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本篇英国essay代写-"Happiness Endings" by Margaret 讲了“玛格丽特•阿特伍德（Margaret Atwood）”与“A＆P”（A＆P）的“幸福结局”对比与对比“快乐终结”是由阿特伍德创造的一系列短篇小说，具有相同而愉快的结局但不同的过程。本篇essay代写由51due代写平台整理，供大家参考阅读。

A Comparison and Contrast between "Happiness Endings" by Margaret Atwood and A&P by John Updike

"Happy Endings" is a series of short story created by Atwood with the same and happy ending but different processes. And "A & P”, written by John Updike, tells the story of Sammy, a cashier in the supermarket. In this article, it is to make a comparison and contrast between “Happy Endings" by Margaret Atwood and “A&P” by John Updike in terms of format, story backgrounds, and themes of stories. 

The formats of the two stories are different: “A&P” follows the traditional linear structure of accounting story but Margaret Atwood chose an unconventional format by giving account of multiple stories with multiple outcomes in one story. In “A&P”, the elements of the entire story are connected and arranged according to the natural order of time, and cause and effect of events. At the beginning, John Updike wrote about the appearance of three girls in bath suits, then the reaction of the people in the shop and at last Sammy’s resignation as a result of anger with Lengel’s comment. All the plots are developed in a linear manner. However, “Happy Endings” is about all the possibilities of marriage. In the "Happy Endings", the story begins with a hypothesis or question asked by Atwood. And it consists of six short stories entitled A-F. Six short stories are just like different possible answers to the hypothesis or question tossed at the beginning. And it is used to create suspense. The purpose of Atwood is to write a story like a guess or a joke. And also, different with short stories, there is a brief comment made by Atwood about the lessons drawn from or themes of the six short stories. 

In terms of story backgrounds, there are some differences between "Happy Endings" and “A&P”, with the former containing a series of stories with no clear backgrounds and the latter set in the 1960s. The former five stories of “Happy Endings” take place in modern cities, and the 6th story can be generalized to any age, and any culture. In “A&P”, it focuses on the story of Sammy, the hero, who is a cashier in the supermarket. The creation and story background of “A&P” is 1960s. This can be inferred from many detailed description. The United States of the 1960s was noisy. In the United States in the 1960s, what attracts most young people was rock-and-roll. For example, Sammy showed disdain of jazz records and folk music records such as the Caribbean Six or Tony Martin Sings in the shop, calling them “some such gunk you wonder they waste the wax on."(Updike p.3).The Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, the feminist movement, the sexual revolution, the disintegration of the family, the events and social movements have had far-reaching effects in American history during this period. For example, three girls in bath suits show up in the public places seen to be a proof of the feminist movement, and the sexual revolution.

However, the theme of those two short stories has also some similarities: " Happy Endings” and “A&P” are both concerned about the conflicts. “A&P”focused on conflicts between individual needs and social norms.  In the short story “A&P”,  the conflicts between individual needs and social norms are mainly manifested by the contradiction between personal values and social values, personal aesthetic and social mainstream aesthetic, individual cultural preferences and social mainstream cultural preferences. In the social context of the American youth movement of the 1960s, Sammy was inevitably affected. He and other contemporary young people have focused the pursuit of self, denying some of the traditional values. For example, when Lengel speaks of “policy," Sammy’s response to the word is that “Policy is what the kingpins want” (Updike p.4). Also, his personal aesthetic is mainly reflected in his dislike of adult clothing as well as appreciation of the girls’ swimwear. Updike shows readers two categories of clothing. “Baggy gray pants “are his description of adult dress (Updike p.3). These depictions do not have a bright color.  But the description of the girls swimsuit put the reader into a color world, such as “pink ",” shining rim"(Updike p.1). In “Happy Endings", two kinds of conflicts are written. Conflicts came from not only external world, but also from inner emotional world.  In the story D, the conflict of marriage and affection comes from the external environment such as the passage of time, the involvement of the third person and the threat of natural disasters.  And then in the story E, conflict comes from people themselves, such as people's own shortcomings, as well as bad health. Also, stories B and C all show the conflict between people's inner emotional life, while the story D and E are mainly showing all the non emotional but objective conflicts from the outside world. In addition, all stories tend to stress the same conflict from the external world---the conflict between death and life.  It can be seen from the frequency of the word “death”. And in the final part of the story, Atwood  pointed out that the only authentic ending is that “John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die” (Atwood p.3). 

To sum up, there are differences between "Happy Endings” and “A&P” in format and background, but similarity in themes. Margaret Atwood chose an unconventional format, and wrote a series of stories containing same characters with totally different plots, which lacks a universal background. It is different from the conventional format in “A&P” which writes a story with a focus on central characters and fixed background.  But there is similarity in terms of theme: in "Happy Endings” and “A&P”, they both touch upon the conflicts either between human and external world, or human and internal world. 

Reference

Atwood, Margaret. "Happy Endings"

Updike, John. “A&P”

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