![]() Margaret Atwood uses anecdotes to discuss the issue in today’s society regarding gender equality. This is Atwood’s commentary on how women are expected to lead a life of service while men can pursue whatever pleases them. So what was her life devoted to before the death of her husband? Atwood also brings up that a women must accept the death of her partner with “kindness and understanding,” while men are allowed to grieve for the loss of their partner, and spend their remaining life bird watching. After her husband dies she devotes her life to charity work. In scenario E, Atwood illustrates the idea that a woman’s purpose should be to be a caregiver, a provider. Atwood is drawing the reader’s attention to how Mary pays the ultimate price for doing what makes her happy, but when John cheats on the mother of his children behind her back, it is a completely different thing, almost condoned by society. When he finds Mary with a lover who is her age and whom she finds interesting and engaging, he shoots both of them out of rage, and then kills himself. He tells Mary that he loves her but he cannot leave his wife because he made a commitment. He is a successful married older man with two children and a very satisfying life. In this scenario Mary meets her human need for love and affection with John. In scenario C, Atwood highlights one of the double standards that are applied to women when it comes to relationships. It seems that Mary overdosing as a means of suicide shows how she wants her image and her body to be unharmed when John finally comes around to rescuing her. Unfortunately John does not come for her and the amount of pills she swallows kills her. In the end of the scenario Mary fantasizes about attempting to take her own life only to be rescued like a damsel in distress, by John in the nick of time. He never took her out to eat, he thought her company beneath taking her out to a restaurant. Mary’s breaking point is when John is seen taking another woman out to dinner. Atwood is using this scenario to make commentary on how if a man doesn’t want to commit to a woman, it is socially ok and not uncommon that the women can trade sex for his time and attention. She cooks and cleans for him and lets him use her. She prostitutes herself to him in hopes that one day his feelings of lust will morph into those of true love. ![]() ![]() Mary pining after John, lets him take advantage of her again and again. In scenario B, Atwood depicts the tragedy of unrequited love. Happy Endings by Margaret Atwood explores the oppressive stereotyping of women, the double standards enforced by society, and the traditional idea of a man’s place and a woman’s place through the form of short anecdotes that show different outcomes of relationships between a man and a woman.
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