Analysis of Once Apon A Time
Fairy tales have always been told to us as children, they always seem to be a part of everyone's childhood. When the narrator was asked to write a children's story, she replied with a short story titled "Once Upon A Time". Although the title is characteristic of a fairy tale, she leads the tale to an ending that is anything other than "happily ever after." "Once upon a Time" is characterized as an interpretive piece of literature due to the story elements.The characters traits add to the interpretative nature of the story. The major characters in this story are the father, mother, mother- in- law, son, and two servants, all of whom are stock and flat characters, with a higher purpose. The father is characterized as a flat character because he has no multidimensional traits in his personality. He is a predictable character with no real challenges to face that divert his ideology. In a reply to his wife about a safety issue he says "Nonsense, my dear, there are police and soldiers and tear- gas and guns to keep them away" (Gordimer.185). The wife is afraid that someone might pose a threat to her well-being. The Husbands response is something a classic Husband would say to comfort his wife. This response is expected of a ty
He is introduced and mentioned very little. The story "Once Upon a Time" leaves it up to the mind of the reader to decide what will happen next. In the story Gordimer never identifies the characters racial background, though the situations and people of the story suggest otherwise. The mother in law's character is a flat character, and only employed for developmental purposes. Gordimer spent a great deal of her life in Africa, and in that continent people of Aryan decent posses the wealth. For a short while, the family has a sense of security by posting a plaque stating "'YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED" (Gordimer 185) over the silhouette of a prospective intruder. The Author reveals glimpses of possible future scenarios that could affect the family. Narrator's story has the feeling of insecurity right away. The little boy has no internal conflict, or complexity, and undergoes no internal change as a character meaning he is a stock character. Also, there is no closure to the family's safety issue, the whole story revolves around this conflict. Both the maid and the itinerate gardener are flat characters. This request from the servants is made to expand on the main characters sense of insecurity; only by this method can the author add to the development of the story. This makes the wife a round character. They are kept in the shadows and serve little purpose to the story other than development.
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