BBL 3201 INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL APPRECIATION

ASSIGNMENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This paper is about Nadine Gordimer’s “Once Upon a Time”, where I have to

analysis some of the literary terms and present it in an essay form. First of all, I

would like to thank Dr. Wan Roselezam for her support and guidelines. With her

guidelines and support, I am able to understand the need of the question and the

story itself. The explanations that Dr. Wan Roselezam gave to me are easily

understood by me and it helps me analyze the whole story and be able to write this

essay. The analysis are written majorly by referring to the notes and in-class

discussion that done by Dr. Wan Roselezam together with my classmates. Again I

would like to show my great appreciation on her effort to make me clearly

understand the story well and thank you for all the explanation, discussions and the

guidelines.

PREPARED BY:
R.SUDHEEP (B10127)
B.A ENGLISH (Executive) Sem 5/2009
 BBL 3201 INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL APPRECIATION
ASSIGNMENT

NADINE GORDIMER’S “ONCE UPON A TIME”

This essay is about the literary analysis of Nadine Gordimer’s “Once Upon a

Time”. She wrote this short story during 1991. Before analyzing the short story, it is

better to know the cultural background of the writer/author and the cultural context of

the story itself.

Nadine Gordimer, best known for her contribution in the field of literature. The

winner of the Nobel Prize for literature back in 1991 wrote plenty of short story,

essays and novels about South Africa, where she grew up since she was fifteen. Her

works are normally connected to the optimism and pessimism in accord with the

changing nature of Africa. Her work was often banned from her own country because

she will condemn the political system of her country.

The cultural context of the story was the race determined where a citizen

could live, what kind of work you will get, what kind of education you will get, and to

whom you can marry during South Africa’s colour discrimination regime. Powerful

white minority sanctioned racial segregation and political and economic

discrimination against the majority non-whites. During this time, white African

segregated them from the black African and exacerbated the hostility between the

races.

PREPARED BY:
R.SUDHEEP (B10127)
B.A ENGLISH (Executive) Sem 5/2009
 BBL 3201 INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL APPRECIATION
ASSIGNMENT

THEME

In Nadine Gordimer’s “Once Upon a Time”, the most important element is its

theme. The entire story is set about telling its readers that human beings create their

own destruction, as in the family becomes obsessed with installing security devices,

but their plan backfires because in the end their son is killed by their fence.

POINT OF VIEW

The point of view that portrayed in Nadine Gordimer’s “Once Upon a Time” is

the third person omniscient, where the narrator knows a lot about the characters of

the story. Starting from the wife, the husband, the housemaid, the gardener and the

little boy. The narrator even knows about the type of neighbours and neighbourhood

of that place. The narrator also knows about the setting and the political situation of

the certain place where the story was told.

TONE/ATMOSPHERE

In Nadine Gordimer’s “Once Upon a Time”, the most prevailing element is the

tone and atmosphere. The atmosphere of dread that portrayed in this story which

each human has experience at one time in their life, just like the wife experienced in

this story. The tone of this short story is the person vs self conflict and sarcastic to

the contemporary situation during the colour discrimination period @ apartheid

regime.

PREPARED BY:
R.SUDHEEP (B10127)
B.A ENGLISH (Executive) Sem 5/2009
 BBL 3201 INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL APPRECIATION
ASSIGNMENT

PLOT

The story begins with the author presenting a situation in which great fear

exist. She hears a noise and is afraid of a burglar or murderer inside her house.

However, she soon comes to realize that her fear was really just the shifting of the

earth. Then the story comes to a house in a suburb area where a man, wife, little boy

lived in a house. Where swimming pool are fenced so that the little boy would not fall

in and drawn. They had a trustworthy housemaid and itinerant gardener whom

recommended by the neighbours. Their house is well equipped with security devices

and yet the wife seems not satisfied with the level of security they have. This

because there’s riot happening outside their neighbourhood and the wife really

scared and worried that it could happen nearby their house and she want to protect

her family. So she talks to her husband regarding this and to satisfy his wife, the

husband build more and more security features just like high walls around their

compound, electronic controlled gates fitted with intercom for the visitors to tell their

intention of visitation. Even though with all these security features fitted in her house,

the wife still seems unhappy about the security of her house and family and this

didn’t help the wife from worrying about burglars break into their house. They install

an alarm system that attached to all the doors and windows around the house.

