Exploration Of Social Issues In Once Upon A Time Essay Example For Students

Exploration Of Social Issues In Once Upon A Time Essay Once Upon a Social Issue 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 everyones childhood. When Nadine Gordimer was asked to write a childrens 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, societys insecurities, and the persuasive way fairy tales have with children. Gordimers 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 own insecurities. Gordimer writes, I have no burglar bars, no gun under the pillow, but I have the same fears as people who do take these precautions So, to better convey this issue of societys insecurities, she tells herself a bedtime story. In the story, there is a family who is living happily ever after, yet is seems it is all that they can do to keep it that way. Rather than putting their insecurities aside and getting on with their lives, they feel that they must put their trust in security devices to protect their selves. For a short while, the family has a sense of security by posting a plaque stating YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED over the silhouette of a prospective intruder. After a short time the familys psychological need for more security calls for a number of new security devices in order to sustain the top level of security. It is in the familys pursuit of this security that they virtually imprison themselves. After the installation of burglar bars, Gordimer describes the view from every window and door in the house where they were living happily ever after they now saw the trees and sky through bars. 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 didnt 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. Gordimers statement of riots outside of the city was also supporting evidence toward racism in this place. The only black people that were allowed in the suburbs were those considered to be trustworthy gardeners or housemaids, and soon the trustworthy were not the only black people to be loitering around the suburb. Gordimer writes of the community stating it was a beautiful suburb, spoilt only by the black peoples presence. With the coming of these undesired guests, the familys sense of security begins to weaken yet again. In order to further suppress their insecure feelings, they decide to raise the walls surrounding the property to a height of seven feet. Later, after finding footprints that were not their own on the street side of the wall, the familys sense of security was further diminished. As a final attempt at gaining complete security, the family pondered the addition of even more protection for their outside wall. The familys pursuit of a mental security booster was finished when they lined the outside walls with razor wire that formed an unconquerable barrier. Gun Control misc6 Essay 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 .