Once Upon A Time Summary

Introduction
Nadine Gordimers Once Upon a Time opens 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 discards the idea, however on the grounds of artistic freedom: no artist, Gordimer thinks should ever be obliged to create a piece on demand. After she presents this note of insolence, Gordimer lies asleep in her bed when a strange awakens her. Thinking that an intruder has entered her home, she remains quiet and scared, “I was staring at the door, making it out in my mind rather than seeing it, in the dark. I lay quiet still-a victim- but the arrhythmia of my heart was fleeing…” Considering all

Gordimer uses figurative language to convey messages and alert people of critical issues. We will be looking at how she has used figurative language and figurative aspects to convey a message. For this particular short story Nadine Gordimer has used a title that everyone is used to and one where people can predict the ending, however the author has used a title that is ironical. Tis title is ironical because “Once Upon a Time” is a conventional fairy tale story which usually end with a happy ending. Unfortunately, in this particular short story the reader realises that “Once upon a Time” written by Gordimer does not have a happy ending instead it ends in a disastrous manner. The author played with words with regards to the title of the story hence the reader only realises that this is bot the normal fairy tale while reading the story. Once Upon a Time is a story written in a satirical tone, whereby the author ridicules the white class hegemony. The author goes to the lengths of in forming the reader’s about the dangerous outcomes of the white class supremacy. The author also satirises the apartheid system of segregation –how this system divided small groups in communities according to racial basis. The message conveyed the author is her trying to make people aware and to visualise how the apartheid could be destructive for both whites and