Once Upon

a Time
by
Nadine Gordimer
The theme of the Apartheid is a former
short story "Once policy of segragation
Upon a Time" by and political, social, and
Nadine Gordimer economic discrimination
were apartheid and againts the nonwhite
the existence of majority in the Republic
fear of people. of South Africa.
 When someone writes to the like someone walking on a wooden
narrator to ask if she’ll write a short floor. Ears perked, she strains to hear
story for children, she declines on the the creaking sound to discern if it’s
grounds that she doesn’t write for moving closer to her bedroom door.
children. The letter-writer pushes back, She doesn’t have security bars on the
saying that he once heard a novelist windows, nor does she have a gun, but
insist that all writers should write at that doesn’t mean she’s not fearful.
least one short story for children. The The narrator recounts how, last year,
narrator considers writing back that a woman was murdered inside a house
she doesn’t feel like she has to write two blocks away in the middle of the
anything.The narrator recalls being day, and an old man and his vicious
woken up suddenly the previous night guard dogs were killed by a worker
by a creaking sound, which sounds whom the man had let go without
suspiciously pay.
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 Lying in bed in the dark, the
As her pulse slows, the narrator
narrator already feels like a victim
thinks of the Chopi and Tsonga
of a crime, and her heart beats
migrant workers who toil away down
wildly in her chest. However, she
in the mines. She imagines that the
soon realizes that the creaking sound
mine underneath her house may be
isn’t from an intruder’s footsteps.
no longer in use, or it may now be
Her house is built atop of mines, so
the gravesite of all the men who were
whenever chunks of hollowed-out
working there before the rock fell
rock fall away thousands of feet
away. Unable to fall back asleep, the
below where the narrator sleeps, the
narrator begins to tell herself a
foundation of the house creaks
bedtime story.
slightly.
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 In the narrator’s story, a loving “that wise old witch,” had warned
husband and wife and their beloved them to not just hire anyone off the
little boy are “living happily ever after” street. The family has medical
in a suburban house. The little boy has insurance and disaster insurance, and
a cat and a dog, both of whom he loves they’re members of the local
dearly. The family has a trailer for Neighborhood Watch Organization,
camping and a swimming pool that’s hence the plaque reading, “YOU HAVE
enclosed bya fence to prevent the little BEEN WARNED” that’s affixed to
boy from falling in and drowning. The their front gates. On the plaque is the
housemaid is "absolutely trustworthy." silhouette of a masked intruder, but it’s
and their “itineran3 gardener” came impossible to tell if he’s black or white,
highly recommended—after all the which “therefore proved the property
husband’s mother, owner was no racist.”

