Family Unit- Once Upon a Time

Once Upon a Time

By: Nadine Gordimer

Simple writing and literary pieces can at times possess the greatest messages. Nadine Gordimer uses such a technique in her short story, Once Upon a Time, to satirize culture and society. In telling a fairytale story of a seemingly happy and perfectly protected family, Gordimer presents the idea that obsessive precautions can lead to the undesired outcome which one attempts to avoid.

The family, well-off and safely insured in nearly every possible way works diligently throughout the whole story to build-up and establish the most intruder-proof protection imaginable and available. Yet, their attempts to protect the family leads ultimately to harm as the young son, in acting out a story of his own, falls upon the iron bars of the “dragon teeth” placed to keep intruders out. This ironic conclusion to the bedtime story satirizes the idea that society attempts to make itself “comfortable” and “safe,” but that at times these attempts are so obsessive and unlimited that they lead to the opposite result.  This idea is additionally satirized by the narrator themself in the introduction as the narrator states “I couldn’t find a position in which my mind would let go of my body. So I began to tell myself a bedtime story (Page 232).” Fearing an intruder in their house and attempting to make oneself feel “comfortable” and “safe,” the narrator tells themself a fairytale whose ending ironically would only provide worse nightmares. Thus, the idea that society is at times is own enemy is presented fully both within and as a result of the story.