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Once Upon a Time

minority most of the nation’s land, wealth, and political power;
INTR
INTRODUCTION
ODUCTION gave colored and Indian people limited political rights; and
forced native black Africans to labor in what was effectively a
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF NADINE GORDIMER form of slavery and to live in cramped slums (townships) and
Nadine Gordimer was born in South Africa to a Lithuanian depleted rural areas (homelands or bantustans). Apartheid also
Jewish immigrant father and a Londoner mother. Gordimer was created separate zones for each group to live in—something
kept at home for much of her childhood, as her mom worried that’s gestured to in “Once Upon a Time”—and prohibited
that Gordimer had heart problems. Gordimer took to writing intermarriage between people from the different groups. As
during this time and published her first work of adult fiction by domestic and international opposition to apartheid grew from
the age of 16. After a year studying at the University of the the 1950s through the 1980s, the South African government
Witwatersrand, she moved to Johannesburg and married a became increasingly violent and repressive, slaughtered and
dentist named Gerald Gavron in 1949. The pair had a daughter, imprisoned thousands of dissidents, and even developed
Oriane, the following year but quickly divorced. By the 1950s, nuclear weapons. In conjunction with international sanctions
Gordimer was publishing short stories in prominent against the South African government, the internal anti-
publications including The New Yorker. In 1954, she married an apartheid movement led by organizations including the African
esteemed art dealer named Reinhold Cassirer, and they had a National Congress (ANC) campaigned for equality through
son named Hugo the following year. Reinhold died from both nonviolent methods (protest and civil disobedience) and
emphysema in 2001. Gordimer got involved with the anti- armed resistance. Secret negotiations between the apartheid
apartheid movement in the 1960s, an interest catalyzed by the government and anti-apartheid leaders began in 1987, and the
arrest of her best friend, Bettie du Toit, as well as the National Party began dismantling the apartheid system and
Sharpeville massacre. Gordimer’s friendship with Bram Fischer legalizing opposition parties in 1990, when it also released
and George Bizos—Nelson Mandela’s defense attorneys during prominent ANC leader Nelson Mandela from jail.
his 1962 trial—led Gordimer to work closely with Mandela
himself, editing his impactful “I Am Prepared to Die” speech, RELATED LITERARY WORKS
which he gave from the defendant’s dock at his trial. Around
this time, Gordimer began rose to international acclaim, but the Like “Once Upon a Time,” Cry, The Beloved Country, a novel by
South African government responded by banning several of her anti-apartheid activist Alan Paton, shows how economic
books. While some were banned for only short periods of time, inequality along racial lines sows seeds of mistrust. While
others (like The Late Bourgeois World and A World of Strangers) “Once Upon a Time” largely centers on wealthy white
were banned for a decade or longer. She joined the African neighborhoods, Cry, The Beloved Country charts how non-white
National Congress and even hid in her home members of the people were pushed to the fringes of their own city and forced
ANC evading arrest. She received the Nobel Prize for to live in makeshift camps called shantytowns, which were
Literature in 1991. Gordimer died in 2014 at the age of 90. often riddled with disease, suffering, and crippling poverty. The
most famous book on apartheid is Nelson Mandela’s classic
prison autobiography, Long W Walk
alk to F
Frreedom
eedom, while recent
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
memoirs by black South African celebrities include Trevor
The implied backdrop of “Once Upon a Time” is apartheid-era Noah’s Born a Crime
Crime, rapper Kabelo Mabalane’s I Ran for My Life,
South Africa, a time in South African history marked by racism, and actress Bonnie Mbuli’s Eyebags & Dimples. In her other
white supremacy, violence, and systemic oppression. South works, Nadine Gordimer wrote extensively about how in
Africa officially gained independence from the UK in 1931, but apartheid South Africa, love quickly turned into tragedy, trust
the Afrikaner-led National Party won the 1948 elections, eroded between communities and within families, and
closely studied government-enforced racial segregation individuals grappled with the relationship between their ideals
policies around the world, and implemented what they saw as and their material interests—all thematic threads that appear in
the most effective ones to create the system of laws and her short story “Once Upon a Time.” Some of Gordimer’s most
governance known as apartheid. The population was divided prominent novels include The Lying Days, Burger’s Daughter, and
into four groups: white people, Indian people, “colored” (mixed- the recent No Time Like the Present.
race) people, and black people. Unlike the racism in countries
like the U.S., there was no illusion of anything like “separate but
KEY FACTS
equal”; rather, the apartheid government openly proclaimed an
ideology of white supremacy. Apartheid guaranteed the white • Full Title: Once Upon a Time

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• When Written: Late 1980s and early 1990s Her story begins with a man and a woman who are happily
• Where Written: South Africa married. They have a little boy whom they love dearly, a
• When Published: First version published in 1988 in the trustworthy housemaid, a skilled gardener, a pool that’s safely
Weekly Mail; expanded version published in 1991 in fenced in to prevent the little boy from falling in and drowning,
Gordimer’s short-story collection Jump and Other Stories a Neighborhood Watch sign to deter intruders, and all sorts of
prudent insurance policies. Even though the family is insured
• Literary Period: Postmodern
against things like floods and fires, they aren’t insured against
• Genre: Short Story riots, which are currently raging outside the city. To comfort his
• Setting: Unspecified but heavily implied to be South Africa anxious wife—and because he knows how violent the riots
during apartheid. are—the husband installs electronic gates at the front of the
• Climax: The little boy is killed when he tries to cross the house. The little boy is mesmerized by the speaker system,
razor wire that’s meant to protect the family’s house from which allows visitors to communicate with someone inside. He
intruders. and his friends use it as a walkie-talkie.
• Antagonist: Fear and Racism When burglaries begin happening in the family’s suburb, the
• Point of View: First Person and Third Person couple installs security bars on the doors and windows as well
as an alarm system. The little boy’s cat sometimes sets off the
EXTRA CREDIT alarm, and the neighbors’ alarms are often set off by rodents or
Banned Books. During apartheid, the South African pets, too. The shrill sirens become so commonplace that they
government banned several of Gordimer’s works. While some begin to sound more like cicadas or frogs humming in the
works were banned only for a matter of months, The Late background. Intruders often time their robberies for when the
alarms are going off so that their comings and goings won’t be
Bourgeois World was banned for 10 years, and A World of
heard.
Strangers was banned for 12 years.
Over time, unemployed black people begin looking for work in
Famous Friends. Gordimer worked closely with Nelson the suburbs. The woman wants to send food out to them, but
Mandela on his speech “I Am Prepared to Die,” which he recited her husband and the housemaid firmly caution her against it,
from the defendant’s dock during his 1962 trial. insisting that the people outside are criminals. The family
decides to make the wall in their garden even higher. However,
the robberies continue throughout the neighborhood at all
PL
PLO
OT SUMMARY times of day and night. One day, watching the little boy’s cat
deftly scaling the wall of the house, the husband and wife
The narrator, a writer, receives a letter from a man asking her decide to affix some sort of security system to the walls, too. A
to contribute a story to an anthology for children. When she stroll around the neighborhood reveals all sorts of options:
declines, explaining that she doesn’t write for children, this man lances, spikes, and concrete walls studded with shards of
insists that all writers should write a children’s story. The broken glass. Meanwhile, the little boy happily runs along with
narrator doesn’t feel like “ought to” write anything. She then his dog.
recalls the events of the previous night. The couple settles on the most threatening security system of
In the middle of the night, the narrator is awoken by the sound them all: a series of metal coils notched with razor blades that
of footsteps on creaking floorboards. Her heart racing, the ascend the house’s exterior walls. Once an intruder begins to
narrator strains to hear if the footsteps are approaching her climb through the coils, there is no way out—the jagged metal
bedroom. She already feels like the victim of a crime—she will rip the intruder to shreds no matter which way they move.
doesn’t have a gun for self-defense or security bars on her The security system, which looks fit for a concentration camp,
windows, but she’s just as fearful as the people who do. She comes from a security called Dragon Teeth. The next day,
recalls violent crimes that recently happened near her house. workmen install the coils on the couple’s house, and the metal
The narrator soon realizes that the creaking sound isn’t from an shines aggressively in the sun. The man assures his wife that it
intruder. Thousands of feet below her home’s foundation is a will weather over time, but his wife reminds him that the metal
series of mines, and occasionally the hollowed-out rock walls is weather-proof. They hope the cat is smart enough to not
collapse and crash down to the earth below, causing the scale the wall.
narrator’s house to shift and groan in response. She imagines That night, the woman reads her son the story of Sleeping
that the mines are either out of use or that they’re now a Beauty, wherein the brave Prince must fight his way through a
gravesite for all the miners—probably migrant workers—down dense thicket of thorns in order to save Sleeping Beauty. The
below. Unable to fall back asleep, the narrator resolves to tell next day, the little boy pretends to be the Prince and decides
herself a bedtime story. that the metal coils encasing the house will be the thorns he

