There must be an opening of Once upon a time in most of classical story and end with happily ever after. If you have read this short story by Nadine Gordimer, you might swallow your saliva for so many times. Why? Hahaha. Let me simplify and give some kind of summary to this short story.
Actually the short story starts with the writer can’t sleep and actually been told to write a children’s story but she refuses to do that. However, she found herself with awakening eye because she heard sounds. So, she starts telling herself a bedtime story about a family that lives in a town where everybody thrives for maximum security of the outside world. The neighbourhood seeks for protection for the homeless, thieves and crooks that roam in the streets. Still, they end up hurting the one that they love the most.
But, in this story the “best thing” that I actually want to interpret is the irony of the little boy tragic moment. Basically, there were a lot of things that were so “IRONY” in this story. At first, I thought that the story is like a typical fairytale story with the title, “Once Upon A Time”, which is the epitome of a fairy tale; it is the most familiar opening line. The language that the writer uses is simplistic, the story is full of simple vocabulary, and has very simple sentence structure. The author also makes use of repetition. The phrases, "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED," and "living happily ever after" are repeated several times throughout the story. This simplistic language is often seen in fairy tales because it makes them easy to understand. She uses this simple language to create a fairy tale to explain the horrors of apartheid ("the status of being apart") was a system of racial segregation enforced through legislation.
There are a lot of irony elements that had been installed at the end of the story. In the tragic moment, based on the story; because of the fairy tale that his mother told him, he acted to be a prince to save the sleeping beauty that need a lot of sacrifice and bravery. So, the little boy used a ladder to climb up the wall and his little body crept into the coiled tunnel that consists of sharp razor. Starting from his knees with his hands and head the razor-teeth-like had piercing in. The little boy tried hard to escape, but his body trapped and is getting deeper into its tangle. The more he moves to escape, the more he looks like a rat in a mouse-trap. Now, the boy’s flesh is being twisted like juices; by the coils around the tunnel. The housemaid and the gardener hastened to the boy and they were the first ones that saw the boy cried out painfully. The gardener tried to pull him out, but he eventually tore his own hands. Finally, they took the pieces of the boy’s meat out and they all felt extremely horrified.
The first reason that causes the boy’s tragic moment is the parents’ fault (fear of the outsiders). There is one example of irony for the boy: “… the alarm set up wailing against the scream while the bleeding mass of the little boy was hacked out of the security coil with saws, wire-cutter, choppers, and they carried it- the man, the wife, the hysterical trusted housemaid and the weeping gardener- into the house.’’. This sentence gives an example of an irony. The irony is that the devices that were supposed to protect the family create the danger and killed the boy. The little boy was badly injured as a result of all the parents’ precautions. There is also irony in that which is no one to regard the alarms seriously because they went off so often when there was not a threat. Even without having a problem or attempted intrusion, the parents kept getting more security measures being installed. This shows how paranoid they are with their safety. There is also evidence that the parents are hypocritical (being a hypocrite). It seems like their own son’s safety is their primary concern, but they do not recognize the threat that the security system poses to him. Even when they are out walking, (“...While the little boy and the pet dog raced ahead, the husband and wife found themselves comparing the possible effectiveness of each style against its appearance; and after several weeks when they paused before this barricade or that without needing to speak, both came out with the conclusion that only one was worth considering.”) the parents let the son walk ahead with the dog alone. If they were as cautions as they make it seems, they would make their son stay near to them. Actually, their aim is to protect their possessions and property rather than protecting the people inside the house.
Other than that, the second reason is the maid’s hypocrisy. In this story, the maid is one of the coloured people while the family is from white people. Even though she is one of the coloured people that the family fear so much, but she was trusted and highly recommended by the neighbours. “… But the trusted housemaid said these loafers and tsotsis, who would come and tie her up and shut her in a cupboard. The husband said, She’s right. Take heed of her advice.” In this paragraph, it describes that the maid did not want to let the wife give the bread and tea to the outsiders that were poor. She supposed to defend or at least, she should not make bad impressions towards the coloured people which were her own kin. The maid did not want to help her own kin by being prejudice. In addition, the maid also influences the husband and wife to install more security system so that the outsiders will not enter their house. There’s a proof in the story when one of her friends, who was also a maid being tied and kept in a cupboard by thieves in her employer’s house. Thus, the maid asked the husband and wife to have burglar bars attached to their doors and windows, and also install an alarm system because she thinks that she has a responsibility towards her owner’s possessions and their safety.
