"Happy Endings"
Margaret Atwood wrote a brilliant story by using an interesting gimmick of having multiple endings. By playing with the continuation of the stories, they get more and more detailed and evolved with each consecutive part. As I read, it made me think about how interesting drama and conflict make a story. Everyone wants to go off and get married and just be happy, but that is always less dramatic and enthralling than the desperation of people in different conditions trying to fulfill their needs and roles. Complicating the plot by making John an older man and Mary a young adult who loves someone else adds dramatic tension by realizing that John will never truly have what he wants from Mary, even though they have sex regularly. The author makes a point to explain in the end that stories all end the same either way, people either get married and stay happy or their spouse dies and they die on their own. The point that she is making is that stories are always fun and interesting in the beginning and middle because they still have a ways to go and an unknown number of places to go. The conflict always occurs on the way, making for a tale that leaves the reader feeling satisfied amongst the drama of their own life. I believe that it's not always about how a story ends, it is the journey that makes the story last in my mind. “The Hobbit” is a brilliant example, as Bilbo Baggins goes on a massive journey with dwarves and a wizard that culminates in a huge war, and the threat of an ancient dragon, yet the story ends simple enough.