'Once Upon a Time' analyse af Nadine Gordimer

‘Once Upon a Time’ is a brilliant short story, published in 1989, it’s a symbolic story about the death of white supremacy and the subsequent birth of the South African society. The author, Nadine Gordimer, was born on the 23rd of November 1923, and died on July 14th 2014.

The genre in Nadine Gordimer’s short story, ‘Once Upon a Time’, is an upside down- fairy tale.

In the end of page 1, Nadine writes: ,,In a house, in a suburb, in a city, there were a man and his wife who loved each other very much and were living happily ever after.’’ Expectually the ’happily ever after’ tells us that this novel is a fairy tale. But an ordinary fairy tale have a happy ending, which in this case doesn't happen. The story ends with a little boy getting killed, which makes this short story more like an upside down- fairy tale.

This twisted account covers a fictional town’s growing obsession with security. It follows a family “living happily ever after” as they constantly strive for more effective means to protect themselves and the lives they live. Unbeknownst to the many hapless residents living within the town, their efforts at securing their happiness are tearing it asunder. This backwards tale exhibits a tragic ending in which the endeavors of the family inadvertently lead to the death of their beloved son.