Analysis Of Once Upon A Time By Nadine Gordimer

The short story Once Upon a Time by Nadine Gordimer is a story about fear and life during the Apartheid movement in South Africa, more specifically Johannesburg, where the Author was born. As well as being historically accurate and showing the conflict of this time in a summarised form, it explains the Apartheid through a presumably white, rich family ( A Mother,Father and Son)which shows us a different perspective of this historical event. One character who I thought to be thought provoking was the Mother of the family. She helped us understand what it was like to live through the Apartheid as the reader presumably was not there. Also since the Mother did not have many bold/specific traits she was a relatable character and helped the audience to not stereotype the people living in the Apartheid. I will discuss some of the ways the Mother was thought provoking such as ; acting out of fear, being easily persuaded and lastly simply wanting to be a better mother through the Apartheid but by doing so was unintendedly racist. If you were faced with an option to live safely but go against your strong morals and watch others suffer, what would you do? Although the majority of humans …show more content…
Not because she changed the world or accomplished something tremendous, but because she challenged us to think about acting out of fear, being easily persuaded and unintended racism. The Mother has faults, just like every other human,or Mother. However by confronting us with her faults and not being a specific character she allowed us to relate and challenges us to think about our own faults. The Mother also shows an experience, the Apartheid, from a different perspective and allows us to understand a less spoken point of view. Although Once Upon a Time by Nadine Gordimer is just a short story the Mother in the story manages to provoke thought and I consider her to be an meaningful