Once Upon a time by Nadine Gordimer

Summary
Nadine Gordimer's "Once Upon a Time" opens with a frame story involving the author herself. It takes place at a point in her career when she has been asked to compose a short story for a children’s book as part of her "duty" as a writer. She rejects that idea, however, on the grounds of artistic freedom: no artist, she thinks, should ever be compelled to create a work on demand.

After she presents this note of defiance, Gordimer lies asleep in her bed when a strange sound awakens her. Thinking that an intruder has entered her home, she remains quiet and scared, “staring at the door...the arrhythmia of my heart...fleeing.” Contemplating all the possible options and outcomes, Gordimer eventually realizes that the naturally creaky condition of her floorboard made the noise and that there was no imminent threat to her safety except for the one she imagined. Because she is unable to fall back asleep, she begins to tell herself a "bedtime story."

Gordimer's bedtime story is told from the third-person point of view and concerns a husband, a wife, and their little boy. She describes the family’s great love for one another—a love that for them is reflected in their financial security, suburban home, material possessions, and hired servants. As they live out their dream of happiness and material wealth, the husband’s mother, described as a “wise old witch,” suggests that the family should take all necessary measures to protect themselves. The family first follows her advice by joining a medical benefit society, licensing the family dog, and taking out various insurance policies. In addition, the family joins a neighborhood watch organization that gives them a plaque for the gates of their home; the plaque reads “YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.”

The family begins to fear for their safety as riots occur in another part of the city, the part where “people of another color” live. Although such people are not allowed entrance into the protected suburb except as hired servants, the wife is fearful of this outside world of riots, crime, violence, and chaos. In order to soothe her worries, the husband has a security wall and electronic gates constructed around their home.

The rise of burglaries in the family’s suburb causes a new fear. In a neighboring home, the maid was bound and gagged while thieves plundered the house. To guard against such crime as well as to protect their maid, the family has metal bars installed on every window and a highly sensitive burglar alarm activated. The alarm is set off from the slightest movement, even from the family cat, and it frequently triggers other burglar alarms in the neighborhood.

Despite these measures, burglaries continue in the suburb. Intruders use the cacophonous sounds of multiple burglar alarms to saw through the bars of homes. Homeowners begin to distrust and dismiss their servants, which leads to groups of formerly employed people loitering around the streets of the suburbs. Although the family does not dismiss theirs, they do limit the time when their staff work at the home. Noticing this growing trend of the congregated unemployed, the husband surmises that a group of them could scale the gates and wall and gain entry into the family's home. The wife supports the husband’s decision to make the wall higher, and the husband’s mother helps by purchasing additional bricks. She gives the bricks to the family as a Christmas present, along with a book of fairy tales for the little boy.

Crime in the neighborhood continues increasing at all times of the day. While discussing this alarming trend, the husband and wife are concerned when they see the ease with which the family cat is able to climb over the raised wall. They think that if a cat can climb with such freedom, anyone could. Not sure how to counter this disturbing realization, they take a walk with the little boy and the family dog, observing how other neighbors have addressed the problem. They notice a device on top of one wall that consists of a series of jagged shards of metal on a wire coil. The family thinks this will be an effective deterrent and decides to install one on top of their wall.

Feeling secure in the measures taken to protect her family, the mother reads a fairy tale to the boy about a prince who climbs through a thicket of thorns to bring Sleeping Beauty back to life. The next day, the boy recognizes the jagged shards on the wall as representative of his own thicket, and he attempts to scale them in an attempt to duplicate the heroic deeds of the prince. The boy becomes ensnared in the metal coil, cut and stabbed and torn by the jagged shards. As he struggles and screams in agonizing pain, he becomes further trapped in the coil of metallic shards. As they hear the screaming, the husband and wife are horrified to see the gardener trying to free the mangled body of their child. The cat sets off the alarm as the boy’s lifeless body is brought into the home.

Themes
Fear of “The Other”

The family in "Once Upon a Time" is depicted as having an overwhelming fear of the outside world. Gordimer is pointed about the fact that the suburb in which the family lives is white, wealthy, and predicated on exclusion. Gordimer ironically implies that the family itself is not overtly or consciously racist, because the plaque that hangs over their gates features a silhouetted, race-neutral intruder who is masked: “it could not be said if he was black or white, and therefore proved the property owner was no racist.” However, the fear the husband and wife have is centered on the supposed criminal element that resides in the neighborhood “outside the city, where people of another color are quartered.”

The family takes incremental steps to protect themselves from crime, a representation of the unknown other. The measures begin with the desire for security, but throughout the story, they progressively become initiatives taken out of an unreasonable and excessive fear that creates a vortex around the family. The husband and wife become more afraid of the burglaries that affect their neighbors; they regulate the hours of their domestic staff, and they withdraw from the world. As their fear increases, the measures they take reflect their consuming isolation, an isolation that also affects their entire community:

When the man and wife and little boy took the pet dog for its walk round the neighborhood streets they no longer paused to admire this show of roses or that perfect lawn; they were hidden behind an array of different varieties of security fences, walls, and devices.

Gordimer makes the point that in the modern world, continued fear of the unknown is not sustainable. To underscore that point, Gordimer is fond of using the following quote from philosopher Antonio Gramsci:

The old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum there arises a great diversity of morbid symptoms.

