Taboo's Meditations on "Happy Endings" by Margaret Atwood.
Good Bones and Simple Murders, by Margaret Atwood

After writing "Do You Know a Way When You See One?" I received several comments in response to my meditations on Ernest Hemingway's suicide that went as follows: Cut him some slack; Everyone dies so don't let the manner of his death distract you from his life.

I could meditate for hours on why I love the writings of Ernest Hemingway--in this sense of respecting a man's life rather than dwelling on his death, my passion for his fiction leads inevitably to a fault of my own. I find truth and justice everywhere in Hemingway's stories, and I tend not to consider the end result of his vision.

But there is the end result. Hemingway dies--not only does he die, but he kills himself. Does his suicide affect the value, or the meaning of The Old Man and the Sea, of "Big Two-Hearted River," of "Hills Like White Elephants," or A Moveable Feast? For myself, the value remains, but the meaning cannot stay the same.

In "Happy Endings," Margaret Atwood outlines several scenarios for two characters, John and Mary. "John and Mary meet," Atwood writes. "What happens next?" ("Happy Endings").

She suggests the following for those writers who enjoy happy endings:

SCENARIO (A): "JOHN AND MARY fall in love and get married. They both have worthwhile and remunerative jobs which they find stimulating and challenging. They buy a charming house. Real estate values go up. Eventually, when they can afford live-in help, they have two children, to whom they are devoted. The children turn out well. John and Mary have a stimulating and challenging sex life and worthwhile friends. They go on fun vacations together. They retire. They both have hobbies which they find stimulating and challenging. Eventually they die. This is the end of the story" ("Happy Endings").

Not everyone likes a simple story, however. Here's a summary of her second suggestion:

SCENARIO (B): "MARY FALLS IN LOVE WITH JOHN but John doesn't fall in love with Mary. He merely uses her body for selfish pleasure and ego gratification of a tepid kind. He comes to her apartment twice a week and she cooks him dinner, you'll notice that he doesn't even consider her worth the price of a dinner out, and after he's eaten dinner he fucks her and after that he falls asleep, while she does the dishes so he won't think she's untidy [. . .]

Her friends tell her they've seen him in a restaurant with another woman, whose name is Madge. It's not even Madge that finally gets to Mary: it's the restaurant. John has never taken Mary to a restaurant . . . Mary collects all the sleeping pills and aspirins she can find, and takes them and a half a bottle of sherry. You can see what kind of a woman she is by the fact that it's not even whiskey. She leaves a note for John. She hopes he'll discover her and get her to the hospital in time and repent and then they can get married, but this fails to happen and she dies. John marries Madge and everything continues as in (A)" ("Happy Endings").

IN SCENARIO (C) John is married to Madge and together they have two kids, but falls in love with the 22 year old Mary, who sleeps with him out of pity. Mary isn't impressed at all with John; she has a thing for James, because he smokes killer doobie and rides a beast of a motorcycle. John walks in on Mary and James one day, and shoots them dead, and then kills himself. "After a suitable period of mourning," Madge marries the understanding Fred, and then proceeds exactly as in (A) "but under different names" ("Happy Endings").

SCENARIO (D): "Fred and Madge have no problems. They get along exceptionally well and are good at working out any little difficulties that may arise. But their charming house is by the seashore and one day a giant tidal wave approaches. Real estate values go down. The rest of the story is about what caused the tidal wave and how they escape from it. They do, though thousands drown, but Fred and Madge are virtuous and grateful, and continue as in (A)" ("Happy Endings").

However:

SCENARIO (E): "Yes, but Fred has a bad heart. The rest of the story is about how kind and understanding they both are until Fred dies. Then Madge devotes herself to charity work until the end of (A). If you like, it can be 'Madge,' 'cancer,' 'guilty and confused,' and 'bird watching'" ("Happy Endings").

Her point is, of course, that every story ends the same way:

"YOU'LL HAVE TO FACE IT, the endings are the same however you slice it. Don't be deluded by any other endings, they're all fake, either deliberately fake, with malicious intent to deceive, or just motivated by excessive optimism if not by downright sentimentality.

The only authentic ending is the one provided here:
John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die.

So much for endings. Beginnings are always more fun. True connoisseurs, however, are known to favor the stretch in between, since it's the hardest to do anything with.

That's about all that can be said for plots, which anyway are just one thing after another, a what and a what and a what.

Now try How and Why"

("Happy Endings," from Good Bones and Simple Murders, by Margaret Atwood.)

If all endings are the same, and if all betweens (however fantastic, terrible, or beautiful) inevitably, through cause and effect, lead to the same conclusion, then perhaps Hemingway's suicide was only an ending, and not a cause for reflection. Likewise, if Atwood's understanding of endings and death is accurate, then every aspect of living must reflect, or anticipate, death.

Is there another perspective? Perhaps. One typical response is the religious response, referring in various ways to eternal life. One literary response, Tolstoy's, describes the religious response, that every ending, every moment of dying, contains the potential for transcending the imminence of death. Another literary response, Magical Realism, suggests that the reality of death cannot by eliminated, and yet belief controls the Truth of death's event.

With the possible exception of the Magical Realism, none of these refute Atwood's conclusion (or Hemingway's). But consider: if cause and effect construct the totality of Truth, then the manner in which one lives leads to a specific, unique ending. If, instead, cause and effect are outcomes of our deepest beliefs, then also must look to the way we live, the way we are living, to understand how we want to meet our end.

Hemingway believed that one true thing leads to another, and if you demand the passage of only true things, then in the end, you will have lived a true life.

He killed himself, though.

It matters. Killing himself suggests the meaning of his writing, and therefore reflects on the reasons why I love his stories. We cannot ignore the truth here, regardless of whether or not we all die. What is the value of Hemingway's stories? Knowing the manner of his death, what do these stories mean?

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