-TS Eliot
Margaret Atwood's short story, Happy Endings, reveals the exact opposite.
She begins by stating,"If you want a happy ending, try A."
Part A is the story everyone wants to hear. John and Mary fall in love, get married and live a wonderful life together. Everybody wants something similar to the picture presented-happiness, safety and contentment. Part A portrays an ideal happy ending.
She continues on with multiples scenarios involving murder, deceit and ultimately a less than perfect ending. For example in part B, Mary falls in love with John, but John fails to fall in love with Mary. Instead, he repeatedly uses her while she blindly continues giving herself to him, hoping he will love her. "Inside John, she thinks, there is another John who is much nicer. This other John will emerge like a butterfly from a cacoon, a jack from a box, a pit from a prune, if the first John is only squeezed enough."
In part C, Mary is only settling for John, whom she pities, while she is truly in love with James. John is "middle-aged, in two years he'll be as bald as an egg and he can't stand it. He purchases a handgun, saying he needs it for target practice--this is the thin part of the plot, but it can be dealt with later--and shoots the two of them and himself."John is so distressed he resorts to murder and suicide. This is clearly not the portrayal of a happy ending.
The author presents multiple scenarios, perhaps to relate to each one of her readers. Some circumstances remain sad, while others eventually lead to a happy ending. In the end the only thing that Atwood guarantees is that John and Mary die.
I like the irony of the story that you point out, it is very true that the author titles the piece and writes the exact opposite of what she titles the piece. I also like the quote you put at the top of your post, its like a rejuvinating thought that even though all things must come to an end its always a beginning to something else
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