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 The one thing the family’s To appease his wife—and because
insurance doesn’t cover, however, is extreme violence is taking place just
riot damage. But the riots take place outside the city—the man has
outside of city limits, where black electronically controlled gates
people are “quartered,” and black installed in front of the house,
people are only allowed into the suburb complete with a speaker system that
as “reliable housemaids and gardeners.” allows visitors to relay a message to
Still, the wife fears that “such people” someone inside the house. The little
might one day invade their suburb and boy is delighted and uses it as a
surge through their front gates; her walkie-talkie when he plays cops and
husband reminds her that law robbers with his friends.
enforcement officers have guns and
tear gas “to keep them away.”
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 Burglaries begin taking place across and the little boy’s cat sets off the alarm
the suburb, and the couple’s housemaid at night.
knows of a fellow housemaid who was
tied up and locked in a cupboard by The neighbors’ alarm systems are also
robbers while her employers were gone. triggered by cats or mice. Alarms go off so
This worries the couple’s housemaid frequently in the suburbs that they begin
because she, too, is often left alone in the to sound like cicadas or frogs humming in
house and in charge of her employers’ the background of everyday life. Thieves
possessions. She implores the couple to take advantage of this and carry out their
add security bars on the windows and robberies while the alarms are blaring so
doors and to invest in an alarm system; that homeowners don’t hear them coming
and going, arms laden with jewels,
the wife agrees, and the extra security
television sets, and expensive clothing.
features are promptly installed. The
family now sees the sky and nature
outside through metal bars,
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 Eventually, other black people besides over the wall into the garden, the wife
just “trusted housemaids and gardeners” begin suggests that they make the wall higher. For
loitering in the suburbs, looking for work—but Christmas, the husband’s mother, “the wise
the man and his wife heed to the husband’s old witch,” gifts the couple with extra bricks
mother’s warning about not hiring people off for their wall. The little boy receives a book
the streets. Moved by the sight of people of fairytales and a Space Man costume.
begging, the woman orders the housemaid to
bring them bread and tea, but the housemaid The robberies and intrusions continue
refuses, insisting that the beggars are tsotsis in the suburb at all hours of the day and
(criminals) who will tie her up. The husband night. One day, as the husband and wife
agrees and tells his wife that she would only be discuss this, they watch the little boy’s cat
“encouraging them” and that “They are looking effortlessly scale the seven-foot wall. The
for their chance.” side of the wall facing the street is marked
up with the cat’s paw prints—as well as the
When the husband realizes that the outline of the kind of shabby running shoes
electronic gates, alarm system, and security that the loiterers in the suburb wear.
bars won’t prevent an intruder from climbing
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 Later, the man and his wife take the little boy the length of the house. Each coil is spiked with
and his dog out for a walk around the neighborhood. jagged razor-sharp thorns, ensuring that anyone
While the couple used to leisurely admire their who tries to climb up the coils—or even climb out
neighbors’ roses or perfectly manicured lawns, they of the coil—will immediately be shredded to bits
now scrutinize their neighbors’ various security in “a struggle getting bloodier and bloodier.”
systems. Some people have opted for the utilitarian
option of shards of glass embedded in concrete walls, The next day, workmen from the Dragon’s
while other neighbors attempt to blend spears, iron Teeth security company install the razor wire on
grilles, and lances into their specific architectural the house where the family is “living happily ever
styles. When the little boy runs ahead, the husband after.” Now wrapped in metal, the house gleams
and wife discuss the pros and cons of each security harshly in the sun. The husband assures his wife
system. that the metal will weather over time and take on
a softer look, but she tells him that he’s wrong—
Eventually, the husband and wife settle on a the metal is weather-proof. They both hope that
security system that is by far the ugliest of them all the cat won’t try to scale the walls anymore.
—it looks ike something out of a concentration Luckily, the cat stays either in the little boy’s bed
camp—but is hopefully the most effective in or in the garden and doesn’t try to climb.
warding off intruders. The security system consists
of a series of metal coils attached all the way up
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 At night, the woman reads the little gardener come running first, screaming, and
boy the story of Sleeping Beauty from the the gardener tries unsuccessfully to get the
book of fairytales that the husband’s mother little boy out, badly wounding his own
got him for Christmas. The following day, the hands in the process.
little boy pretends to be the brave Prince who
must fight his way through a dense thicket of The husband and wife come running
thorns in order to get to Sleeping Beauty and out next, and the house alarm begins to
awaken her with a kiss. Deciding that the blare, most likely set off yet again by the
new razor wire wall will be the perfect cat. The little boy’s body, now a “bleeding
thicket of thorns, the little boy lugs a ladder mass” is “hacked out” of the razor wire with
over to the way and wriggles into a coil. several types of heavy equipment. The man,
his wife, the housemaid, and the gardener
Immediately, the razor thorns dig into carry “it” into the house.
the little boy’s skin, and he screams in agony,
inadvertently entangling himself deeper and
deeper into the wire. The housemaid and
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 Interpretation

The title of the story itself “Once This shows that the son was
Upon a Time” perhaps innocent and is not aware of the
significant as the readers would world around him and do not
expect it to be a happy ending fully understand that all the
story, however it is not the case security that surrounds their
with the son killed after trying house is not possibly safe.
to re-enact a story that his
mother had read to him. 1
It also highlights the insecurities The short story was trying to
of the husband and wife when convey that fear can result to
they examine all the security devastating consequences when
systems in the neighborhood and one
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overreacts to fear or
feel that they must have the same perceived danger.
too, without realizing that they
are turning their home into
prison.
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Presented by Group 1:

AMBROSIO, VANESSA A.
ANDAYA, CRISTINA KYLE M.
1
ASTILLERO, ANN PRINCESS C.
ASUNCION, MARK B.
ASUNIO, FRANCIS O.
BAGALAY, PIOLO U.
BARBIRAN, MARIA CRISTINA S.
BARLONGO, ALGINE BABES B.
BERMUDEZ, DANILYN K.