29 pages 58 minutes read

Margaret Atwood

Happy Endings

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1983

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Quiz

How to use

This flexible-use quiz is designed for reading comprehension assessment and activity needs in classroom, home-schooling and other settings. Questions connect to the text’s plot, characters, and themes — and align with the content and chapter organization in the rest of this study guide. Use quizzes as pre-reading hooks, reading checks, discussion starters, entrance/exit “tickets,” small group activities, writing activities, and lessons on finding evidence and support in a text.

Depth of Knowledge Levels: Questions require respondents to demonstrate ability to: 

  1. Recall and Understand Content (e.g., who, what, where, when) 
  2. Apply and Analyze Ideas (e.g., how and why)

Questions

1. The third line of the story’s brief exposition reads, “If you want a happy ending, try A.” Which narrative point of view is this an example of?

A) first-person

B) second-person

C) third-person

D) first-person plural

Discussion Suggestion: Use the above question to introduce or review narrative point of view and the various forms it can take. Why might Atwood have decided to use both third-person and second-person narration in her story? How do different narrative viewpoints create different effects in stories, including how realistic, reliable, distant, or immediate they seem? 

2. What is the “happy ending” of plot A?

A) John and Mary get married

B) John and Mary live happily ever after