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must climb. But the second he wiggles his way into a metal coil, boy’s father. Though both the man and his wife are preoccupied
the blades pierce his skin, and he writhes and screams in pain, with their material possessions, the man takes this to a greater
ensnaring himself deeper and deeper into the wire. The extreme. Much of the story centers around his efforts to
housemaid and gardener come running, and the gardener tears protect the family’s possessions from outsiders—who,
up his hands trying to rescue the boy. The husband and wife run significantly, are poor black people oppressed under
out in a panic as the house alarm—likely set off by the apartheid—like building a higher wall in the garden, installing
cat—begins to blare. Eventually, the little boy’s bleeding body is electronically controlled gates, putting up threatening signs,
removed with heavy equipment. The man, the woman, the and, eventually, outfitting the exterior of the house with lethal
housemaid, and the gardener are beside themselves as they razor coils. He frames these actions as him graciously
carry the boy’s remains into the house. appeasing and protecting his fearful wife (who worries that the
riots taking place outside of the city will eventually infiltrate
their city and suburb), but it’s clear that the man fears for his
CHARA
CHARACTERS
CTERS own safety, too. While his wife nonetheless feels badly for the
beggars outside the gates of their house and wants to feed
MAJOR CHARACTERS them, the man is adamant that the beggars are criminals
The Narr
Narrator
ator – The unnamed narrator, a woman writer, is the “looking for their chance” and that by giving them food, the
protagonist and narrator of the frame story. It is implied that, woman would only be “encouraging them” to keep begging or
like the man and the woman in the inner story, the narrator somehow make them more likely to rob the family’s house. The
lives in apartheid-era South Africa. And, like the couple, the husband’s mother echoes this sentiment throughout the story,
narrator lives in fear that, since she has more than others fueling her son’s deep distrust toward outsiders. In the end,
(namely the impoverished black people who are oppressed though, the man’s efforts to protect the family backfire in a
under apartheid rule), others might take what she has. moment of grim irony when his young son gets caught in the
However, the narrator appears far more conscious of the vicious razor-wire wall and dies. With this, the story makes the
racism that plagues her society than the characters in the inner point that walling people off from one another—whether it’s
story. It’s implied that she’s politically on board with ending physically though things like security systems or figuratively
apartheid and seems keenly aware of the suffering of the though racial labels—leads not to greater security but to
underclasses. Unlike the man and the woman, the narrator devastating damage on all sides.
doesn’t protect her house from intruders, a decision that’s The WWoman
oman / The Wife – One of the protagonists of the
presumably because of her politics—after all, people around second story, the woman is the little boy’s mother and the
her are experiencing violence in their homes and she herself is man’s wife. The woman is far more sensitive and
afraid, so it seems like not protecting herself is a conscious compassionate toward other people’s suffering than her
ethical choice. However, when she hears a noise in the middle husband is. When she sees black people begging outside the
of the night, she immediately jumps to the conclusion that she’s gates of her home, the woman orders the housemaid to bring
about to be killed or robbed. Although she’s wrong—the sound food out to them, unable to bear seeing anyone go hungry. The
is just the foundation of her house shifting—her knee-jerk housemaid refuses on the grounds that doing so would
reaction highlights how the inequality of material conditions threaten her own safety—she insists that the beggars are
breeds fear, which is the thematic crux of both stories. Having criminals who will tie her up and lock her in the cupboard like
the right politics and making minor ethical decisions—signifying they did to a neighbor’s maid—and the husband emphatically
her unity with poor black South Africans by not barricading her agrees. Even though the woman is disheartened, she always
house, even though that does nothing to change their material ends up siding with her husband when it comes to matters of
conditions—does not put the narrator’s conscience at ease or security, often repeating the line “You are right.” The woman
keep her safe from the consequences of an oppressive society. only utters the words “You are wrong” once, right after her
Violence, the story suggests, is a natural consequence of living husband assures her that the razor wall will weather over time
in an oppressive society, and there’s nothing the narrator can and look less stark; she reminds him that the wall is weather-
(or should) do to insulate herself from it. In this vein, Gordimer proof, so it will always look as threatening and shocking as it
seems to implicitly praise the narrator for her ability to does now. Given that the razor wall is a symbol for the ruinous
squarely face the truth of her nation’s awful social reality by logic of apartheid, it seems that the story is saying that the
telling herself the story of the man and the woman instead of a violent apartheid rule won’t simply “weather” or soften over
comforting bedtime story. With this, Gordimer seems to imply time if people—specifically white people—sit back and do
that telling truthful stories is a necessary (but insufficient) step nothing. The woman also ties into the story’s examination of
toward rectifying social wrongs. storytelling. While the narrator from the frame story speaks to
The Man / The Husband – One of the protagonists of the the importance of telling truthful but unsavory stories, the
second story, the man is the woman’s husband and the little woman highlights how spinning falsely comforting ones leads

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to further violence. When the woman tells her son a bedtime family’s suburb are “loafers and tsotsis” (lazy people and
story one night about a Prince climbing through a thicket of criminals) who will tie her up when she’s home alone and
thorns to rescue Sleeping Beauty and restore her with a kiss, burglarize the place. In the story, wealth inequality breeds fear,
she unintentionally encourages the little boy to play on the and the housemaid is often made to shoulder that
razor wall—where he meets his death. The story makes it clear burden—even though her employers’ wealth doesn’t belong to
that the couple never has a frank discussion with their son her.
about what the wall is for and what it does; in fact, the woman The Husband’s Mother – The husband’s mother is the little
specifically waits until her son is out of earshot before saying boy’s grandmother and the woman’s mother-in-law. Though
aloud that she hopes the cat will be wise enough to avoid the little is directly revealed about her, she is often referred to as
razor wall. “that wise old witch” throughout the story, which is a reminder
The Little Bo
Boyy / The Son – The little boy is the only child of the that this inner narrative is the bedtime story that the narrator
man and the woman. Given his age, the little boy is largely is telling herself. In fairytales—including the story of Sleeping
oblivious to his parents’ safety concerns throughout the story. Beauty, which the little boy’s mother tells him as a bedtime
They fear that the impoverished black people at the fringes of story—the witch is almost always the evil antagonist. It’s
the community will riot in the suburbs and/or steal from the interesting, then, that the narrator tacks on the word “wise,” as
wealthy white people there, themselves included. For instance, it positions the husband’s mother as a wise elder helping the
while the husband and wife debate the merits of their hero succeed. Indeed, the husband’s mother is brimming with
neighbors’ security systems (like broken glass embedded in advice: when she appears throughout the story, it’s to remind
concrete walls and lances affixed to metal grilles), the little boy the husband and wife to further insulate themselves from
races around the neighborhood with his pet dog, unaware of outsiders—namely, the impoverished black people who have
the violence creeping into the suburb. When the boy’s parents been relegated to the fringes of the city under apartheid’s strict
install a metal wall of coiled razors along the walls of the house racial segregation. (For example, she gifts her son and
for extra protection against intruders, they worry that the little daughter-in-law bricks for Christmas so that they can make the
boy’s cat will get stuck in it—the so-called “Dragon’s Teeth” wall wall surrounding their property higher and harder to climb.) In
will shred any person that tries to climb over it or back out of it. this way, the husband’s mother largely functions as a
Luckily, the little boy’s cat wisely avoids the house’s exterior mouthpiece for the dangerous spirit of fear, possessiveness,
from then on, but the little boy himself is not so fortunate, and and distrust toward black people that abounds in the white
his innocence causes him to tragically meet his death. The boy suburbs. Far from helping the story’s protagonists succeed, the
decides that climbing through the wire is the perfect way to husband’s mother is a key part of the family’s undoing.
roleplay the story his mother read him the previous night about
a Prince who must face a dense thicket of sharp thorns to get to MINOR CHARACTERS
the Sleeping Beauty and kiss her back to life. The razor wall,
The Gardener – The husband and wife’s gardener is often
though, is every bit as destructive as it promised: the little boy
referred to as “the itinerant gardener” throughout the story. He
is instantly caught in the coils and dies a gruesome death. His
is the first one to find and attempt to save the couple’s son
body has to be hacked out of the metal coils, but his parents,
when he gets stuck in the razor wire.
the housemaid, and the gardener can’t cut him out without
hurting themselves and resorting to all kinds of heavy
equipment. This highlights how the logic of separation and
apartheid—symbolized by the razor wall—isn’t easily
THEMES
dismantled and kills innocent people. It even bloodies the very In LitCharts literature guides, each theme gets its own color-
people who thought they would benefit from it. coded icon. These icons make it easy to track where the themes
The Housemaid – The housemaid works for the man and the occur most prominently throughout the work. If you don't have
woman at their upscale house in the suburbs where only white a color printer, you can still use the icons to track themes in
people are allowed to live. It’s implied that she’s a black woman, black and white.
as the story notes that the only black people allowed in the
suburb are “trusted housemaids and gardeners.” Indeed, the WEALTH INEQUALITY AND FEAR
housemaid is often referred to as “the trusted housemaid”
Set in the 1980s in apartheid South Africa, Nadine
throughout the story, which, by extension, implies that the
Gordimer’s “Once Upon a Time” shows how
husband and wife view black people as untrustworthy by
societies with tremendous wealth inequality are
default—the housemaid is an exception. Like her employers,
doomed to fail. The story begins with an unnamed first-person
though, the housemaid is anxious and fearful of outsiders—she
narrator who wakes up because of a noise in the night and
assumes that the unemployed black people hanging around the
believes that it’s a home invasion. However, the noise is just the

