Behind every story there is a greater meaning. In Nadine Gordimer “Once Upon a Time” and Anna Quindlen “A quilt of a Country”, symbolism plays an important role in going beyond the surface meaning of the meaning. Both the cat and the quilt symbolize something more than what they seem, the cat shows the irony between precautions and our safety, while the quilt shows that America is built from parts that do not match. In Nadine Gordimer’s “Once Upon a Time”, the cat has several deeper meanings. The cat was the one thing they did worry about and built the wall higher, “the little boy’s pet cat effortlessly arriving over the seven foot wall, descending first with a rapid brace of extended forepaws down on the sheer vertical surface, and then
