Once Upon A Time

Nadine Gordimer wrote "Once Upon A Time". I loved the tone of this story. It flowed beautifully. Gordimer’s word choice and sentence variety made this a great work. It started out being about an author who didn’t write children’s books. Then later being awakened by something, from there the mind wandered and the imagination created something extreme. It is so true that when a person is home alone any sound examined can be morphed into something so scary that otherwise would be ridiculous to believe. The bedtime story she tells herself is not the typical bedtime story. It talked a family and a neighborhood that get too caught up in security systems. This family has electronically controlled gates, burglar bars attached to the doors and windows, an alarm system, high walls on the outside, and pieces of glass embedded on the top of the wall. When people get this caught up with protecting themselves, you can no longer live and enjoy it. And this is shown when they go for a walk, but can see no yards only other options for more security. They don’t get the joy seeing the world the way it was intended to be seen they see the world behind bars. I feel that if someone wants to break into something bad enough they will find away no matter what type of security one has. The couple that lives in this house may feel safe but eventually their high security system turns against them. Their son pretended to be a Prince from a story that was read to him. He dragged a ladder to the wall and climbed through the barbed wire; only for the embedded glass to stick into his little hands and knees. And what more is there to do for a kid than panic. When he panicked his injuries grew more in depth and he cried. Only when the alarm went did the parents come running to his rescue. This story teaches a great lesson of something that can go wrong with being too careful.