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house creaking, and to keep herself company while she lays robbed. This pervasive fear has catastrophic consequences: for
awake in fear, the narrator tells a “bedtime story” of an one, Gordimer suggests that the wealthy characters aren’t able
unnamed family living in a segregated suburb. The central adult to enjoy their lives because of it. When the wealthy family takes
characters of this story—“the man” and “the wife”—are walks around their neighborhood, for instance, they “no longer
constantly concerned about their personal property, as there pause to admire this show of roses or that perfect lawn,” since
are break-ins throughout the neighborhood. The couple takes all the beautiful aspects of the neighborhood are fenced off.
escalating measures to protect their house and things: building And even inside their home, this couple seems primarily to
physical walls, installing security systems, and even erecting a discuss what further security improvements they can
lethal razor-wire fence. Both the frame story and the bedtime make—they are consumed not by happiness or love, but with
story are parables of inequality, showing the (presumably their quest to keep others out. Of course, the most
white) narrator and suburban family living in wealth while catastrophic consequence of their fear is the death of their son,
constantly fearing the wrath of those who have less. By who becomes caught in the razor wire fence that the couple
showing how wealth inequality ruins even the lives of those ironically installed to protect him. His death at the hands of the
who have everything, since they spend their lives consumed by security fencing shows that the real menace in this
fear, Gordimer points to the profound injustice and absurdity neighborhood is not the intruders that the residents fear, but
of societies whose resources are so unevenly shared. their fear itself, which is irreparably corroding their lives.
Gordimer makes clear that both the first-person narrator and Gordimer’s primary concern, of course, is not that inequality
the suburban couple in the narrator’s story are relatively (via the fear it inspires) ruins the lives of the wealthy; instead,
wealthy. While Gordimer doesn’t give much information about she wants to show that widespread wealth inequality will
the narrator’s life, it’s clear that she is not poor. She has her inevitably ruin all of society. To illustrate this, the story’s
own house, she makes a living as a writer (an elite profession narrator explains that her house is creaking not because of
that separates her from the laboring classes), and she lives in a intruders, but because it has been built on a mine; the ground
relatively well-off neighborhood. The narrator’s neighbors underneath the house is literally gone, and the whole structure
protect their homes from robberies, and their belongings (such could presumably fall. In Gordimer’s metaphor, the house is
as a collection of antique clocks) demonstrate their excess South African society and the mine is the system of exploitation
wealth. Likewise, the suburban family in the narrator’s story and inequality that will inevitably lead to society’s collapse. The
are, at least theoretically, “living happily ever after” among their social dynamics of South African mining clarify what Gordimer
fancy things: they have a home, a caravan, a car, a swimming means: the laborers in the mines are black South Africans who
pool with a fence, and even a housekeeper (whom Gordimer work at great peril to themselves (the narrator references the
pointedly includes among a list of their belongings). likelihood that miners have died under her house), but the
Furthermore, they live in a white-only neighborhood that is owners of African mines are typically white. This is a major arc
physically segregated from the poorer black neighborhoods of colonialism: wealthy white capitalists extract the labor and
nearby, and there are “police and soldiers and tear gas and resources of a colony, becoming increasingly wealthy as the
guns” to keep the rioting poor away. It’s clear, then, that the local population suffers and grows poor. In this light, the
narrator and the family in her story are beneficiaries of a scenario that Gordimer describes—a terrified white woman
system of wealth inequality. They are relatively well-off, while living in a wealthy, segregated neighborhood built on an
those who have nothing suffer. exploitative mine—is a perfect representation of what is wrong
Despite this, Gordimer emphasizes that neither the narrator with South African society. Wealthy white people have so
nor the suburban family can truly enjoy the comforts that their ruthlessly exploited black people that South African
wealth affords them; they believe that their wealth makes them society—just like the narrator’s house—faces inevitable
a target, so they live in fear. The suburban wife explicitly collapse. And perversely, the white people who benefit from
articulates the fear at the story’s center: she worries that the this deplorable system cannot even enjoy it while it lasts.
“people of another color” who live in the poorer parts of town
“might come up […] and open the gates and stream in.” All the APARTHEID, RACISM, AND PROPERTY
wealthy characters in the story share her fear. The couple’s “Once Upon a Time” is set during apartheid, a
suburban neighbors have lives that are “hidden behind an array system of racial segregation and discrimination
of different varieties of security fences, walls, and devices,” that was the law in South Africa from 1948 until
showing how consumed they are by fear of intruders. And while the early 1990s. The story shows how white South Africans
the story’s narrator chooses not to take similar measures to benefit from and perpetuate white supremacy—even those like
barricade her home, she admits that she has the “same fear” as the (presumably white) narrator who are aware of the
those who do. This explains why, when she hears a sound in the profound injustice of apartheid but nonetheless enjoy a better
night, the narrator immediately assumes that she’s being life than black South Africans. Gordimer focuses in particular

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on homeownership (the narrator, as well as the suburban the narrator is implying that the source of white wealth in
husband and wife about whom she tells a story, own homes in South Africa is the exploitation of black labor. The story’s focus
segregated neighborhoods) to call attention to how property on white homeownership (via the suburban couple and the
ownership—which was limited to white people starting in narrator owning homes) further illuminates this structural
1959—exacerbated inequality in apartheid South Africa. To racism. The narrator’s house is literally built on top of a mine,
Gordimer, segregated suburbs like the one the couple inhabit which metaphorically shows how the luxurious lives of white
are an embodiment of colonialism, an attempt to consolidate homeowners in South Africa are built on a foundation of black
white wealth through property ownership and to physically suffering and exploitation. However, when poor black South
separate white South Africans from the black suffering on Africans come to the white suburban neighborhood begging for
which their wealth is built. By showing how personal bigotry work or food and sleeping on the streets, the couple chooses to
and structural segregation combine to perpetuate black build higher walls, thereby doubling down on their exploitative
suffering and white luxury, Gordimer condemns the racism at lives while ignoring the suffering of black people from which
the heart of South African society. they have benefited. This perpetuates the cruelty and
The story’s most explicit racism comes from the white inequality of colonialism, effectively punishing black people for
suburban family who are terrified of black South Africans and their poverty, which white people caused in the first place.
indifferent to their suffering. The couple worries frequently To show just how far-reaching apartheid racism is, Gordimer
that the riots outside of the suburb—in an area where “people depicts even the suburban couple’s black housekeeper
of another colour [are] quartered”—will bleed into their own perpetuating racist stereotypes and fearing other black people.
neighborhood. The husband tries to make his wife feel better Housemaids are only allowed into the suburbs as employees of
by assuring her that “these people” are not allowed into the white families, and it’s implied that these workers have higher
suburb and that there are “police and soldiers and tear gas and status than the poorer black people who are rioting and
guns to keep them away.” In all of this discussion, the couple unemployed. Thus, it is not surprising that over time, the
shows a callous disregard for the suffering of those they’re couple’s “trusted housemaid” mimics the colonial mindset of
keeping out, many of whom are jobless and surrounded by the white family and develops a fear of the people outside of
violence in their neighborhoods. Gordimer even notes that the suburb. After hearing of another housemaid being tied up
police are shooting schoolchildren in black parts of town. This and put into a cupboard during a burglary, the family’s
contrast between the suffering of black neighborhoods and the housemaid insists that the couple install more security features
luxurious lives of the white couple emphasizes the cruelty of like burglar bars and a new alarm. Then, when those “who [are]
the couple’s efforts to keep others out. Furthermore, Gordimer not trusted housemaids and gardeners [hang] about the
lampoons the couple’s inability to see that their fear of black suburb,” the couple’s housemaid dissuades the wife from
South Africans is racist: on the gate outside the couple’s house bringing them food. This shows how racist, colonial laws placed
hangs a warning sign featuring the silhouette of a masked people of color who live and work in between black and white
robber whose skin color isn’t visible. This last detail, Gordimer spheres, encouraging them to sympathize with wealthy white
writes ironically, “proved that the property owner was no citizens. However, it’s also possible that the housekeeper hasn’t
racist”—but it’s obvious that the sign and the gate are aimed at so much internalized racism as she’s just aware that living in an
black people alone. This highlights the white couple’s refusal to unjust society breeds violence, and that in toeing the line
see the obvious truth that their actions and indifference between the black and white South African communities, she is
towards black suffering are harmful and racist. directly in the line of fire.
In addition to showing the white couple’s bigotry, Gordimer
emphasizes the disastrous legacy of colonialism, demonstrating SEPARATION AND THE ILLUSION OF
how structural racism is at the heart of apartheid. The story’s SECURITY
clearest evocation of colonialism comes in the narrator’s Nadine Gordimer’s “Once Upon a Time” takes place
explanation of the mine under her house. Noting that during South African apartheid—a term that
indigenous black South Africans (she names the Chopi and literally means “apartness” and that represented the
Tsonga peoples) work the mines, the narrator says that these legalization of white South Africans geographically separating
“migrant miners […] might [be] down there, under me in the themselves from those who were black or “coloured” (mixed-
earth […] or men might now be interred there in the most race). During apartheid, large areas of South Africa were
profound of tombs.” By invoking the perilous labor of designated as spaces for white-only cities, and the government
indigenous miners, the narrator is calling the reader’s attention would force any nonwhite citizens out into other areas. The
to the structural racism of South African society, in which black bulk of Gordimer’s short story takes place inside a white-
laborers do dangerous work for paltry wages to enrich white designated city, and the white suburban characters appear
people, who own the country’s profitable industries. In this way, obsessed with maintaining the separation-based logic of

