Once Upon a Time

Once upon a Time by Nadine Gordimer

What commentary about racism and fear does Gordimer make through the story?

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Last updated by jill d #170087
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The first and clearest theme is the threat of death and danger in the narrator's neighborhood. Because of social injustice and the element of organized crime, the narrator tells a short story about the opposite threat. Consider the danger of paranoia and over-protection. In his short story, the son even dies, cut to shreds by the barbed-wire designed to protect him. The threat of death is not one that they can fix, because the threat looms in every circumstance.

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Once upon a Time