The third reason is the little boy’s ignorance. The ironic element is “… he dragged a ladder to the wall, the shining coiled tunnel was just wide enough for his little body to creep in, and with the first fixing of its razor-teeth in his knees and hands and head he screamed and struggled deeper into its tangle.. This shows that in this story there are so many dangers lurking in our world, and it is impossible to guard them, so we cannot live in fear. In the story, there are an infinite number of things that threaten the family. The parents and everyone in the neighbourhood are so scared, that they build walls and fences around their home and not just ordinary fences but fences that embedded with sharp glasses and more. While this may or may not keep them safe, it does increase the paranoia and destroys the beauty of the neighbourhood. The family no longer sees the beautiful lawns and elegant homes, but instead observes which protections seem to be more efficient. In the final paragraph, the little boy reads a story of fearless prince, and he aspires to be like him, so he attempts to battle barbed wire, which his parents installed out of hypocritical fear. The irony of this plot twist refers to the theme. By living in fear, the family created a new danger for themselves. Nevertheless, the boy in the story is a victim of all situations. He had not known anything at all, yet he had to bear the consequences that the people around him had planned. At the end of the story, the little boy mangled in the metal mesh and presumably dies. The reader walks away from the end of the story more perceptive, not satisfied and entertained as they might be in commercial fiction which is the happy ending.
Well, the author, Nadine Gordimer actually creates a reverse fairy tale in order to represent her views of apartheid in South Africa. She uses fairy tale elements such as the simple language, conflict between good and evil, and the use of a moral to create her own fairy tale. She also relates her story of Sleeping Beauty. Then, the story shows how foolish people are working on such elaborate superficial elements to combat fear grounded in racism or elitism. She compares the faulty house foundation in her story to the traditional position the system of apartheid has placed everyone in. She also ridicules the building of barriers that do not resolve anything but cause problems and come back to hurt everyone. Through the use of the gold and the fences as symbols of greed and discrimination, she clearly suggests that problems are caused by the very thing that people do not think about: economic repression and racism. Thus, her fairy tale is a fairy tale in reverse which she uses to warn people that no good can come out of the apartheid ways of South Africa.
{So, human beings create their own destruction by being paranoid of something they shouldn't. Okay, let's do that more often. *hehehe}
Actually the short story starts with the writer can’t sleep and actually been told to write a children’s story but she refuses to do that. However, she found herself with awakening eye because she heard sounds. So, she starts telling herself a bedtime story about a family that lives in a town where everybody thrives for maximum security of the outside world. The neighbourhood seeks for protection for the homeless, thieves and crooks that roam in the streets. Still, they end up hurting the one that they love the most.
But, in this story the “best thing” that I actually want to interpret is the irony of the little boy tragic moment. Basically, there were a lot of things that were so “IRONY” in this story. At first, I thought that the story is like a typical fairytale story with the title, “Once Upon A Time”, which is the epitome of a fairy tale; it is the most familiar opening line. The language that the writer uses is simplistic, the story is full of simple vocabulary, and has very simple sentence structure. The author also makes use of repetition. The phrases, "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED," and "living happily ever after" are repeated several times throughout the story. This simplistic language is often seen in fairy tales because it makes them easy to understand. She uses this simple language to create a fairy tale to explain the horrors of apartheid ("the status of being apart") was a system of racial segregation enforced through legislation.
There are a lot of irony elements that had been installed at the end of the story. In the tragic moment, based on the story; because of the fairy tale that his mother told him, he acted to be a prince to save the sleeping beauty that need a lot of sacrifice and bravery. So, the little boy used a ladder to climb up the wall and his little body crept into the coiled tunnel that consists of sharp razor. Starting from his knees with his hands and head the razor-teeth-like had piercing in. The little boy tried hard to escape, but his body trapped and is getting deeper into its tangle. The more he moves to escape, the more he looks like a rat in a mouse-trap. Now, the boy’s flesh is being twisted like juices; by the coils around the tunnel. The housemaid and the gardener hastened to the boy and they were the first ones that saw the boy cried out painfully. The gardener tried to pull him out, but he eventually tore his own hands. Finally, they took the pieces of the boy’s meat out and they all felt extremely horrified.