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apartheid. Gordimer shows, though, that separating the nation being around. So not only does segregation not work, it’s not
on racial lines tore South Africa apart, and she symbolizes this really intended to work, in that the families want trusted
devastation when the white couple loses their only son: he dies gardeners and housekeepers to come do all of their housework.
in the very barbed wire that the couple installed to keep away Of course, beyond just being ineffective, this forced separation
those of another race. Gordimer thus makes it clear that the is devastating. The white suburbanites suffer from their own
sense of protection white people seem to enjoy under preoccupation with separation since they imprison themselves
segregation is a fragile illusion, arguing that the desire for in the fortresses they build to keep others out. Gordimer makes
security and prosperity through separation is harmful for all this clear when she has the unnamed couple admire the pure,
groups. “concentration-camp style” of the razor wire they choose to
Gordimer takes care to show that this is a world of separation adorn their wall. More critically, the non-white South Africans
based on race, and that wealthy, white South Africans believe clearly suffer on account of this separation because they have
this separation will make their lives better. In the suburb in the little or no access to wealth or prosperity. The black South
bedtime story that the (presumably white) narrator tells, the Africans who populate the streets of the suburb in the bedtime
wife is frightened when she hears of violence and looting story are jobless and likely homeless, contrasting sharply with
happening against white South Africans. Her husband is quick the abundance of the suburb. Moreover, before the bedtime
to assure her that there are “police and soldiers and teargas story even begins Gordimer includes the fact that “migrant
and guns” working to keep any non-white South Africans miners” (indigenous Africans) are working in terrible conditions
(people “of another colour”) away from the suburb. He says this in the ground far below these wealthy neighborhoods. This
to cheer his wife up, showing that the couple feels safer and underscores the spatial divisions between races in “Once Upon
more comfortable knowing that black South Africans are being a Time” and how this separation is designed to put one race
kept “outside the city.” Still, Gordimer emphasizes how the above all others. However, when the couple’s son dies in the
white couple in the suburb wants even more separation razor wire at the end of the story, Gordimer makes a conclusive
between races; all the white suburban families install some sort statement that all these systems, measures, and precautions
of security system—alarms, bars, gates—to keep others away. In designed to separate races in South Africa are absolutely
order to live their most prosperous, happy lives, the white destructive and will ultimately ruin all parts of society.
families clearly feel that they must be separated from other
races. STORYTELLING
However, this separation is much less useful than white South Before this story even begins, Gordimer makes an
Africans would like to believe, since security systems prove obvious association: she titles the piece “Once
ineffective and geographical segregation doesn’t end up Upon a Time.” In doing this, she evokes
keeping the different races apart. First, Gordimer shows that conventional fairy tale tropes—a hero, a damsel in distress, a
the physical security measures just don’t work. When the happy ending—only to dismantle them and show how
unnamed couple buys an alarm, not robbers but “pet cats and dangerous this kind of simplistic fairytale thinking can be. On
nibbling mice” frequently trip the system. This happens so the most zoomed-out level, it seems that Gordimer believes
often—and to so many of the other white families in the storytelling to be good, since she’s telling a story to
neighborhood—that noise from all the alarms unnecessarily communicate a clear moral about apartheid South Africa.
going off provides cover for thieves to saw through bars and However, the stories told inside the story itself seem only to
steal things. Additionally, Gordimer shows how the lead to violence and fear rather than genuine happily ever
geographical separation that the white couple craves is afters. The narrator is a writer who is gripped by fear (partly
unsustainable. The suburb is clearly wealthier than the space because of stories she’s heard about violence around her) and
where “people of another colour are quartered,” and eventually who tells herself a horror story about injustice and fear to
black South Africans make their way into the suburb to seek occupy herself while she’s unable to sleep. Then, within that
money or a job. The white inhabitants feel the suburb is “spoilt” story about a suburban husband and wife, there are other
by the “presence” of black South Africans, who now line the instances of frightening stories inadvertently or deliberately
streets and sleep leaning against the gates of the white families’ leading to violence and fear. However, there is a key difference
homes. The suburban couple also hires black South Africans as between the way storytelling plays out in the frame story and
housekeepers and gardeners, proving that white South the bedtime story: Gordimer suggests that telling truthful
Africans will negate their own logic of separation when it stories like the narrator does is a necessary (but insufficient)
benefits them. With this, the story shows that white people step toward rectifying social wrongs, whereas telling falsely
don’t actually want to be totally segregated—white people comforting ones—or drawing the wrong moral from scary
want to have black people come and go on their terms, which ones—like the suburban family does leads to further violence.
means serving white people in their homes but otherwise not
First, by positioning this story as a fairy tale, Gordimer implies

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that there will be a clear hero, a clear villain, and likely a happy people without preconceived notions of good and evil will
ending. She wants to engage with the readers’ preconceptions eventually be ensnared in this simplistic way of thinking. By
of stories that begin with “Once Upon a Time” so that the plot imagining himself the hero of the story “Sleeping Beauty” and
of her story is extra shocking. The omniscient narrator claims innocently believing in the simplistic fantasy of fairy tales, the
that the suburban family is “living happily ever after” over and little boy tragically ends up dying. The white parents, who less
over, a claim that the author goes on to wholly reject. The innocently believed in the fairy tale-like narrative they told
couple lives in fear of aggression by people who are just themselves, caused the death of their child. In the story of
“looking for their chance” to invade. In this way, the couple sets Sleeping Beauty, an evil witch conjures thorns and a dragon
themselves up as victims in distress, telling themselves a story around Sleeping Beauty to prevent her from being
that places others in the position of villains. By punishing the rescued—just like how the suburban couple puts up the thorny
couple at the end with the death of their son, Gordimer clearly wire from the “Dragon’s Teeth” company. So while the suburban
complicates the couple’s good (us) versus evil (them) logic. couple thinks that they’re heroes and that everyone else is a
Gordimer also evokes the trope of “wise old witch” through the villain from whom they need to protect themselves, they are
character of the husband’s mother. She helps pay for bricks in actually much like the bad witch in Sleeping Beauty—they are
the wall around the couple’s house and gives a book of fairy not being honest about their role in the story. The story the
tales to the couple’s son. But, unlike many fairy tales where white narrator tells herself provides a sharp contrast, as in the
there are wise elders guiding heroes down the right path, the frame story, she is somewhat villainous sitting in her house
“wise old witch” is a key part of the family’s undoing. When the safely on top of a mine full of (presumably) dead indigenous
wife reads to her son from this book of stories, he associates miners. The only way to look at something as ugly as apartheid,
thickets of thorns with the barbed wire on the family’s fence, Gordimer consequently suggests, is to upend conventional
and by trying to mimic the action of the Prince, he dies. tropes of who is a hero, victim, or villain.
Gordimer thus suggests that the “story” of the generational Gordimer tries to attack apartheid from all angles in this story.
advice passed down in apartheid society will be damaging as it As a writer, she suggests that stories can be an effective
is so tainted with racist ideas. critique of the unjust social system; though the effectiveness of
Thus, Gordimer gives her white characters a choice: fall into this kind of protest can be debated, Gordimer clearly believes
the trap of imagining oneself as the victim, or understand the in the power of writing. She is highly cautionary, though, of any
danger inherent in simplistic, fairy tale logic. In the beginning of story that is too simplistic in its dealing with morality, as fairy
the story, the narrator mentions that as soon as she hears a tales so often are. Thus, she evokes the fairy tale trope only to
noise and is frightened, she is “a victim already.” But this upend it and show that one-dimensional narratives in an unjust
character goes on to destroy this thought in her own mind: she society (here, apartheid) should be greatly distrusted.
reminds herself that her house is built on “undermined ground,”
indicating that her status as victim should be reevaluated. This
allows the author to refocus her priorities and tell herself a SYMBOLS
gruesome but pointed story. Additionally, this narrator’s
Symbols appear in teal text throughout the Summary and
rejection of writing a children’s book is likely a parallel for
Analysis sections of this LitChart.
Gordimer herself not wanting to tell a tale that conventionally
situates the white, wealthy people of South Africa as good and
everyone else as bad; this was the message coming from the THE RAZOR WIRE
white South African government, just as the request in the
The razor wire is symbolic of apartheid, which
story to write a children’s book is coming from an authoritative
destroyed South African society by keeping
“someone.” Gordimer’s “Once Upon a Time” and the unnamed
different races apart. Apartheid is an Afrikaans word that
author’s decision to tell a gruesome story are both meant to
literally means “aparthood” or “separateness,” so the razor
combat conventional narratives. By contrast, the couple in the
wire—which is meant to violently separate the white family
white suburb believe themselves to be soon-to-be victims and
from black intruders—reflects the legal and military
rather than face the reality of their social situation, and so they
infrastructure of apartheid, which kept the races separate by
take the easy way out and heighten security. To make her point
force.
obvious, Gordimer even has the company that they use to
install the wire be called “Dragon’s Teeth”. The couple does not When the suburban husband and wife install the razor wire,
understand the irony of using “dragon’s teeth” as a defense, but they’ve explicitly chosen it for its violence: “Placed the length of
a reader would. Seeing themselves as the victim is clearly walls, it consisted of a continuous coil of stiff and shining metal
wrong—if anything, they are on the side of the dragon. serrated into jagged blades, so that there would be no way of
climbing over it and no way through its tunnel without getting
Gordimer lastly uses the little boy to demonstrate how even
entangled in its fangs. There would be no way out, only a

