Once Upon a Time

by

Nadine Gordimer

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Once Upon a Time makes teaching easy.
One of the protagonists of the second story, the woman is the little boy’s mother and the man’s wife. The woman is far more sensitive and compassionate toward other people’s suffering than her husband is. When she sees black people begging outside the gates of her home, the woman orders the housemaid to bring food out to them, unable to bear seeing anyone go hungry. The housemaid refuses on the grounds that doing so would threaten her own safety—she insists that the beggars are criminals who will tie her up and lock her in the cupboard like they did to a neighbor’s maid—and the husband emphatically agrees. Even though the woman is disheartened, she always ends up siding with her husband when it comes to matters of security, often repeating the line “You are right.” The woman only utters the words “You are wrong” once, right after her husband assures her that the razor wall will weather over time and look less stark; she reminds him that the wall is weather-proof, so it will always look as threatening and shocking as it does now. Given that the razor wall is a symbol for the ruinous logic of apartheid, it seems that the story is saying that the violent apartheid rule won’t simply “weather” or soften over time if people—specifically white people—sit back and do nothing. The woman also ties into the story’s examination of storytelling. While the narrator from the frame story speaks to the importance of telling truthful but unsavory stories, the woman highlights how spinning falsely comforting ones leads to further violence. When the woman tells her son a bedtime story one night about a Prince climbing through a thicket of thorns to rescue Sleeping Beauty and restore her with a kiss, she unintentionally encourages the little boy to play on the razor wall—where he meets his death. The story makes it clear that the couple never has a frank discussion with their son about what the wall is for and what it does; in fact, the woman specifically waits until her son is out of earshot before saying aloud that she hopes the cat will be wise enough to avoid the razor wall.

The Woman / The Wife Quotes in Once Upon a Time

The Once Upon a Time quotes below are all either spoken by The Woman / The Wife or refer to The Woman / The Wife. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Wealth Inequality and Fear Theme Icon
).
Once Upon a Time Quotes

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 neighbours.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Man / The Husband, The Woman / The Wife, The Little Boy / The Son, The Housemaid, The Gardener
Page Number: 23
Explanation and Analysis:

They were […] subscribed to the local Neighbourhood Watch, which supplied them with a plaque for their gates lettered YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED over the silhouette of a would-be intruder. He was masked; it could not be said if he was black or white, and therefore proved the property owner was no racist.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Man / The Husband, The Woman / The Wife
Page Number: 23
Explanation and Analysis:

[…] [The housemaid] implored her employers to have burglar bars attached to the doors and windows of the house, and an alarm system installed. The wife said, She is right, let us take heed of her advice. So from every window and door in the house where they were living happily ever after they now saw the trees and sky through bars, and when the little boy’s pet cat tried to climb in by the fanlight to keep him company in his little bed at night, as it customarily had done, it set off the alarm keening through the house.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Woman / The Wife (speaker), The Little Boy / The Son, The Housemaid
Page Number: 24
Explanation and Analysis:

The wife could never see anyone go hungry. She sent the trusted housemaid out with bread and tea, but the trusted housemaid said these were loafers and tsotsis, who would come and tie her up and shut her in a cupboard. The husband said, She’s right. Take heed of her advice. You only encourage them with your bread and tea. They are looking for their chance…

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Man / The Husband (speaker), The Housemaid (speaker), The Woman / The Wife
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:

When the man and wife and little boy took the pet dog for its walk round the neighbourhood streets they no longer paused to admire this show of roses or that perfect lawn; these were hidden behind an array of different varieties of security fences, walls and devices. […] While the little boy and the pet dog raced ahead, the husband and wife found themselves comparing the possible effectiveness of each style against its appearance […].

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Man / The Husband, The Woman / The Wife, The Little Boy / The Son
Related Symbols: The Razor Wire
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis:

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.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Woman / The Wife, The Little Boy / The Son, The Husband’s Mother
Related Symbols: The Razor Wire
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis:

[…] the alarm set up wailing against the screams while 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.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Man / The Husband, The Woman / The Wife, The Little Boy / The Son, The Housemaid, The Gardener
Related Symbols: The Razor Wire
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Once Upon a Time LitChart as a printable PDF.
Once Upon a Time PDF

The Woman / The Wife Quotes in Once Upon a Time

The Once Upon a Time quotes below are all either spoken by The Woman / The Wife or refer to The Woman / The Wife. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Wealth Inequality and Fear Theme Icon
).
Once Upon a Time Quotes

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 neighbours.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Man / The Husband, The Woman / The Wife, The Little Boy / The Son, The Housemaid, The Gardener
Page Number: 23
Explanation and Analysis:

They were […] subscribed to the local Neighbourhood Watch, which supplied them with a plaque for their gates lettered YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED over the silhouette of a would-be intruder. He was masked; it could not be said if he was black or white, and therefore proved the property owner was no racist.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Man / The Husband, The Woman / The Wife
Page Number: 23
Explanation and Analysis:

[…] [The housemaid] implored her employers to have burglar bars attached to the doors and windows of the house, and an alarm system installed. The wife said, She is right, let us take heed of her advice. So from every window and door in the house where they were living happily ever after they now saw the trees and sky through bars, and when the little boy’s pet cat tried to climb in by the fanlight to keep him company in his little bed at night, as it customarily had done, it set off the alarm keening through the house.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Woman / The Wife (speaker), The Little Boy / The Son, The Housemaid
Page Number: 24
Explanation and Analysis:

The wife could never see anyone go hungry. She sent the trusted housemaid out with bread and tea, but the trusted housemaid said these were loafers and tsotsis, who would come and tie her up and shut her in a cupboard. The husband said, She’s right. Take heed of her advice. You only encourage them with your bread and tea. They are looking for their chance…

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Man / The Husband (speaker), The Housemaid (speaker), The Woman / The Wife
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:

When the man and wife and little boy took the pet dog for its walk round the neighbourhood streets they no longer paused to admire this show of roses or that perfect lawn; these were hidden behind an array of different varieties of security fences, walls and devices. […] While the little boy and the pet dog raced ahead, the husband and wife found themselves comparing the possible effectiveness of each style against its appearance […].

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Man / The Husband, The Woman / The Wife, The Little Boy / The Son
Related Symbols: The Razor Wire
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis:

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.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Woman / The Wife, The Little Boy / The Son, The Husband’s Mother
Related Symbols: The Razor Wire
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis:

[…] the alarm set up wailing against the screams while 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.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Man / The Husband, The Woman / The Wife, The Little Boy / The Son, The Housemaid, The Gardener
Related Symbols: The Razor Wire
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis: