Once Upon a Time
Nadine Gordimer
The short story was seemingly conjured up by Gordimer purely out of spite all because someone suggested she should write a children's story. The story begins much like a fairy tale with a happy family in a happy neighborhood. The problem lies within the sense of wanting to stay happy. Burglaries have happened in the neighborhood so residents progressively take more sever precautions to maintain a sense of safety. The high fences, electronic locks, and alarm systems both polluted the neighborhood and became a part of it. When one alarm system would go off, it usually set off the entire block's alarm systems "so that the din roused the inhabitants of the suburb no more than the croak of frogs..." (Gordimder 234, 235). The plaques that were mounted on every fence stated YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, which seemed to foreshadow how those who put up the security systems were truly the ones being warned. As they put up more defense against criminals, they caged themselves into a dangerous castle. The cage that the family had built ended up only harming the son of the family, nearly mutilating him as he struggled to get out. The story ends referring back to the initial concept of happily ever after, except the family is joined together in mourning within a chaotic lifestyle.
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