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struggle getting bloodier and bloodier, a deeper and sharper Once Upon a Time Quotes
hooking and tearing of flesh.” This quote explicitly shows the
I have no burglar bars, no gun under the pillow, but I have
violence that the couple envisions will keep poorer, black South
the same fears as people who do take these precautions, and
Africans off their property—but it also foreshadows the ironic
my windowpanes are thin as rime, could shatter like a
ending of the story, in which the couple’s own young son dies
wineglass. A woman was murdered (how do they put it) in
horrifically in this exact way. This suggests to readers that the
broad daylight in a house two blocks away, last year, and the
collateral damage of apartheid isn’t one-directional: even
fierce dogs who guarded an old widower and his collection of
though white people think they’ll only benefit from forced
antique clocks were strangled before he was knifed by a casual
segregation, the razor wire cuts both ways, and the family ends
labourer he had dismissed without pay.
up destroyed by it when their son dies. The razor wire can also
be interpreted as a description of the logic of apartheid itself:
the system of violently separating the races inevitably Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker)
becomes, like the razor wire, “a struggle getting bloodier and
bloodier, a deeper and sharper hooking and tearing of flesh.” It’s Related Themes:
a horrible, violent system that, once in place, destroys
everything around it. Page Number: 21-22
It’s also worth noting that Gordimer consistently associates the Explanation and Analysis
razor wire—symbolic of apartheid—with evil. The suburban
In this passage, the narrator explains why she’s so fearful of
family chooses razor wire in the first place because it evokes a
the creaking sound echoing throughout her house in the
concentration camp—Gordimer uses that term—in its no-frills
middle of the night. She knows that she doesn’t have much
style. With this, Gordimer evokes the German Holocaust and
of anything in the way of a security system protecting her
also suggests that the family is imprisoning themselves with the
from the outside world, and she’s acutely aware of the
razor wire, even as they think they’re keeping themselves safe.
violence that has been unfolding in her own neighborhood.
The name of the security company, Dragon’s Teeth, also evokes
Considering these two details, she reasonably assumes that
evil, hearkening to the Sleeping Beauty story that the wife tells
the creaking sound belongs to an intruder who is going to
her son as a bedtime story on the night before his death. In
rob and/or kill her.
some versions of Sleeping Beauty, the evil fairy conjures a
dragon alongside the thorns to keep the Prince from rescuing Given the narrator’s awareness and fear of the instances of
Sleeping Beauty. So, in Gordimer’s story, the family is the evil violence in her neighborhood, it may seem surprising that
fairy, conjuring the thorns to create a malicious barrier that—in she doesn’t have any sort of security system insulating her
order to have a happy ending—has to come down. The from the terrifying outside world. It logically follows, then,
metaphorical significance is that wealthy white people who that her lack of protection is a conscious choice. Indeed, the
benefit from black exploitation have conjured apartheid—in the bedtime story she goes on to tell critiques a suburban
way the evil fairy conjured the thorns—and, in order to have a couple who so desperately try to insulate themselves from
just society, apartheid must be destroyed. their oppressed black neighbors, seeing them as a threat to
both their safety and their perfect life. So in not protecting
her home with all sorts of security mechanisms and
QUO
QUOTES
TES insulating herself in this way, the narrator is attempting to
show her solidarity with oppressed black South Africans. In
Note: all page numbers for the quotes below refer to the other words, while the narrator has every reason to be
Bloomsbury edition of Jump and Other Stories published in fearful, she also seems to grasp that the violence in her
1991. neighborhood is born out of living in an unjust, oppressive
society. Having a gun under her pillow or burglar bars on
the windows will do nothing to change the underlying
current of bigotry and inequality that incites violence.

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The misbeats of my heart tailed off like the last muffled In a house, in a suburb, in a city, there were a man and his
flourishes on one of the wooden xylophones made by the wife who loved each other very much and were living
Chopi and Tsonga migrant miners who might have been down happily ever after. They had a little boy, and they loved him very
there, under me in the earth at that moment. The stope where much. They had a cat and a dog that the little boy loved very
the fall was could have been disused, dripping water from its much. They had a car and a caravan trailer for holidays, and a
ruptured veins; or men might now be interred there in the most swimming pool which was fenced so that the little boy and his
profound of tombs. 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)

Related Themes: Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Man /

The Husband, The Woman / The Wife, The Little Boy / The
Page Number: 22 Son, The Housemaid, The Gardener
Explanation and Analysis
Related Themes:
Here, the narrator realizes that the creaking sound she
mistook for an intruder’s footsteps was actually the sound Page Number: 23
of the house settling: thousands of miles below the
narrator’s house is a mine, and the hollowed-out rock walls Explanation and Analysis
sometimes collapse and crash down on the earth below, This passage marks the beginning of the inner story within
reverberating upwards and shaking the house’s foundation. the frame story—a bedtime tale that the narrator is telling
In this passage, the narrator thinks of the kind of people herself to try to fall asleep after the anxiety and fear of
who work in such mines: black migrant workers, particularly thinking there was an intruder in her house. Even though
Chopi and Tsonga people, which are both groups native to the story doesn’t start out with the standard “Once upon a
South Africa. time” opening, the name of the overarching story itself plus
Besides providing important context—it’s one of the few the line about “living happily ever after” suggests that this
moments that explicitly make it clear that the story is set in story is a fairytale. However, while the story paints a picture
apartheid-era South Africa—this detail also paints a broader of happy idealism—the family loves each other, their staff is
picture of what life is like for poor, black South Africans in reliable, they have a pool, their child is safe from mishaps,
this time and place. The miners’ work is dangerous for an they take vacations—there is nevertheless a feeling that
array of reasons (exposure to dust and toxins being something isn’t quite right. While classic fairytales chart
particularly bad for a miner’s health), but it can also be protagonists struggling and then end with them living
outright deadly—here, the narrator speaks to the very real happily ever after, this particularly story begins with the
possibility that if there were any miners down in the mine family living happily ever after—an indication that things
that day, they are probably dead now from the rock caving aren’t likely to get better for the family, only worse.
in. The dangerous nature of the job implies that the black Besides foreshadowing the tragedy to come and
migrant workers are considered expendable and introducing the theme of storytelling in an explicit way, this
replaceable. These workers are relegated to such a low passage also touches on the themes of racism and
place in society that they literally work beneath people’s separation. The family is clearly concerned with safety, seen
feet, out of sight and out of mind, and even their deaths through the way they fence in their pool and carefully vet
would be nothing more than a faint creaking of the houses their staff. This suggests that the family seeks to separate or
sitting thousands of miles above the mine. insulate themselves from the outside world, which is the
first indication that the outside world isn’t a safe, stable, or
happy one. In this vein, the story states that the “housemaid
[…] was absolutely trustworthy” and the “itinerant gardener
[…] was highly recommended by the neighbours,” implying
that many housemaids and gardeners—who, notably, are all
black in the world of the story—aren’t trustworthy or
reliable. This kind of sweeping generalization points to the
atmosphere of inequality, racism, and fear that apartheid
created.

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They were […] subscribed to the local Neighbourhood […] [The housemaid] implored her employers to have
Watch, which supplied them with a plaque for their gates burglar bars attached to the doors and windows of the
lettered YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED over the silhouette of a house, and an alarm system installed. The wife said, She is right,
would-be intruder. He was masked; it could not be said if he let us take heed of her advice. So from every window and door
was black or white, and therefore proved the property owner in the house where they were living happily ever after they now
was no racist. 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
Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Man /
alarm keening through the house.
The Husband, The Woman / The Wife

Related Themes: Related Characters: The Narrator, The Woman / The Wife
(speaker), The Little Boy / The Son, The Housemaid
Page Number: 23
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis
At the beginning of the bedtime story about the suburban Page Number: 24
family, the narrator lingers on the image of the couple’s
Neighborhood Watch sign, which both shows their Explanation and Analysis
membership within the organization and is meant to deter After hearing of a neighbor’s maid who was tied up by
potential intruders. This sign again underscores the family’s thieves so that they could ransack her employer’s house, the
concern with safety and the way they seek to insulate housemaid implores the husband and the wife to add more
themselves from the dangerous outside world, but it also security features to their home. The housemaid’s anxiety in
speaks to the way that separating oneself from others this passage is palpable—she understands that, in a
creates an illusion of safety. The sign sets up an us-versus- situation where she’s left alone in the house, she would be
them dynamic of suburban residents and outsiders and is automatically responsible for all her employers’
meant to make potential intruders feel watched and possessions, and she would be the one to suffer were
unwelcome, but the sign itself doesn’t actively protect the thieves to break in. It is this burden, not necessarily her
residents or keep intruders at bay—it’s still just a sign. It’s concern for her employers’ belongings, that spurs her to ask
implied that it makes the residents feel safer, but this sense for a more robust security system. At the heart of this
of safety is only an illusion that is easily punctured. As the moment is the sense that anyone connected to relative
story goes on to show, robberies still abound in the wealth in an unequal society will inevitably spend their lives
neighborhood and even appear to increase in frequency. afraid. It’s interesting, too, that the housemaid herself is
What’s most striking about this passage is the mention that black, though her call to reinforce the house with burglar
the “would-be intruder” on the sign is merely an outline of a bars doesn’t necessarily point to her own inherent racism.
body rather than a colored-in image of a person, and the It’s possible that she’s internalized racism and is therefore
intruder has a mask on, so it’s impossible to discern the fearful and suspicious of her own race, but it’s also likely
intruder’s race. Even though this supposedly “prove[s] the that she just has a keen understanding that violence will
property owner [is] no racist,” the implication here is that always be a symptom of living in an unjust society.
the homeowners unequivocally assume intruders to be This passage also underscores how trying to wall oneself off
black. In other words, the suburb’s residents see their from other people can be more harmful than helpful.
oppressed black neighbors as villains poised to spoil the Ironically, the family is now “living happily ever after […]
residents’ perfect lives, but they smugly—and through bars,” which is bleak way to live and certainly far
falsely—present themselves as non-racists. from “happily ever after.” Even though the burglar bars are
meant to keep intruders out, they actually keep the family in.
Instead of protecting themselves, the family is imprisoning
themselves. Even the cat—the most mobile character in the
story—experiences this, as its usually unrestricted
movement is now monitored, broadcasted, and ultimately
restrained.