Such an idea gains greater significance within the South African setting of "Once Upon a Time." Gordimer is explicit in her belief that apartheid and its accompanying social stratification are representative of “the old [that] is dying.” What will replace it is unknown, and the family’s fear is that precise hesitancy toward a new that “cannot be born.” The experiences of the family’s preoccupation with safety can be seen in a larger sense in how white South Africa will address and understand a post-apartheid world, a setting in which “the other” cannot be pushed aside with walls, electronic gates, or placards that read “YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.”

In the frame story that opens "Once Upon a Time," Gordimer herself is confronted with the fear of crime, her own fear of the unknown. She experiences the same anxiety as the family in the main story. However, the primary difference is that she is able to explain through logic and reasoning the strange sound she heard and the worries she experienced. Through the theme of the other, Gordimer might be arguing that the discipline of shedding fears and preconceptions will be the best way to allow the “new” to be born while avoiding “the great diversity of morbid symptoms.”

Perfection and Destruction

The theme of pursuing perfection to the point of self-destruction is explored in many important works. Mary Shelley’s development of this theme in Frankenstein can be seen through Victor, who seeks to utilize science in the absolute creation of perfection, the results of which prove to be disastrous. In Madame Bovary, Flaubert’s heroine, Emma, seeks to make her dreams a reality, and in the process she sows the seeds of her own and her family’s destruction. Gordimer continues this thematic tradition with her portrayal of the family in "Once Upon a Time." Situated in an affluent suburb and not lacking material wealth, the family attempts to create a realm of perfection as they live the “perfect life.” They determine that the possibility of crime from the outside world, or their fear of “the other,” is the one element that prevents them from recognizing their vision of perfection. Their consuming pursuit of an ideal world leads to their inevitable destruction in the form of the son's death.

As a character in "Once Upon a Time," Gordimer proves to be willing to forgo the dream of perfection, and she understands that living with some level of fear and "the unknown," whether it is in the reality of the outside world or in the sound of a creaking floorboard, is an inevitable component of living in the modern world.

Characters
The Husband

The husband is committed to the safety and happiness of his family. He is depicted as a caring husband and father and the ultimate provider. He takes perceived threats to heart, and he acts on what he sees as anything that would constitute a danger to the safety of his family. At the beginning of the story, he does not immediately embrace his wife’s initial suggestion of building the gates and wall around their home. Yet he does so “to please her—for he loved her very much.” After this suggestion, he initiates most of the security measures taken. When the final measure has been enacted, the husband is confident that his family will be protected, a confidence that is quickly shattered by his son's death.

The Wife
The wife is portrayed as a loving mother and devoted wife. She is very concerned with the issue of security, and she is the first to suggest that the family begin the process of investing in enhanced measures to safeguard their home. After this initial suggestion, the wife is compliant with each subsequent measure enacted, reverting to a familiar refrain that it is essential to “take heed of advice.” Although the wife capitulates to any suggestion of security, she possesses a great deal of compassion for others. When the number of unemployed workers outside her home increases, she sends tea and bread for them, because “the wife could never see anyone go hungry.” Like her husband, she is caught painfully unaware of the inevitable consequence of all the security measures she has approved.

The Mother-in-Law

Described as a “wise old witch,” she appears only twice in the story. The first time, she warns the husband not to “take on anyone off the street.” This begins the family’s entry into the vortex of greater security measures. During her second appearance, she gives the family two fateful Christmas presents: (1) more stones to increase the size of the home's protective wall, and (2) the fairy tale book, which inspires the boy to climb the wall and enter the thicket of shards, leading to his death.

The Housemaid

The housemaid is a peripheral character. Although her race is not directly mentioned, the implication is that she is a person of color. She is described as “absolutely trustworthy” and feeds the family’s fear of the outside world. After a fellow housemaid is bound during a recent burglary, she implores her employers to have bars attached to the home’s doors and windows and an alarm system installed. The housemaid then tries to dissuade the wife from giving bread and tea to the former workers who loiter outside the home. The housemaid suggests that “they are loafers and would come and tie her [the housemaid] up and shut her in a closet.” The housemaid’s wails and screams at the story’s conclusion are what cause the husband and wife to burst into the courtyard.

Nadine Gordimer
Gordimer herself occupies a role in the story. In the frame narrative, she is awakened from her sleep by an alarming sound. The sound causes her much consternation and creates a sense of anxiousness about its implications. Her mind races th rough thoughts of impending intruders, recent criminal activity in her neighborhood, and fears for her safety. After realizing that her fears are unfounded and that the sound is the floorboard creaking, she demonstrates the rational approach that is needed in dealing with the insecurity prompted by the outside world. Through her methodical approach, it is suggested that such a method would have served the family well in addressing their fears of “the unknown other.”

Critical Context

Critics have primarily read "Once Upon a Time" as a continuation of the ideas to which Gordimer has remained steadfastly committed. Much of Gordimer’s writing in the late-1980s to 1990s sought to highlight how white South Africa could work toward a post-apartheid future. For Gordimer, literature is an instrument that can help a society rooted in hypocrisy transform into one that is just, fair, and tolerant.

Thematically, “Once Upon a Time” is very reminiscent of her novella “Something Out There” in which a mysterious beast wreaks havoc and confusion in the suburbs of Johannesburg. In a review of the novella, Salman Rushdie suggests that one of Gordimer’s overriding themes is that “White South Africans have no need of dream-ogres: it is reality that they fear, and the something out there is the future.” Critics have seen this theme as recurrent in many of her works, “Once Upon a Time” in particular because its characters' internal fears constitute a greater threat than any external force.