Hi this is Charlie.

“Happy Endings” is an ironic title. It mocks the idea of a happy ending, emphasized by the simplistic and repetitive description of the story that supposedly ends happily: the generically named John and Mary “fall in love and get married” (265), a very simple way of describing what is usually a story in itself, and find their jobs and later their hobbies “stimulating and challenging” (265). The author’s tone describing the happy ending is very dismissive. She furthers her dismissal of happy endings by creating various other scenarios all resulting in the first, but becoming increasingly ridiculous and tragic--by scenario “D” thousands of people drown in a random tidal wave and the two main characters, now named Fred and Madge, survive and move to their happy ending (267). The author mocks the happy ending by showing its cause to be something far more interesting and powerful--the death of thousands--making the ending seem superficial and unimportant. Moreover, by moving the same ending across multiple stories, the author increases its superficiality. But the final ironic touch is written in italics: “John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die” (268). The only real ending, the one that will not, like the others, seem superficial and meaningless, is death. Thus, the only real ending is not a happy one.