Heard of intrusion in broad daylight, the wife and the husband’s mother ask the man

to install iron grilles ending in lance points and twelve inch pikes finned like zigzags

of lightning and painted pure white and a “YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED” silhouette of

a would be intruder. Then for Christmas the mother –in law presents a set of story

PREPARED BY:
R.SUDHEEP (B10127)
B.A ENGLISH (Executive) Sem 5/2009
 BBL 3201 INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL APPRECIATION
ASSIGNMENT

book to her grandchild and some money to her son and daughter –in laws to install

much more cutting edge technology security devices.

The mother of the little boy always tells a bedtime story to her son. One of it was,

sleeping beauty and the prince. Where in this story the prince will take all the efforts

to get and save the princess. The prince went through coiled wire and sharp ends

pines and climb up razor teeth coiled tunnel and high walls just to save her princess.

Finally the prince succeeds in saving the princess from the castle. The little boy

obsessed with the story on how the prince succeeds in went through all the sharp

ends pined wires to save the princess.

The next day, the little boy with his cat tried to imitate the story. The little boy

as the prince climb up his house’s wall fitted with razor sharp teeth coiled wires to

save the princess. While the little boy was climbing, he set off the alarm system; he

stuck in between the razor sharp teeth coiled wires. The poor little boy stuck inside

the fatal bring coiled wire that hurt his knees and hands. His parents, gardener and

housemaid rushed to save the boy. The gardener can’t save the boy and hurt himself

in effort to save the little boy. The boy was ripped of his skin and flesh out from his

body by the cruel sharp teeth coiled wires in front of his own parents. His own

parents are helpless to save their son. They watched helplessly that the boy been

killed can’t do anything. Finally the boy died bleeding with his flesh ripped of his

body.

PREPARED BY:
R.SUDHEEP (B10127)
B.A ENGLISH (Executive) Sem 5/2009
 BBL 3201 INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL APPRECIATION
ASSIGNMENT

IMAGES AND/OR SYMBOLS

The sign “YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED” appears as if to personally warn the

reader about the dangers to come in the story. It mentions an intruder on the sign.

By the end of the story, we realize that this faceless intruder does not have to be a

person at all. Bit could be an internal intruder in our lives. In the case of this family,

the intruder is their inability to pay attention to the important things in life. They allow

themselves to take such an extreme way on security that they lose sight of their son.

The repetition of “YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED” stands to tell readers that this story

is in fact warning them that with each move they make they build their own prison

and bring on their own destruction.

The child dies from the fence, which was meant to protect the family. The gate

speaker/intercom is used by the boy for a walkie talkie, which was meant to use by

the people who have to tell their intention of their visit. The alarm set off, but no one

cares, which was meant to give alert/warning to the owner on any intrusion. The high

wall is mocked by the cat jumping over it. The ultimate destruction is obvious when

the boy was killed by the barbed wire. All these precaution shows that the characters

thought they would die without instead bring on unseen death.

PREPARED BY:
R.SUDHEEP (B10127)
B.A ENGLISH (Executive) Sem 5/2009
 BBL 3201 INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL APPRECIATION
ASSIGNMENT

CONCLUSION

As in conclusion, humans are destroyed by the things that he/she create or do

to protect themselves. No matter how advanced the devices can go, that’s how far

you will have to be cautious. Nadine Gordimer’s “Once Upon a Time”, clearly shows

and depicts these issues in people daily life with less attention given to their kids.

The ultimate security device would be you on how to protect yourself without any

security devices.

PREPARED BY:
R.SUDHEEP (B10127)
B.A ENGLISH (Executive) Sem 5/2009
 BBL 3201 INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL APPRECIATION
ASSIGNMENT

WORK CITED

BOOKS

Kirszner & Mandell, Literature reading;reacting;writing. 6th Edition. Boston: Thomson

Wadsworth, 2007

Hines, Emily, A Literary Analysis of Nadine Gordimer’s “Once Upon a Time”. New

York: Pearson Longman, 2005

PREPARED BY:
R.SUDHEEP (B10127)
B.A ENGLISH (Executive) Sem 5/2009