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The alarms called to one another across the gardens in
shrills and bleats and wails that everyone soon became Related Characters: The Narrator, The Man / The
accustomed to, so that the din roused the inhabitants of the Husband, The Housemaid (speaker), The Woman / The Wife
suburb no more than the croak of frogs and musical grating of
cicadas’ legs. Under cover of the electronic harpies’ discourse Related Themes:
intruders sawed the iron bars and broke into homes, taking
away hi-fi equipment, Page Number: 25

television sets, cassette players, cameras and radios, jewellery Explanation and Analysis
and clothing, and sometimes were hungry enough to devour As more and more black people begin to enter the
everything in the refrigerator or paused audaciously to drink exclusively white suburb in the narrator’s story—some
the whisky in the cabinets or patio bars. looking for work, some loitering, some begging—the wife
feels called to help. However, her brief moment of
Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker) compassion is immediately squashed: both her husband and
her housemaid affirm that the beggars outside are
Related Themes: opportunistic criminals just “looking for their chance” to
hurt or steal from the family. The housemaid even uses the
Page Number: 24 word tsotsis, which is slang for something like “hooligan” or
“criminal.” This disapproving term doesn’t automatically
Explanation and Analysis
mean that the housemaid—who is implied throughout the
After the husband and wife install an alarm system, other story to be black—is racist or a betrayer of her own race. It’s
neighbors follow suit—but the alarm systems don’t have the possible that it reflects her internalized racism, but it may
desired effect. The alarm systems are comically ineffective also simply showcase her understanding that her fellow
and are no more impactful than the steady hum of cicadas oppressed black South Africans desperately turn to
or the croaking of frogs that one can easily tune out. Rather violence and crime because of the deeply unjust society
than adding a layer of protection as intended, the alarms they live in. Whatever the reason, the housemaid
only add noise and distraction that allow burglars to slip in nonetheless knows that in toeing the line between the black
and out of homes undetected. This ironic twist emphasizes and white spheres of society, she is in danger herself.
how trying to separate oneself from others is often
counterproductive or outright impossible. Though an alarm
system provides the illusion of safety, it doesn’t actually
When the man and wife and little boy took the pet dog for
make the suburb’s residents any safer—and it even harms
its walk round the neighbourhood streets they no longer
them in the process by making them more vulnerable. In
paused to admire this show of roses or that perfect lawn; these
other words, the logic of separating people leads not to
were hidden behind an array of different varieties of security
greater security but to devastation.
fences, walls and devices. […] While the little boy and the pet
As the novel unfolds, it builds out this idea through the dog raced ahead, the husband and wife found themselves
family’s very last attempt at bolstering their home’s comparing the possible effectiveness of each style against its
security: affixing razor-sharp wire to the house’s exterior. It appearance […].
becomes clear that Gordimer is using the razor wire as a
metaphor for the twisted logic of apartheid, which centers
around keeping people apart. Like apartheid, the wire Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Man /
ultimately hurts the very people who thought they would The Husband, The Woman / The Wife, The Little Boy / The
benefit from it, and the same is true here with the alarm Son
systems.
Related Themes:

Related Symbols:
The wife could never see anyone go hungry. She sent the
trusted housemaid out with bread and tea, but the trusted Page Number: 26
housemaid said these were loafers and tsotsis, who would come
and tie her up and shut her in a cupboard. The husband said, Explanation and Analysis
She’s right. Take heed of her advice. You only encourage them At this point in the story, robberies and intrusions are
with your bread and tea. They are looking for their chance…

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continuing to take place despite residents’ mounting

Related Symbols:
security systems, some of which are detailed here. In
particular, this passage speaks to the way that trying to
Page Number: 27
insulate oneself from others can be more of a form of
imprisonment than protection, which is a thread that runs Explanation and Analysis
throughout the story. Where there once were cheerful
After having the razor wall installed, the woman reads her
gardens and manicured lawns now stand towering walls and
son the story of Sleeping Beauty. Wanting to be brave like
fences, making the neighborhood seem bleak and
the Prince in the story, the little boy resolves to climb the
dangerous rather than warm and inviting. In trying to
razor wall, determining that it’s not all that different from
protect themselves from the outside world, these residents
the menacing thicket of thorns that the Prince had to face in
actually build monuments to their fear and imprison
order to save Sleeping Beauty. But in the fairytale, the
themselves.
Prince makes it through the thorns unscathed, and there’s a
It's also significant that the husband and wife wait to discuss happy ending. Having heard this particular ending, the little
“the possible effectiveness of each style against its boy doesn’t seem to recognize that this kind of cheerful
appearance” until their young son is out of earshot. This ending isn’t a given in real life. He quickly meets this hard
foreshadows the little boy’s profound ignorance at the end truth, as he cries out in pain the very moment that the razor
of the story when he tries to climb the razor wire wall wire grazes his skin. Through the boy’s gruesome death,
affixed to the outside of the house—his parents’ latest Gordimer makes a larger comment about storytelling,
security feature—pretending to be the Prince fighting his suggesting that the stories people tell
way through a thicket of thorns to get to Sleeping Beauty. themselves—particularly falsely comforting stories—can be
Throughout the story, there’s no indication that the little lethal.
boy has any idea what South Africa’s social and political
While this case of storytelling gone wrong is the most overt,
climate is like. Of course, the little boy is young, and it’s
it’s not the only one in “Once Upon a Time.” After all, this
perhaps understandable that the parents try to make space
chilling story about the little boy is what the narrator is
for him to have a carefree and innocent childhood.
telling herself after a restless night—instead of telling
However, the story also leaves readers with the
herself a comforting bedtime story to help herself drift off
overwhelming feeling that nothing about apartheid-era
to sleep after a frightening moment that made her think
South Africa is carefree and innocent, and in crafting this
about awful social realities, she does the courageous thing
kind of falsely comforting narrative for their son, the
and tells herself a story that tries to reckon with the
parents actually have a hand in his demise. In other words,
complex and horrible truth of apartheid. It seems that the
the story showcases how the stories that people tell
message here is, in part, that telling truthful stories is a
themselves and others matter, and that telling the wrong
necessary—but also inadequate—step towards fixing social
story can be disastrous.
wrongs, whereas telling falsely comforting ones leads to
further violence.
The boy’s decision to climb the wire and his subsequent
One evening, the mother read the little boy to sleep with a death also happens extremely fast; the bulk of the story is
fairy story from the book the wise old witch had given him slow-moving and centers around his parents’ constant
at Christmas. Next day he pretended to be the Prince who preoccupation with ever-new security features. That the
braves the terrible thicket of thorns to enter the palace and kiss story tumbles so quickly from this point onward seems to
the Sleeping Beauty back to life: he dragged a ladder to the reflect the way that violence and devastation can snowball
wall, the shining coiled tunnel was just wide enough for his little in atmospheres of fear, injustice, and inequality.
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.
[…] the alarm set up wailing against the screams while the
bleeding mass of the little boy was hacked out of the
Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Woman / security coil with saws, wire-cutters, choppers, and they carried
The Wife, The Little Boy / The Son, The Husband’s Mother it—the man, the wife, the hysterical trusted housemaid and the
weeping gardener—into the house.
Related Themes:

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Man /

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The Husband, The Woman / The Wife, The Little Boy / The and menacing, would at least mean that the wire was doing
Son, The Housemaid, The Gardener its job of protecting the family from harm. Instead, though,
the wire harms the family rather than protecting them, as it
Related Themes: leads to the death of an innocent person, their young son.
The unintended and devastating destruction that the wire
Related Symbols: causes speaks to the equally devastating and destructive
logic of apartheid. The racial separation and unequal
Page Number: 28 distribution of wealth that apartheid upholds is meant to
Explanation and Analysis benefit white South Africans, but in supporting apartheid
(seen symbolically though their choice to install the wire
While the story about the suburban family begins with them
wall), the suburban couple is actually killing innocent people
“living happily ever after,” it ends with this moment of utter
in the process (here, their own son). That the little boy has
devastation as the little boy’s parents and their employees
to be “hacked out” of the wire with a whole array of heavy
bring the boy’s body into the house after his grisly death at
machinery also emphasizes how the dangerous logic of
the hands of the razor wire. The gruesome description of
apartheid isn’t easily dismantled. Like the razor wire itself,
the boy’s body as a “bleeding mass” points back to an earlier
apartheid and the social unrest that stems from is “a
description of the razor wire’s destructive power: were an
struggle getting bloodier and bloodier.” As the little boy’s
intruder to climb the razor coils—or even attempt to climb
lifeless body is carried into the house and the story comes
back out of the wire—it would be “a struggle getting
to a close, Gordimer leaves readers with the idea that
bloodier and bloodier.” Initially, the husband and wife
apartheid devastates all parties involved—even the very
assumed that, at worst, they would wake up one day to find
people it is supposed to benefit.
a burglar caught in the wire—a death that, while still morbid

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SUMMARY AND ANAL

ANALYSIS
YSIS
The color-coded icons under each analysis entry make it easy to track where the themes occur most prominently throughout the
work. Each icon corresponds to one of the themes explained in the Themes section of this LitChart.