The first reason that causes the boy’s tragic moment is the parents’ fault (fear of the outsiders). There is one example of irony for the boy: “… the alarm set up wailing against the scream while the bleeding mass of the little boy was hacked out of the security coil with saws, wire-cutter, choppers, and they carried it- the man, the wife, the hysterical trusted housemaid and the weeping gardener- into the house.’’. This sentence gives an example of an irony. The irony is that the devices that were supposed to protect the family create the danger and killed the boy. The little boy was badly injured as a result of all the parents’ precautions. There is also irony in that which is no one to regard the alarms seriously because they went off so often when there was not a threat. Even without having a problem or attempted intrusion, the parents kept getting more security measures being installed. This shows how paranoid they are with their safety. There is also evidence that the parents are hypocritical (being a hypocrite). It seems like their own son’s safety is their primary concern, but they do not recognize the threat that the security system poses to him. Even when they are out walking, (“...While the little boy and the pet dog raced ahead, the husband and wife found themselves comparing the possible effectiveness of each style against its appearance; and after several weeks when they paused before this barricade or that without needing to speak, both came out with the conclusion that only one was worth considering.”) the parents let the son walk ahead with the dog alone. If they were as cautions as they make it seems, they would make their son stay near to them. Actually, their aim is to protect their possessions and property rather than protecting the people inside the house.
Other than that, the second reason is the maid’s hypocrisy. In this story, the maid is one of the coloured people while the family is from white people. Even though she is one of the coloured people that the family fear so much, but she was trusted and highly recommended by the neighbours. “… But the trusted housemaid said these loafers and tsotsis, who would come and tie her up and shut her in a cupboard. The husband said, She’s right. Take heed of her advice.” In this paragraph, it describes that the maid did not want to let the wife give the bread and tea to the outsiders that were poor. She supposed to defend or at least, she should not make bad impressions towards the coloured people which were her own kin. The maid did not want to help her own kin by being prejudice. In addition, the maid also influences the husband and wife to install more security system so that the outsiders will not enter their house. There’s a proof in the story when one of her friends, who was also a maid being tied and kept in a cupboard by thieves in her employer’s house. Thus, the maid asked the husband and wife to have burglar bars attached to their doors and windows, and also install an alarm system because she thinks that she has a responsibility towards her owner’s possessions and their safety.
The third reason is the little boy’s ignorance. The ironic element is “… he dragged a ladder to the wall, the shining coiled tunnel was just wide enough for his little body to creep in, and with the first fixing of its razor-teeth in his knees and hands and head he screamed and struggled deeper into its tangle.. This shows that in this story there are so many dangers lurking in our world, and it is impossible to guard them, so we cannot live in fear. In the story, there are an infinite number of things that threaten the family. The parents and everyone in the neighbourhood are so scared, that they build walls and fences around their home and not just ordinary fences but fences that embedded with sharp glasses and more. While this may or may not keep them safe, it does increase the paranoia and destroys the beauty of the neighbourhood. The family no longer sees the beautiful lawns and elegant homes, but instead observes which protections seem to be more efficient. In the final paragraph, the little boy reads a story of fearless prince, and he aspires to be like him, so he attempts to battle barbed wire, which his parents installed out of hypocritical fear. The irony of this plot twist refers to the theme. By living in fear, the family created a new danger for themselves. Nevertheless, the boy in the story is a victim of all situations. He had not known anything at all, yet he had to bear the consequences that the people around him had planned. At the end of the story, the little boy mangled in the metal mesh and presumably dies. The reader walks away from the end of the story more perceptive, not satisfied and entertained as they might be in commercial fiction which is the happy ending.
Well, the author, Nadine Gordimer actually creates a reverse fairy tale in order to represent her views of apartheid in South Africa. She uses fairy tale elements such as the simple language, conflict between good and evil, and the use of a moral to create her own fairy tale. She also relates her story of Sleeping Beauty. Then, the story shows how foolish people are working on such elaborate superficial elements to combat fear grounded in racism or elitism. She compares the faulty house foundation in her story to the traditional position the system of apartheid has placed everyone in. She also ridicules the building of barriers that do not resolve anything but cause problems and come back to hurt everyone. Through the use of the gold and the fences as symbols of greed and discrimination, she clearly suggests that problems are caused by the very thing that people do not think about: economic repression and racism. Thus, her fairy tale is a fairy tale in reverse which she uses to warn people that no good can come out of the apartheid ways of South Africa.
{So, human beings create their own destruction by being paranoid of something they shouldn't. Okay, let's do that more often. *hehehe}