An Ironic Frame Story

"Once Upon a Time" by Nadine Gordimer

"Once Upon a Time" serves as Nadine Gordimer's clever retort to a man requesting that she write a children's story.  Gordimer introduces her "children's story" with a frame story describing her discomfort at feeling as if her house had been invaded by a burglar.  To cope with her discomfort, Gordimer begins to tell herself a bedtime story, a tale which would normally entail adventure, wonder, and happiness.  Therefore, when she begins her tale with a happy, suburban family living wonderfully in a lovely city, the story seems to follow the traditional archetype.   However, Gordimer adds her own dark twist by surrounding the suburb with crime, violence, and death.  As such, "Once Upon a Time" displays its first bit of irony by distorting a normally comforting bedtime story into something morose.  Furthermore, within the tale, the suburban family seeks protection from ubiquitous danger.  In doing so, the mother and father fortify their protective walls, add electronic gates, and install barbed wire fences not only to protect themselves, but also their young son.  However, the boy ventured into the barbed wire and as he "screamed and struggled deeper into its tangle" he maimed himself severely, leaving his body a grotesque bloody mass (Gordimer 236).  Irony presents itself once more; the barbed wire aimed to protect the boy ends up destroying him.  Additionally, in recounting this gruesome bedtime story, Gordimer writes the children's story asked of her.  Unfortunately for the people asking for it, the tale ironically takes on a much more gothic, dark quality than any true children's story should.