Once Upon a Time

“I reply that I don’t write children’s stories; and he writes back that at a recent congress/book fair/seminar a certain novelist said every writer ought to write at least one story for children. I think of sending a postcard saying I don’t accept that I ‘ought’ to write anything.”

The requester does not explain why it is important for every novelist to write a children's story. The narrator’s sarcastic tone implies that the motivation is commercial rather than artistic. Nevertheless, the idea lodges itself in the narrator’s mind, and when she needs to fall asleep, she tells herself a bedtime story. The tale’s ending implies that the narrator really does not write children’s stories, and the reader must guess if the narrator meant the fairy tale to be violent from the start, or if she wanted to tell an innocent story but the reality of apartheid intruded.

“A creaking of the kind made by the weight carried by one foot after another along a wooden floor. I listened. I felt the apertures of my ears distend with concentration.”

This passage is an example of Gordimer’s method of varying sentence length to create rhythm and heighten tension. The short sentence “I listened.” forces the reader to pause as if listening, and the next sentence forces the reader’s concentration to intensify, mimicking the actions and emotional intensity the narrator experiences.

“I have no burglar bars, no gun under the pillow. But I have the same fears as people who do take these precautions, and my windowpanes are thin as rime, could shatter like a wine glass.”

Here the narrator sets up a comparison between herself and her neighbors who have experienced or are afraid of experiencing outsiders intruding in their homes. She parallels her fears with those of the family in her fairy tale, suggesting that even though she does not seem conscious of it, her fears may be motivated by racism.