…Story B does not fit the previous style, containing rude expressions like “he fucks her,” uttered in a manner-of-fact tone that clashes with the mentality of a traditional middle-class woman and slang about drugs or sexual relations (“stoned,” “keep it up longer”), both topics that constitute taboos for traditional women. Maria Calzada Perez translated “Happing Endings” into the Spanish language and writes about her findings concerning shifting diction: Due to the lack of imagery and the repetition of empty adjectives in diction, Atwood creates stock characters with vacant characteristics representing the collective psyche of the middle class, who believe they have attained all great levels of the “what, what, what”, or the house, the job, the hobbies (Atwood 293).Ītwood’s sarcasm of middle class ideals in storyline B, achieved through irony and stereotypical gender roles, continues the satirical tone of the story. This repetition in diction emphasizes the ordinary and mundane of each characteristic. For example, Atwood could have described their house as “a two-story, aged-brick home, smothered in escalading ivy and whistling wisteria on an elm-enclosed lane, in the heart of the corn-covered fields of the Midwest.”Īnother example of satirical statement on the characters of John and Mary is the use of the adjectives “stimulating” and “challenging.” These words are used to describe their jobs, their sex life, and their hobbies. If Atwood had been developing round characters, she would have created imagery through her descriptions. Each adjective is blank, or empty, with little information given about the characters or their life. While it is clear the characters are outwardly happy with their ordinarily content lives, they are not fully developed characters. They have a “stimulating and challenging sex life” and “worthwhile friends,” they go on “fun vacations,” and “they both have hobbies which they find stimulating and challenging” (Atwood 290). Their life appears to be happy and financially successful with a “charming house,” “live-in help,” and “jobs which they find stimulating and challenging” (Atwood 290). Storyline A introduces the first two characters, John and Mary. To fully understand the work as a whole, it is important to analyze the literary devices used in each storyline. Atwood’s satire, through shifting diction, the use of flat characters, and the representation of stereotypical gender roles, critiques middle-class economic materialism while challenging the pursuit of ordinary contentment. In Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings,” the narrator introduces four characters and provides six alternate storylines resulting in “the only authentic ending … ” (293). Middle-Class Identity: A Critical Analysis of Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings”
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