The Fear For One's Life

The Fear For One’s Life Paranoia and fear can really take a toll on one’s life, causing one to harm oneself and others around them. Paranoia is defined as “a mental disorder characterized by systematized delusions and the projection of personal conflicts, which are ascribed to the supposed hostility of others, sometimes progressing to disturbances of consciousness and aggressive acts believed to be performed in self-defense or as a mission.” This definition of paranoia applies to Nadine Gordimer’s characters in her short stories “Once Upon a Time” and “Is There Nowhere Else Where We Can Meet?” Both main characters undergo extreme paranoia, anxiety and fear during apartheid in South Africa. The wife in “Once Upon a Time” imagines crimes that are being committed in her community, which causes all of her paranoia and anxiety. The girl in “Is There Nowhere Else Where We Can Meet?” encounters a man in the woods and gets an irrational fear about him. Both of these characters share similar emotions that put them in difficult situations. Nadine Gordimer’s “Once Upon a Time” is about a paranoid woman, who goes to any length to protect her family from their corrupt society. Ironically, by doing what she thinks will protect them, eventually destroys them. She writes a fairytale about a family who lives in a house, in a suburb, in a city and is living happily ever after (Gordimer 25). Just like every fairytale, there is a wise old witch who gives the family a warning. The witch, the husband’s mother, tells them not to bring anyone off the street into their home (Gordimer 25). This is where she begins to close herself in and creates a dome of protection for her and her family; this is only the beginning. She starts by making her husband put in electronically- controlled gates to secure the house. Her husband believed they were safe but he did it to make her feel safer. Although she had a plaque that read “YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED”, given to them by the Neighborhood Watch and