Once Upon A Time By Nadine Gordimer

Scary Tales Fairy tales are what generations have grown up with, beginning with the Disney princesses including Red Riding Hood. Nadine Gordimer's short story “Once Upon a Time” started out happy and ended abrupt and depressing. The majority of fairytales have a happy ending and overall teaches a lesson. In most fairy tales, the story begins with the problem and ends in happiness. Irony begins in “ Once Upon A Time” when it starts out with happiness and with the characters being content, and then it switches to the problem at the end which leaves the readers thinking. The story is set in South Africa during the time of Apartheid. Apartheid is a system of segregation/discrimination of race South Africans were subject to in 1948. The government caused this separation between whites
“Once Upon A Time” begins with a family and the unsafe area that they have grown up in. As the story grows, the descriptions add to how Apartheid begins and affects the safety and the family. The family goes through the time period and the readers get to live and understand the suffrage through Gordimer's words. Gordimer expresses her emotions through adding personal experiences from prior living in the area. Through situational irony and symbolism of prevention, Gordimer criticizes the government's separation and inequality to the people. Gordimer shows the emotional impact that Apartheid has on South Africa through situational irony. Situational irony occurs when the opposite of what