Analyse af Nadine Gordimers 'Once Upon a Time'

Once upon a time is a story, which is divided in to two parts. Nadine Gordimer uses sentences as “living happily ever after” (p. 1 l. 5), the title “Once upon a Time” and magical words like “witch” (p. 1 l. 10) to resemble a story for children, but this story is not a fairytale. This story is about the distance between people and the blindness by which we see in the world. Nadine Gordimer is not trying to write a story for children. She uses the fairytale language to explain the irony in the story. The first part is about a happy family who live in South Africa. The story about the “happy” family is far from being a happy story. It starts, as a utopian story with this perfect family, but ends with a dystopian tragedy, which is created by human beings own destruction.

First paragraph:

We follow a family with a man, his wife, their son their pets, housemaid and part time gardener. They live in suburb, in a city, in South Africa during a time with discrimination. The family is living a pleased life with all their wishes and dreams. But the neighborhood is far from safe. Every family in the suburb is secured in any possible way and has set a sign that says, “YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED”(p. 1 l. 13). Even trough the husband keeps telling his wife that “These people were not allowed into the suburb except as reliable housemaids and gardeners, so there was nothing to fear”(p. 1 l. 18 + p. 2 l. 1), “Yet she 2 was afraid that some day such people might come up the street and tear off the plaque YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED and open the gates and stream in” (p. 2 l. 1-3). In response to the wife’s fears, the family installed security devices, which only affects their own existence. The family has no idea of what’s truly going one in the real world, they only think about “these people” whom they are afraid of.