Cindy
Choi
Mr.
McCandless
Period
F
30
September 2013
The Truth Underneath
"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream". Edgar Allen's famous quote describes people's natural state of delusional fear. In the short story
“Once Upon A Time” by Nadine Gordimer, a normal, nondescript 20th century
family pursues a life of happiness in an unidentified suburb. The husband,
wife, grandmother and son seem just like everyone else in their gated white
community, safely segregated from the social unrest that plagues their colored
neighbors. In a vain attempt to protect themselves from the backlash of their
own ignorant and negligent treatment of their fellow man, the husband and wife
fortify their home and focus their attention on paranoid fears, which
ironically endangers their own family and ensures that none will live happily
ever after. Gordimer's layering of situational and dramatic irony throughout
this "fairy" tale demonstrates the tragic consequences that derive
from passing down notions of fear and false security across generations.
The white family in
this story attempts to protect themselves from what they perceive as black
people rioting due to their uncivilized, inferior character, seemingly unaware
of their contribution to and responsibility for the years of social and
economic oppression that truly causes such revolutions, as with Apartheid in
South Africa. “It was not possible to insure the house, the swimming-pool or
the car against riot damage. There were riots, but these were outside the city,
where people of another color were quartered. These people, judging them only
by their external traits were not allowed into the suburb except as reliable
housemaids and gardeners, so there was nothing to fear, the husband told the
wife.” (Gordimer 164). Despite how much the family distrusts and fears the people
living outside the city, they ironically employ a few chosen members of this
segregated majority as housemaids and gardeners, trusting them to care for
their homestead and their family. The rioting that occurs is a result of historic inequality
and social unrest between the two groups of the social class and the affluent
community is caught by surprise because of their lack of awareness to their surroundings.
The husband’s crass remarks and his old mother’s warnings extinguish the wife’s
redeeming shred of morality when she tries to offer some basic humanity. “You
only encourage them with your bread and tea. They are looking for their
chance.” (Gordimer 165). The family judges people by their possession of assets,
but ignores the truth of their situation and character. As the husband reminds
his wife, the wealthy, white elite “keep themselves safe” by trying to further
the segregation between the people who are affluent and the people who are not,
and by abandoning any sense of moral or social responsibility. Yet, in fact,
the segregation between the two groups of people is the primary cause of the
violent riots and of the prevailing culture of distrust it preserves. The
wealthy people in the story fail to solve the problems they have created, and
instead, only try to cover up the situation by running away and trying to
ignore it, which demonstrates the ironic mood that Gordimer illustrates in
cautioning readers against the cycles of fear and injustice.
The family fails to
notice the important internal details within their own home because they are
constantly paranoid by their delusional fear of having their possessions
stolen. The family’s attempt to protect themselves by securing their
physical house, instead of their own priceless lives, further illustrates
that the only danger they really needed protection from was their own paranoia.
The husband and wife only focus on the external security of their homestead
instead of paying attention to their own family dynamics and happy quality of
life. “A certain family was at dinner while the bedrooms were being ransacked upstairs.
The man and his wife, talking of the latest armed robbery in the suburb, were
distracted by the sight of the little boy’s pet cat.” (Gordimer 165). The
protagonist's son is killed by the same security traps that are meant for the
criminals. His death further demonstrates that his family focused more on protecting
their property than on the quality or happiness within their lives. The son’s death further
reveals that the family only cares about keeping property that could be
replaced from harm and not the things that really matter and are irreplaceable,
like their son. Gordimer writes as if the son is a mere material by using
the word “it”. Clearly the parents do not react as loving parents. In fact, the
housemaid and the gardeners are actually the people who are running to
help/save the boy from the barbed wire and who genuinely mourn over the boy’s
death. In the end, the family lost their most valued possession because of
their ignorance and their mistake of putting importance in protecting materials
that were replaceable instead of in nurturing their only child.
“Once Upon A Time”
tells the ironic tale of a family who focuses too much on their possessions and
not enough on their most precious gift- their child. In their attempt to
protect the things they “owned” from people they did not trust, the family’s
blind ignorance results in the loss of what they should have focused on all
along - their son. Gordimer uses irony and sets an ominous mood to help the
reader understand the moral of the story.
My overall problem of the essay was that it was extremely choppy and did not guide or engage the reader to my ideas. I learned to constantly tie my essay back to the topic sentence and the thesis statement. I feel that I am struggling a lot with putting my ideas into words. The hardest problem to fix was making it sound more fluent, which leads to organization. Organization is another big issue I have, which I'm trying to fix. I think this essay helps as a milestone for me to see where I am and how I should improve. Through out the year, I'm going to try to work on my organization. I think that is the biggest problem for me, having a good flow.
