Student Question

What could be a possible "G" ending for the story "Happy Endings" by Margaret Atwood?

Quick answer:

A possible "G" ending involves John working as an assistant to Mary, a news anchor. Despite being asked to perform demeaning tasks, John struggles with voicing his dissatisfaction. He meets Madge, a foot model, and they form a family. Urged by Madge, John confronts Mary, who reveals her love for him. After Mary's tragic death, John marries Madge, they have a child, and he secures a better job, mirroring the "A" ending.

Expert Answers

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This is a "G" ending.

After college, John finds a good job in the telecommunications business. He is the assistant to Mary who is the morning news anchor for a national network. Initially, John responsibilities were to act as her personal secretary and body guard primarily protecting her from the news media. 

When Mary begins to ask John to wash her car, pick up her dry cleaning, and other unrelated jobs, he struggles with continuing to work for her. Sensing that something is wrong with John, Mary offers him a $50,000 bonus for doing such a good job. 

John accepts but still does not like the demeaning aspects of the employment. He does not want to disappoint his parents who gave so much to help him through college, and, yet John still feels that he needs to confront Mary with his complaints.

John lives in a great neighborhood. One Saturday that he did not have to work, John spies a beautiful young woman sitting in the nearby coffee klatch.  He introduces himself to her and luckily for him she is unattached.  Madge, a foot model, lives in the apartment building next door.

Divorced with a child, Madge responds to John; they become a couple and eventually move in together.  Madge’s child has been living with his dad, but soon moves in with his mother and John.  Everyone moves happily into the future except for John’s angst over his job with Mary. 

With Madge urging him to voice his complaints to Mary, John goes into see the boss lady.  When John mentions that he might have to look for a different job if he is not allowed to do the job for which he was hired, 

Mary immediately bursts into tears confessing that she loves John and only wanted him near to her.  She will do anything to keep him working for her and would really like for their relationship to become more that just employer and employee.  John explains his personal life to Mary with her expressing her confusion about what she needed to do with her own life.

John goes to work the next day.  When Mary does not respond to his calls or cannot find her getting ready for the work day, John goes to her bedroom and finds her dead from an overdose of pills.  Devastated, John calls the police; then, John realizes that Mary’s death though terrible also has impacted his life as well. 

Madge and John marry and have another child that they name Fred.  Fortunately, John finds another job with Mary’s co-host who had long admired his work ethic and triples his salary.

The rest is the same as A.

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