once upon a time
Fairy tales have always been told to us as children; whether to comfort or entertain us, they always seem to be a part of most everyone's childhood. When Nadine Gordimer was asked to write a children's story, she replied with a short story titled "Once Upon A Time". Although the title is characteristic of a fairy tale, she leads the tale to an ending that is anything other than "...happily ever after." Gordimer distorts the fairy tale by dealing with certain issues rather than giving the reader the usual fairy tale characteristics. Three of the more significant issues Gordimer likes to deal with in her story are racial discrimination and prejudice, society's insecurities, and the persuasive way fairy tales have with children. Gordimer's "Once Upon A Time" has the feeling of insecurity right away. In the first part of her story, Gordimer reminds us of our own insecurities. She brings up a familiar situation in which one is awakened by a bump in the night and cannot go back to sleep because of fear or their
Gordimer, Nadine. "Once Upon a Time." Literature Harcourt Brace College Publishers. 1997 pg. 74-78 Feeling quite safe with their new wire defense, the mother finally feels secure enough to let her guard down and read her little boy a fairy tale. The fairy tale, a story about a prince who dashes through a terrible thicket of thorns to enter the palace and kiss the Sleeping Beauty and bring her back to life. Children, having the imaginations that they do, sometimes like to pretend to be a hero as in the fairy tale. So, the next day, the little boy decides to also save the sleeping beauty by crawling through the shinny new obstacle atop the outside wall. Once inside the young prince began to charge through the insurmountable odds, and found them to be truly insurmountable. The tunnel of stainless steel razor coils quickly entrapped the young boy, tangling and terribly mangling him in his struggle to escape until finally the boy cannot struggle any longer. One of the less obvious issues lining "Once Upon A Time" is racial discrimination. Gordimer first suggestion that this suburb may be slightly racist is by stating that the plaque on their gate warning possible intruders didn't designate black or white, therefore protesting too much the owner of the home not to be a racist. By adding this statement, Gordimer lets there be evidence for a possible racism problem in this suburb. Gordimer's statement of riots outside of t
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Approximate Word count = 968
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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