Based on the decisions you make, your life has about a million different outcomes, but before your story is written, it remains all white blank pages. The article "Happy Endings" by Margaret Atwood describes those different endings, based on the people people could meet, and the decisions that follow. At first, this article made me really sad. The way everyone deceives the people they supposedly love, they lie and cheat and treat others poorly. That is not the way it is supposed to be.
Its scary to think about the future. And reading these different stories of people, makes it possibly even scarier. Knowing that lying and cheating is so unfortunately common in people these days makes it intimidating to think we are going to be entering this world soon as adults. It seems like you graduate and your kind of kicked out of your comfort zone, into this world you have no idea of what to expect. How are you supposed to do that? How are you supposed to not be afraid of things like these stories happening? Fake love and disrespect, dishonesty and unhappiness. Is Margaret Atwood saying this is what we have to look forward to? We get to choose or wait for our lives to unfold into one of many dramas or tradgedies? I dont think that is fair.
I dont like Mary. I sympathize with her, but I dont like her at all. Her personality is not really described that much, but I gather that she is weak, and is always taken advantage of. She is the doormat of the story. I guess I dont like her because I hate feeling like that person, I hate feeling walked all over, and I dont like that she cant find the strength to stand up for herself. She is so lonely that she puts on a smile for John even though he deserves a slap in the face! She is letting him define her as naive and volnuerable, he is defining her "ending" and that isnt fair. Mary is not the only questionable character. It seems that every one of them is corrupt with thoughts of scandal, murder, or lies. I guess Margaret Atwood is describing all of these people to show how quick a person changes. They become so outraged and pent up with their lives, that they make mistakes and hurt others.
The happy ending idea has been hanging around me lately. We are supposed to be deciding exactly how we want our lives to play out, and we are only seventeen. We need to decide about college, careers, and morals. What if we dont know what we want yet? What if we dont want to enter the world yet? We have no choice. I know we cant control time, or other people, or the weather, but I believe we have the power to change our destiny into what we want it to be. It is possible to have a real happy ending, it may not be a fairy tale, but it can be ours. I dont think it needs to be as morbid at Margaret Atwood makes it to be. I agreee with her when she says that the end is not what really matters, because every story ends the same, the life ends, it is what makes up the middle that matters, the plot. And we can decide the plot for ourselves, no one else should have that power.
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