"Once Upon a Time" by Nadine Gordimer

A detailed Summary of "Once Upon a Time" by Nadine Gordimer

"Once Upon a Time" by Nadine Gordimer is a modern fairy tale. It tells the story of a once happy family living in an affluent suburb of South Africa who move emotionally from contentment to fear as they protect and isolate themselves from the rest of the population who are the disadvantaged and poor "people of another color." Gradually they add more protection to their home as their fear grows. Ultimately and ironically, the protection they install boomerangs back and injures, perhaps kills their son.

Although the story has several obvious fairy tale elements, a "once upon a time" beginning, a happy family of good law-abiding people, who license their dog, insure against fire, flood and damage, and a wise old witch, the author employs several other fairy tale devices in the story.

First, there is the use of simple, repetitive language like that in a fairy tale: "in a house, in a suburb, in a city there was a man and his wife who loved each other very much and were living happily ever after. They had a little boy and they loved him very much. They had a cat and a dog ..." Phrases such as "trusted housemaid", "you are right, said the wife" and

Additional foreshadowing is woven into the story with the walks the family takes around the neighborhood. We are told "they no longer paused to admire this show of roses or that perfect lawn; these were hidden behind an array of different security fences, walls and devices." Eventually their walks devolved into the man and woman comparing the possible effectiveness of each style of protection against its appearance and resulted in the wife shuddering when looking at the one they finally decide on: the coils of barbed wire that eventually entrap their son. We are also told that "then the time came when many of the people who were not trusted housemaids and gardeners hung about the suburb because they were unemployed."

In addition to simple repetitive language, flowery, descriptive language used to embellish a story is employed in fairy tales. There are numerous examples of this: "...a deeper and sharper hooking and tearing of flesh," "...twelve inch pikes fanned like zigzags of lightning...," "the sunlight flashed and slashed, off the serrations, the cornice of razor thorns encircled the home, shining." and "...under the jacaranda trees that m

Some common words found in the essay are:
South Africa, Total Security, Beauty Unlike, Nadine Gordimer, fairy tale, fairy tales, barbed wire, simple repetitive language, repetitive language, burglar alarms, happy family, wise witch, traditional fairy, little boy, simple repetitive,

Approximate Word count = 778
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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"Once Upon a Time" by Nadine Gordimer

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