ONCE UPON A TIME

When someone writes to the narrator to ask if she’ll write a The story immediately introduces the theme of storytelling through
short story for children, she declines on the grounds that she the narrator’s occupation as a writer, the fact that she’s narrating
doesn’t write for children. The letter-writer pushes back, saying these events to the reader, and the man’s request that she
that he once heard a novelist insist that all writers should write contribute a short story to an anthology. The narrator’s refusal to
at least one short story for children. The narrator considers tell a certain kind of story—in this case, a children’s story—begins to
writing back that she doesn’t feel like she has to write anything. hint at the idea that people must be careful about the stories they
tell themselves.

The narrator recalls being woken up suddenly the previous It seems that the narrator’s choice to not protect her home from
night by a creaking sound, which sounds suspiciously like intruders is a conscious one. Clues throughout the story—plus
someone walking on a wooden floor. Ears perked, she strains to Gordimer’s own history—suggests that this story is set in apartheid-
hear the creaking sound to discern if it’s moving closer to her era South Africa, which was a time of severe violence, racism, and
bedroom door. She doesn’t have security bars on the windows, white supremacy. Given this context, readers can reasonably
nor does she have a gun, but that doesn’t mean she’s not assume that the narrator—implied to be a white woman—is making
fearful. The narrator recounts how, last year, a woman was a political and ethical decision not to insulate herself from the non-
murdered inside a house two blocks away in the middle of the white people who are moved to violence and criminality under such
day, and an old man and his vicious guard dogs were killed by a an oppressive system. However, that doesn’t mean she’s not afraid
worker whom the man had let go without pay. of the very real threat of violence unfolding in her own
neighborhood, as she immediately assumes that she’s about to be
killed or robbed.

Lying in bed in the dark, the narrator already feels like a victim The narrator’s fear gestures to the idea that the inequality of
of a crime, and her heart beats wildly in her chest. However, she material conditions breeds fear, which is a thread that runs
soon realizes that the creaking sound isn’t from an intruder’s throughout both the frame story about the narrator and the inner
footsteps. Her house is built atop of mines, so whenever story that’s still to come. With that in mind, the fact that the ground
chunks of hollowed-out rock fall away thousands of feet below underneath the narrator’s house is falling away points to the way
where the narrator sleeps, the foundation of the house creaks that, like the hollowed-out rock undermines the foundation of the
slightly. house, inequality gradually undermines the foundations of society
and may one day destroy it entirely.

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As her pulse slows, the narrator thinks of the Chopi and Tsonga The mention of the Chopi and Tsonga people—ethnic groups native
migrant workers who toil away down in the mines. She to Mozambique, South Africa—further situates this story in
imagines that the mine underneath her house may be no longer apartheid-era South Africa. That the narrator assumes the workers
in use, or it may now be the gravesite of all the men who were toiling away in the mines are black migrants paints a picture of a
working there before the rock fell away. Unable to fall back sociopolitical environment in which black people have few
asleep, the narrator begins to tell herself a bedtime story. opportunities for economic advancement and must take
dangerous—and presumably low-paying—jobs. It’s also
metaphorically significant that the black workers are laboring in
mines far below the city, reflecting their position at the very bottom
of apartheid’s social pyramid.

In the narrator’s story, a loving husband and wife and their The story begins in an almost singsong-y way, as the narrator lists all
beloved little boy are “living happily ever after” in a suburban of the family’s possessions—suggesting that material possessions
house. The little boy has a cat and dog, both of whom he loves will play a key role in the story—and paints their life as nothing short
dearly. The family has a trailer for camping and a swimming of idyllic. Though the story doesn’t actually begin with the words
pool that’s enclosed by a fence to prevent the little boy from “Once upon a time,” the story’s title and the mention of “living
falling in and drowning. The housemaid is “absolutely happily ever after” both lead the reader to believe that this story will
trustworthy,” and their “itinerant gardener” came highly be a modern children’s fairytale. However, the narrator begins the
recommended—after all, the husband’s mother, “that wise old story with the family living happily ever after—usually the very last
witch,” had warned them to not just hire anyone off the street. line in fairytales—which suggests that this peaceful, perfect life is
about to be dismantled. The mention of the gates around the pool
to keep the boy from drowning also feels somewhat jarring and
morbid in the midst of so much cheerfulness, foreshadowing the
tragedy to come. The mention of the gates around the pool and the
“absolutely trustworthy” staff also suggests that the family is
concerned with safety.

The family has medical insurance and disaster insurance, and Once again, it’s clear that the family is preoccupied with safety and
they’re members of the local Neighborhood Watch does everything in their power to insulate themselves from disaster.
organization, hence the plaque reading, “YOU HAVE BEEN The idea that the ambiguous silhouette on the Neighborhood
WARNED” that’s affixed to their front gates. On the plaque is Watch sign “proved the property owner was no racist” is ridiculous,
the silhouette of a masked intruder, but it’s impossible to tell if as it’s made abundantly clear throughout the story that this
he’s black or white, which “therefore proved the property family—and others in the suburb—fear black intruders in particular,
owner was no racist.” which is whom the sign is aimed to deter. That the ambiguous skin
color of the intruder on the sign is somehow evidence of anti-racism
seems to be a narrative that the family is telling themselves to make
them feel like morally upstanding people.

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The one thing the family’s insurance doesn’t cover, however, is The word “quartered,” which means “housed in a specific place,”
riot damage. But the riots take place outside of city limits, brings to mind images of slave quarters—housing that is crowded,
where black people are “quartered,” and black people are only dilapidated, and intentionally set away from white people (as is the
allowed into the suburb as “reliable housemaids and case here, too). The word also carries with it an element of control:
gardeners.” Still, the wife fears that “such people” might one day the apartheid government has the power to tell black people where
invade their suburb and surge through their front gates; her to live and where they can and cannot go, corralling and
husband reminds her that law enforcement officers have guns commanding them like animals rather than treating them as human
and tear gas “to keep them away.” beings with agency. Beyond this, the family refers to black people as
“them” or “such people,” and the family also characterize black
people as animals by suggesting that they must be tamed or
controlled by violence. Separation is a key theme throughout the
story—like black people being forced to live separately from white
people—and it appears again in this passage through the distinction
of “reliable housemaids and gardeners.” This implicitly suggests that
black people are unreliable by default, while a select few stand
apart.

To appease his wife—and because extreme violence is taking This passage continues to build on the theme of separation by
place just outside the city—the man has electronically showing how it can create an illusion of safety. The couple believes
controlled gates installed in front of the house, complete with a that adding this extra barrier—electronically controlled
speaker system that allows visitors to relay a message to gates—around their property will somehow insulate them from the
someone inside the house. The little boy is delighted and uses it violence that springs from living in an unequal, oppressive society.
as a walkie-talkie when he plays cops and robbers with his Meanwhile, the little boy’s fascination with the speaker
friends. system—coupled with his playful game of cops and
robbers—emphasizes his young age and also implicitly suggests that
his parents haven’t talked to him about what the gates are
specifically for or what is going on more broadly in their community.
Even though the boy is quite young, the story repeatedly implies
that his parents are in the wrong for not openly discussing racism,
inequality, and their own fear with him.

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Burglaries begin taking place across the suburb, and the The housemaid’s deep anxiety of being in charge, however
couple’s housemaid knows of a fellow housemaid who was tied temporarily, of her employers’ possessions speaks to the way that
up and locked in a cupboard by robbers while her employers wealth inequality creates fear. Her feeling that she’s going to be tied
were gone. This worries the couple’s housemaid because she, up and locked in a cabinet echoes the narrator’s instant assumption
too, is often left alone in the house and in charge of her in the frame story that the creaking sound in her house is an
employers’ possessions. She implores the couple to add intruder who is there to rob or kill her. But while the narrator makes
security bars on the windows and doors and to invest in an the ethical decision not to barricade her house (signifying her
alarm system; the wife agrees, and the extra security features ideological unity with black South Africans, even though this does
are promptly installed. The family now sees the sky and nature nothing to change their material conditions), the family in the inner
outside through metal bars, and the little boy’s cat sets off the story rushes to fortify their house and belongings in whatever way
alarm at night. they can. Significantly, neither reaction alleviates fear: the family
just continues to add more and more security features to their
house, while the narrator understands that her decision doesn’t
make her impervious to the consequences of an oppressive society.
And while the family thinks they’re protecting themselves from the
outside world, the image of them looking at the sky and trees
through barred windows suggests that they’re actually imprisoning
themselves.

The neighbors’ alarm systems are also triggered by cats or The security systems in the suburb are comically ineffective—for
mice. Alarms go off so frequently in the suburbs that they begin one thing, they’re triggered by the entirely harmless things like mice
to sound like cicadas or frogs humming in the background of and pet cats, and for another, they end up being totally ignored.
everyday life. Thieves take advantage of this and carry out their While the people in the neighborhood think that insulating
robberies while the alarms are blaring so that homeowners themselves from outsiders with an alarm system will make them
don’t hear them coming and going, arms laden with jewels, safer, this feeling of safety is only an illusion. Indeed, the blaring
television sets, and expensive clothing. alarms actually prove to be an effective cover for thieves coming
and going, emphasizing how trying to separate oneself from
outsiders will inevitably fail.

