Happy Ending: One Of Margaret Atwoods Essays

Happy Ending: One Of Margaret Atwood's EssaysOne of the finest writers working today is Margaret Atwood, whose novels have become classics, some of which are a great read. One of her favorite essay topics is the theme of what is or should be happy.Atwood has taken a number of essays and made them a form of novels, although this method isn't the way she generally writes. She seems to be more inspired by something than the actual writing of the essay. She calls this writing 'magick,' and uses magic and metaphors to make this happen.She starts with one question and then investigates it for several minutes at a time. She knows how she wants the end to be, but doesn't know how long the other characters should wait before jumping the gun. The last part of the novel will usually deal with the characters' reaction to the missing link in their life. The piece typically ends with some twist and turns that make the reader wonder if the 'happy ending' really does exist.I've only read two of Atwo od's novels, The Handmaid's Tale and The Blind Assassin, so I can't compare them to each other, but I'll discuss them in the essays below. In the first book, Atwood explores how men treat women. Her narrator, Offred, was raped and taken as a slave to the Christian country. She wrote about her experience at the time and thought about it a great deal later.The Blind Assassin is set in a modern day world where there is no white saviour who comes to save the world from an asteroid impact, there are no angelic figures; people are capable of doing great evil, in the eyes of others, and still find themselves not guilty of any wrongdoing. It may be described as a 'bad ending' because the protagonist, Edie, has been found innocent of any wrongdoing.In The Last Year of Life on Earth, there is a quote at the beginning that is repeated again in the rest of the book: 'If you want to say happy, find a place for it.' This seems to be the happy ending, but Atwood never clearly explains why this is so. Some readers have questioned it as a hoax, but Atwood says that she knows where the line should be drawn and that she didn't know where hers was. She says it has been a metaphor for society, but the readers should decide for themselves.In the short story 'The Bed Moved,' from the collection, The Children's Inheritance, we find Atwood focusing on the themes of love and loss. The narrator is a mother whose child has died and who loses everything else too. The woman becomes sick and is in danger of dying as well. Her husband, an alien, comes to visit and he tells her of their love and how their lives are inextricably linked.And in A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, there is an essay on what Atwood calls 'the happy ending.' She says that she would like the reader to think that they're there to witness an event of hope and yet still be aware that the happy ending is far away and perhaps impossible. She doesn't tell us if the ending will ever be achieved, but one thing is cert ain: The closing paragraphs are unforgettable. If you ever have the chance to read the work, you won't forget it.