Analysis on Once Upon a Time

ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE: Plot, Theme, Setting, Point of View, Conflict, and Character Once Upon a Time by Nadine Gordimer I. PLOT a. Exposition - On the first sentence in the story, “Someone has written to ask me to contribute to an anthology of stories for children.”, the author, which is also Nadine Gordimer, was introduced right away as if she was the main character already. The story goes and it led her to a situation (when she can’t sleep) where she was urged to tell herself a bedtime story. Then another introduction of characters was made. “In a house, in a suburb, in a city, there were a man and his wife who loved each other very much and were living happily ever after. They had a little boy, and they loved him very much. They had a cat and a dog that the little boy loved very much. They had a car and a caravan trailer for holidays, and a swimming-pool which was fenced so that the little boy and his playmates would not fall in and drown. They had a housemaid who was absolutely trustworthy and an itinerant gardener who was highly recommended by the neighbors.” b. Rising Action - Rising action of the story goes as the wife is always concerned about their security since their place, specifically their country, isn’t the safest place to live in. Riots, breaking out of houses, thefts and other concerning criminal acts are happening here and there, and the bedtime story’s husband and wife’s main goal is to keep their house safe. They started building bars, making their wall high, setting alarms on certain parts of the house and did other security precautions just to ease their minds. Then there came a day that the husband and wife along with their son, walked their dog outside, instead of appreciating the show of roses or perfect lawns in the neighborhood; they started to compare different varieties of security fences, walls and devices, thinking what would be best to copy and install in their house. One caught their attention… “It was the ugliest but the most honest in its suggestion of the pure concentration-camp style, no frills, all evident efÏcacy. Placed the length of walls, it consisted of a continuous coil of stiff and shining metal serrated into jagged blades, so that there would be no way of climbing over it and no way through its tunnel without getting entangled in its fangs. There would be no way out, only a struggle getting bloodier and bloodier, a deeper and sharper hooking and tearing of flesh.” So, then they installed it in their house. c. Climax - The son gets caught in the razor-blade coils while acting like a prince trying to save his Sleeping Beauty. This happened specifically in this part of the story… “One evening, the mother read the little boy to sleep with a fairy story from the book the wise old witch had given him at Christmas. Next day he pretended to be the prince who braves the terrible thicket of thorns to enter the palace and kiss the Sleeping Beauty back to life: 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.” d. Falling Action - The housemaid and the itinerant gardener come and try to rescue the little boy. The mom and dad attempt to do so as well, but the little boy unfortunately dies. e. Resolution - “the bleeding mass of the little boy was hacked out of the security coil with saws, wire-cutters, choppers, and they carried it-- the man, the wife, the hysterical trusted housemaid and the weeping gardener-- into the house.” A sad ending it is for all the people in the house to carry the dead boy’s body inside the house. II. THEME - Fear and obsession towards security system. It focuses on a family in apartheid-era South Africa who is obsessed with modern security systems. The family constantly tries more effective security systems to protect themselves. It shows that by living in fear, the family created a new danger. III. SETTING - in the writer’s bedroom - highly secured house in a dangerous neighborhood IV. POINT OF VIEW - First POV used: First person POV - Second POV used: Third POV-omniscient V. CONFLICT - Man vs. Society: it shows as there are criminal acts happening in the neighborhood, urging the characters to do things out of fear - Man vs. Himself : the characters’ fear, specifically the husband and wife’s fear is their biggest enemy, it pushed them to do everything just to keep themselves safe, and unknowingly making the danger for their son VI. CHARACTERS - The narrator: Nadine Gordimer - Husband and wife - Son - The housemaid - The itinerant gardener - Pets: cat and dog