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Eventually, other black people besides just “trusted The story often uses the phrase “trusted housemaids and gardeners”
housemaids and gardeners” begin loitering in the suburbs, or “reliable housemaids and gardeners.” In repeatedly making the
looking for work—but the man and his wife heed to the distinction, the story is showcasing the way that white people like
husband’s mother’s warning about not hiring people off of the the husband and wife make sweeping generalizations about black
streets. Moved by the sight of people begging, the woman people. They imply that black people are inherently unreliable and
orders the housemaid to bring them bread and tea, but the untrustworthy, and that there are only a few exceptions to this rule.
housemaid refuses, insisting that the beggars are tsotsis In this passage, it is the housemaid, a black woman, who
(criminals) who will tie her up. The husband agrees and tells his contributes to the oppression of those of her own race. However,
wife that she would only be “encourag[ing] them” and that this doesn’t mean that the housemaid herself is racist. Instead, it
“They are looking for their chance.” seems that the housemaid realizes that her position as the maid for
an upper-class white family puts her in danger. When “Once Upon a
Time” was published in the late 1980s, crime was at an all-time
high: between 1980 and 1990, burglaries rose by 31 percent, while
serious offenses rose by 22 percent. This surge in crime was at least
partially a reaction to a new constitution implemented in the
mid-1980s that guaranteed parliamentary representation to
“colored” (mixed-race) people and Asian people but not black
people. Given this context, it’s clear that the housemaid’s fear of the
tsotsis—South African slang for “hooligans” or “criminals”—is
justified and hinges on the broader sociopolitical environment
rather than personal discrimination.

When the husband realizes that the electronic gates, alarm The mounting security measures surrounding the couples’ home
system, and security bars won’t prevent an intruder from mirrors both their own mounting fear and uneasiness and the
climbing over the wall into the garden, the wife suggests that increasingly fraught political atmosphere in South Africa. It’s
they make the wall higher. For Christmas, the husband’s significant that the husband realizes that their previous investments
mother, “the wise old witch,” gifts the couple with extra bricks in home security aren’t comprehensive and fool-proof—while the
for their wall. The little boy receives a book of fairytales and a husband is under the impression that a higher wall is the answer,
Space Man costume. the story implicitly suggests that it’s actually impossible to fully
separate oneself from others. Meanwhile, the small detail about the
little boy’s Christmas presents is another reminder of his innocence
and youth, which contrasts starkly with the heavy anxiety, fear, and
political unrest coloring the rest of the story. The book of fairytales
coupled with the repetition of the phrase “wise old witch” is yet
another nod to the story’s fairytale title—“Once Upon a Time”—and
paves the way for the story’s return to the theme of storytelling near
the end of the narrative.

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The robberies and intrusions continue in the suburb at all The footprints up the side of the wall are another indication that
hours of the day and night. One day, as the husband and wife one can’t fully wall themselves off from other people, and that trying
discuss this, they watch the little boy’s cat effortlessly scale the to insulate oneself like this brings a false sense of security. Even
seven-foot wall. The side of the wall facing the street is marked though the couple’s security system is multilayered (and getting
up with the cat’s paw prints—as well as the outline of the kind more robust by the day, it seems, with all of the couple’s additions),
of shabby running shoes that the loiterers in the suburb wear. it’s still not infallible. Earlier, the story noted how the cat often set
off the security alarm, and now the cat easefully scales the front
wall.

Later, the man and his wife take the little boy and his dog out What were once cheerful family homes have turned into austere
for a walk around the neighborhood. While the couple used to compounds, showing how the inequality of material possessions
leisurely admire their neighbors’ roses or perfectly manicured churns up fear and distrust. Instead of being horrified by this new
lawns, they now scrutinize their neighbors’ various security normal, the couple intends to join in and build even more
systems. Some people have opted for the utilitarian option of monuments to their fear. Indeed, the different materials listed in this
shards of glass embedded in concrete walls, while other passage—concrete, glass, iron, paint—almost make the security
neighbors attempt to blend spears, iron grilles, and lances into systems seem like outrageous art projects.
their specific architectural styles. When the little boy runs
ahead, the husband and wife discuss the pros and cons of each
security system.

Eventually, the husband and wife settle on a security system That the couple picks a security system that looks fit for a
that is by far the ugliest of them all—it looks like something out concentration camp—Gordimer explicitly uses this term—again
of a concentration camp—but is hopefully the most effective in rehashes the idea that in trying to protect and insulate themselves
warding off intruders. The security system consists of a series from the violent outside world, the family is actually imprisoning
of metal coils attached all the way up the length of the house. themselves. In this way, all of these security measures are just as
Each coil is spiked with jagged razor-sharp thorns, ensuring destructive for would-be intruders as they are for the family itself,
that anyone who tries to climb up the coils—or even climb out which is an idea that will continue to build as the story comes to a
of the coil—will immediately be shredded to bits in “a struggle close. The razor wire symbolizes the ruinous logic of apartheid. Like
getting bloodier and bloodier.” a would-be intruder struggling to free themselves from the wire’s
thorny grasp, those oppressed under apartheid rule are trapped in “a
struggle getting bloodier and bloodier.”

The next day, workmen from the Dragon’s Teeth security While at the beginning of the narrator’s bedtime story about the
company install the razor wire on the house where the family family, the phrase “living happily ever after” painted a cheerful
is “living happily ever after.” Now wrapped in metal, the house picture of a happy family who was indeed living out a life fit for a
gleams harshly in the sun. The husband assures his wife that fairytale, now it’s used ironically. No part of the family’s life—which
the metal will weather over time and take on a softer look, but is clearly marked by fear and self-isolation—seems happy anymore.
she tells him that he’s wrong—the metal is weather-proof. They The cat was the last creature that enjoyed mobility, and now even
both hope that the cat won’t try to scale the walls anymore. the cat is imprisoned inside the compound. Given that the razor
Luckily, the cat stays either in the little boy’s bed or in the wire is a symbol for apartheid, it’s significant that in this passage,
garden and doesn’t try to climb. the wife firmly informs his husband that he’s wrong about the metal
weathering. Her disagreement seems to imply that the violence,
fear, and oppression wrapped up in apartheid rule won’t simply
soften or go away over time by doing nothing, and telling oneself
this narrative is unproductive.

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At night, the woman reads the little boy the story of Sleeping In the story of Sleeping Beauty, an evil witch puts a curse on
Beauty from the book of fairytales that the husband’s mother Sleeping Beauty that puts her to sleep until her true love wakes her
got him for Christmas. The following day, the little boy with a kiss. But to keep the Prince—who is her true love—from
pretends to be the brave Prince who must fight his way through reaching her, the witch surrounds Sleeping Beauty in a thicket of
a dense thicket of thorns in order to get to Sleeping Beauty and thorns. In the end, the Prince gets through the thorns and saves
awaken her with a kiss. Deciding that the new razor wire wall Sleeping Beauty. That the little boy reenacts this story by climbing
will be the perfect thicket of thorns, the little boy lugs a ladder the razor wire highlights how the stories people tell themselves can
over to the way and wriggles into a coil. be lethal.

Immediately, the razor thorns dig into the little boy’s skin, and Given that the razor wire is a symbol for the ruinous logic of
he screams in agony, inadvertently entangling himself deeper apartheid, this passage emphasizes how apartheid hurts innocent
and deeper into the wire. The housemaid and gardener come people (here, the little boy and the gardener who is trying to fish him
running first, screaming, and the gardener tries unsuccessfully out). It even harms the very people who thought they would benefit
to get the little boy out, badly wounding his own hands in the from it (the suburban family who thought the security system would
process. keep them safe from harm).

The husband and wife come running out next, and the house This gruesome passage again speaks to the way that the stories
alarm begins to blare, most likely set off yet again by the cat. people tell themselves can be dangerous and even outright deadly.
The little boy’s body, now a “bleeding mass” is “hacked out” of The little boy’s family is always telling themselves a story in which
the razor wire with several types of heavy equipment. The they are the heroes and their oppressed black neighbors are the
man, his wife, the housemaid, and gardener carry “it” into the villains, the intruders and vagrants that threaten them and spoil
house. their otherwise perfect lives. But this story that they’re telling
themselves is racist and completely divorced from the reality of the
situation, in which the white family is benefiting from the
exploitation of poor, black South Africans. The family telling
themselves the wrong story leads to tragedy when their son dies in
the process of reenacting a fairytale (it’s implied that he dies since
his body is referred to as “it”). But on a broader scale, telling the
wrong story also props up the social norms that Gordimer suggests
will destroy society.

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To cite any of the quotes from Once Upon a Time covered in the
HOW T
TO
O CITE Quotes section of this LitChart:
To cite this LitChart: MLA
MLA Gordimer, Nadine. Once Upon a Time. Bloomsbury. 1991.
Weeks, Rachel. "Once Upon a Time." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 26 CHICA
CHICAGO
GO MANU
MANUAL
AL
Jun 2020. Web. 3 Oct 2024.
Gordimer, Nadine. Once Upon a Time. London: Bloomsbury. 1991.
CHICA
CHICAGO
GO MANU
MANUAL
AL
Weeks, Rachel. "Once Upon a Time." LitCharts LLC, June 26, 2020.
Retrieved October 3, 2024. [Link]
upon-a-time.

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