The essay “Once Upon a Time” by Nadine Gordimer, is a moral story about racism in South Africa that occurs between the rich and the poor. Gordimer explains that this story came about when someone wrote to her and said that “every writer should write at least one story for children. The story depicts a wealthy white family who continually invests in security measures to keep poor people, who they deem dangerous, out of their home. This essay reveals a great deal of irony as the story progresses. This allows readers to better understand the conflicts that arise when a community constantly makes decisions about a social class based on the actions of a member of that same social class. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The irony in “Once Upon a Time” begins with the name of the essay and the first words of the children's story. The words Once Upon a Time are a "fairytale approach and style" and create a certain expectation that accompanies those words. The irony lies in the disastrous ending, very unusual for a story that begins with such a clichéd name and title. The fact that this family, “who felt extremely insecure in the changed environment and who instilled imaginary fears within themselves, and to keep themselves protected from the offended black population” they put a huge fence with barbed wire on top just to feel comfortable. The ending of the story with the boy dragging a ladder up to the wall, climbing on it and seriously injuring himself and perhaps even dying, is not exactly the outcome they expected from that fence. The greatest example of irony I see is that she is supposed to write a children's story; as you can tell, this story is far from intended for children. At the end of Gordimer's story, the boy who lives in the house has the idea of ​​fighting a dragon like the knights in his children's stories. He begins to try to climb the fence around his house called "DRAGON'S TEETH", while climbing he gets caught in the barbed wire. As the boy tries to get out, he is dragged deeper into the spines, causing scrapes and cuts all over his body. I believe this part of Gordimer's story is meant to serve as a warning. Most children's stories end happily, with the hero emerging unscathed. This makes children believe that all their adventures will be successful and that the world is a happy place without conflicts that cannot be resolved. The story "Once Upon a Time" is a warning to the community not only about the nature of telling children about major conflicts, but also to the South African public that state conflict does not improve and should not be expected to disappear, because this is not a fairy tale, it's reality and we need to do something about it and it communicates a lot of this through irony. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a custom essay