Once Upon a Time

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1989

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Summary

Story Analysis

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Character Analysis

The Narrator

The unnamed narrator is the protagonist. She is a novelist who has been asked to write a children’s story for an anthology. Gordimer does not provide physical details describing the narrator, except to imply that she is white. Her personality is defiant. When her contact tells her that every novelist should write at least one children's story, she thinks about sending a postcard back saying she does not think she “ought” to write anything (67).

The narrator’s attitude mirrors that of the family in her bedtime story. When she fears an intruder has entered her house, like the family, she thinks about similar crimes that have happened in her area. The family, too, fears an imaginary threat while ignoring the true causes for alarm in their social context. Unlike the family, the narrator has no security systems to protect her. Ironically, the unstable mines under the house—her symbolic reference to the shaky foundations on which apartheid rests—pose a far greater danger than any intruder. This idea misses the narrator, however, as she relaxes and tries to fall back asleep after realizing there is no intruder in the house.

The Imaginary Intruder

The imagined intruder is the story’s antagonist. Gordimer introduces an imaginary character into her narrative to put her characters’ fears into question. The imagined intruder is the antagonist because he (the intruder is presumed to be male) is the one who keeps the main characters from achieving their goal of living a happy and safe life. Fear is an abstract concept; the concept of fear is personified in the individual whom the characters believe is creeping up the stairs or climbing over the wall.

The characters cannot keep the imagined intruder out because he exists in their minds. It may be reasonable to install security systems to deter potential criminals, but in the fairy tale, the suburban residents’ security measures are ineffective. The narrator worries that she lacks adequate home security, but her fear turns out to be unfounded. In both cases, the characters invent their own monsters. For the family, this invention has tragic consequences.

The Husband

The husband in the fairy tale is a loving husband and father. Since the anti-apartheid protests are far from their suburb, at first he tells the wife they do not need extra security. When his wife insists, though, he acquiesces, and gradually becomes more fearful. Soon he too believes they should install more security, especially when he sees the neighbors’ elaborate systems. Like the other characters in the bedtime story, he symbolizes a broader population of people like himself, and demonstrates the consequences of giving in to unreasonable fear.

The Wife

The wife in the fairy tale is a loving wife and mother. From the outset she believes that the violence taking place in the townships will spill into the suburb, and her fear motivates her husband to install more security around their home.

She also has a compassionate side. When unemployed people from the townships come into her neighborhood, she wants to help them by offering them bread and tea. The narrator notes that the wife “can never see anyone go hungry,” implying that when impoverished people are out of sight, as they usually are, the wife is not concerned about them. The wife makes sure to keep her distance from the people from the townships, asking the housemaid to bring the food in her stead. When the housemaid refuses, the wife’s attitude changes, and she suggests they build a higher wall to keep out the “loafers and tsotis,” or thugs, as the housemaid calls them (70). Like everyone else in the fairy tale, the wife is more concerned about her family’s welfare than the welfare of those outside her gate.

The Boy

The boy’s main goal is to play and have fun. He is vibrant and carefree and has an active imagination. He is innocent of the escalating violence and fear around him.

His family’s new security systems fascinate the boy. His games parallel the imagined intruders against whom his parents ward themselves. The cops and robbers game he plays with the electronic gate and the prince braving the thicket of briars in the razor wire are both examples of the simplistic hero versus villain scenarios that his parents are playing out in the real world.

His death is ironic and tragic because he becomes ensnared in the trap his parents set for the imaginary intruder in an effort to keep the boy safe.

The Housemaid

The housemaid’s main trait is her trustworthiness. She is Black, from the same socioeconomic background as those who are protesting apartheid in the townships, but her loyalty is to the white family who employs her. She identifies with a fellow housemaid whom burglars tied up and put into a closet. Though the narrator does not describe the housemaid’s feelings outright, the housemaid fears that the white family would blame her for taking part in such a robbery because she is responsible for the house, the family’s possessions, and their son when the parents are out. The housemaid has no sympathy for the jobless people outside the gate because her employment gives her a higher socioeconomic status than theirs, despite her race.

The housemaid is the first person to find the boy when he becomes tangled in the security coil, because she is more attentive to the boy than his parents. The narrator describes her as hysterical as she helps carry the boy’s body into the house, while the parents display no emotional reaction