What if a story was over in the first paragraph? Often times, when reading something the mind gets caught up on focusing what is going to happen next, what characters will be introduced, and how they relate to the story. Instead of looking ahead, maybe the point or idea the author is trying to make is in the beginning. In "Happy Endings" Margaret Atwood uses anthologized plots to express the existence and the actuality of others that develops ideas of escape, and to show that there is no escape, that death is inevitable.

The short story consists of six plots, A-F. In plot A, John and Mary are introduced, a traditional middle-class couple who fall in love and end up getting married. They are both successful with their jobs and find them stimulating. They have two beautiful children who turn...