“Once Upon a Time” by Nadine Gordimer

The short story, “Once Upon a Time,” by Nadine Gordimer takes a rather unconventional twist on the characteristics and aspects of children’s fairytale stories. While reading the story, it seems as though the author is writing a strange, society-focused story. In the story, the members of a suburb have had some burglaries, so they begin to add more and more security measures out of the fear that they will be next. However, many aspects of children’s fairytales break through. The story mentions an old witch, who is actually the husband in the story’s mother. Just as in classic fairytales, she is portrayed to be wise and even a little ominous in her warning to “not take anyone off the street,” (Gordimer, 232) as they might cause a burglary. Furthermore, later on in the story, the witch gives her grandson a fairytale book, which in effect results in the conflict of the story. The story ends with the death of the grandson, after he tries to reenact the daring rescue of a princess that he read about in his fairytale book. His desire for adventure and bravery contradicts his parent’s fear of a home attack, and in the end it is their fear that kills him. The parents wrap their house in barbed wire called “Dragon’s Teeth,” another allusion to fairytales, yet in the end, it is the dragon that slays the little boy when he gets caught in the wire and torn up. Although the story does not seem like a fairytale at first, Gordimer incorporates aspects of fairytales in order to get her point across.