Agree Quote by Margaret Atwood
“Every ending is arbitrary, because the end is where you write The end. A period, a dot of punctuation, a point of stasis. A pinprick in the paper: you could put your eye to it and see through, to the other side, to the beginning of something else. Or, as Tony says to her students, Time is not a solid, like wood, but a fluid, like water or the wind. It doesn't come neatly cut into even-sized length, into decades and centuries. Nevertheless, for our purposes we have to pretend it does. The end of any history is a lie in which we all agree to conspire.”
About This Quote
Source Novel: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, 1985
The conclusion we assign to events is a construct; endings are fluid and can become beginnings when we view them differently.
In simple terms: Endings are made up and can turn into new starts.
Recognize endings as opportunities for new narratives.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- Writing
- film editing
- personal transitions
- historical analysis
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- How might you reinterpret a personal ending as a new beginning?
- What does viewing time as fluid change your planning?
Endings may feel arbitrary but still shape future expectations.