This section contains 959 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
Margaret Atwood's Happy Endings: a Metafictional Story
Summary: Analyzes Margaret Atwood's story, Happy Endings. Describes it as an oddly structured, metafictional story; a series of possible scenarios all leading the characters to the same ending. Reveals how Atwood uses humour and practical wisdom to critique both romantic fiction and contemporary society, and to make the point that it is not the end that is important, it is the journey that truly matters in both life and writing.
Happy Endings is an oddly structured, metafictional story; a series of possible scenarios all leading the characters to the same ending. Atwood uses humour and practical wisdom to critique both romantic fiction and contemporary society, and to make the point that it is not the end that is important, it is the journey that truly matters in both life and writing.
Metafiction is fiction that deals, often playfully and self-referentially, with the writing of fiction or its conventions (website 1). Margaret Atwood is clearly mocking the conventions of romantic fiction throughout the entire story, beginning with the third line "if you want a happy ending, try A." Each scenario includes the idea that "you'll still end up with A" despite the rest of the story, and this indicates that romantic fiction lacks creativity and gives us the ending we want and expect; a happy one. Atwood is also taking...
This section contains 959 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |