Short Fiction of Margaret Atwood is a compilation of short stories written by Margaret Atwood. Atwood is from Canada, and she is an author, poet, teacher, and an environmental activist. She is a prolific writer, as she has published almost 20 books of poetry, 16 novels, 8 short story collections, and even more, many of which have won numerous awards.
Atwood also fearlessly attacks themes such as feminism and political involvement, as Atwood considers herself a Red Tory -- using the historical definition of the term. Many of her short stories touch on this issue, at the very least, and other centralize on the two and meld them together in the plot. Atwood is also an avid environmentalist, and her attitude towards this subject is somewhat reverent and fearful, and even sometimes uses it as a backdrop to discuss another pressing issue. In addition, Atwood sometimes also experiments with different writing techniques to express her ideas in a more powerful way.
Quite a few of her works in this collection embody these themes in a novel fashion. "Happy Endings" is one of Atwood’s most striking examples of experimenting with fiction writing; she provides the reader with six quite underdeveloped characters and an even less original plot. However, we see that she does this to allow the reader to choose for their development and their endings, instead of dictating it as the author. "The Man from Mars" is a story that is a powerful example of Atwood’s stance on sexism and the perceived battle between the two genders, as well as the idea of the self, how it is gained, and how it is lost. The many other stories in this collection provide a strong sample of Atwood’s writing and her unique perspective on interesting and relevant issues today.
