"Once Upon a Time" Nadine Gordimer

In "Once Upon a Time," the narrator is told that she must write a children's novel, because every author "ought to write at least one story for children." The narrator does not want to do this, but does so anyway, which explains the reason for the satirical tone of the story she writes. The story starts by explaining how there was a wife and a husband that loved each other very much, and they had a son that they loved very much, and he had a dog and cat that he loved very much, and they all lived happily ever after. This is her way of incorporating aspects of a children's story to her piece. Then she begins telling her story of how this family is afraid of burglars so they keep increasing the security on their house, adding in little parts about the family, such as when the mother reads her son a bedtime story from a book that his grandmother had bought for him. Ironically, in the bedtime story, the brave prince had jumped over a thicket of thorns to save his princess, and in trying to imitate the prince, the boy trys to jump over the wall they had just covered with razor blade coils in their latest attempt to keep burglars away. When the little boy does this, he is caught by the blades and dies.