story Happy Endings suggests the importance of social constructs and the impact society has on people's lives. Social constructs are defined as a concept or perception of something based on the collective views developed and maintained within a society or social group (Oxford Dictionaries). Atwood suggests many times the important role of social constructs. Happy Endings implies that in order to live a happy and fulfilling life, social formations designed from society must be followed. This is evident in the many different plots in Happy Endings and how if social constructs and formations are not followed the ending is never a desirable one.
The nineteenth century was a time of male domination and female suppression. Women faced economic social and freedom of rights barricades. Men's interests and efforts were towards the important people; themselves. We see this when the narrator is genuinely concerned about something strange in the house. John shows no empathy or support towards his own wife. Alternatively john responds by telling her it "was a draught, and shut the window" (Gilman 904). Perhaps this carelessness for women contributed to the mistreatment of the female illness by just giving them drugs to cope with sickness. The narrator continuously reminds us of the social expectations of the male in relation to females. The narrator uses phrases like "one expects that" and "John says..." to reinforce male's normal actions and treatment ...
The movie Pursuit of Happyness shows how a person became a homeless then eventually how he survived from being a homeless. Then, to being a multi millionaire. Even though he experienced how hard life can be he still pursued to reach his goals in his life for his son. This movie shows how a homeless person stand up and pursue to be successful.