Presence, Purpose and Effect of Metafiction in Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings” and David Arnason’s “A Girl’s Story”
...Arnason constantly throughout the story explains his choices, he also invites a female reader to become the main character in his book: “For this story I need a beautiful girl. You probably don’t think you’re beautiful enough, but I can fix that. I can do all kind of retouching once I’ve got the basic material, and if I miss anything, Karl (he is my editor) will find it” (David Arnason 22). Presence of metafiction in “A Girl’s Story” offers it’s readers a great lesson on writing a short story, as Arnason goes through various elements of fiction such as characters, plot, setting, symbolism etc. So, what makes metafiction such an unusual and interesting literary technique? The ability to answer the common question, “Where does the author get all those details from?”, - that is the main purpose of metafiction in short stories. In “Happy Endings” Atwood simply tells her readers that plot is the most flexible part of the story. There are no specific rules or restrictions, one can play with the plot and put characters in all different kinds of situations: “If you think this is all too bourgeois, make John a revolutionary and Mary a counterespionage agent and see how far that gets you. Remember, this is Canada. You'll still end up with A, though in between you may get a lustful brawling saga of passionate involvement, a chronicle of our times, sort of” (Atwood 270). In the similar way David Arnason reveals his strategies of creating a story to the reader in his “A Girl’s Story”. Significant part of writing is based on decision making. Arnason shows his readers how much control he has over some fundamentals in his story. He explains his steps carefully making it clear for the reader why he chose one thing over another: “Your name is Linda. I had to be careful not to give you a biblical name like Judith or Rachel. I don’t want any symbolism in this story…Then you lose control of your characters, because they’ve got to be like the biblical characters” (Arnason 24). The purpose of metafiction in short stories is to give answers to all the questions that occur in reader’s mind. As one reads through the Arnason’s story where everything seems so ideal and perfect, the objection pops up in his/her head almost immediately. However, David Arnason is brilliant enough to cut off that opposition right away: You may object that this would not have happened in real life…Well, why don’t you just run out to the grocery store and buy a bottle of milk and a loaf of bread? The grocer will give you your change without even looking at you. That’s what happens in real life, and if that’s what you’re after, why are you reading a book? (Arnason 26) Using metafiction David Arnason teaches his readers that reading fiction is based on commitment and trust. One should be able to “dive” into the imaginative world of fiction and forget about boring reality. Finally, what effect does metafiction have in both stories? Metafiction creates an effect of reader’s participation in the story, which is much more t...