52 pages 1 hour read

Nadine Gordimer

Once Upon a Time

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1989

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Character Analysis

The Narrator

The unnamed narrator is the protagonist. She is a novelist who has been asked to write a children’s story for an anthology. Gordimer does not provide physical details describing the narrator, except to imply that she is white. Her personality is defiant. When her contact tells her that every novelist should write at least one children's story, she thinks about sending a postcard back saying she does not think she “ought” to write anything (67).

The narrator’s attitude mirrors that of the family in her bedtime story. When she fears an intruder has entered her house, like the family, she thinks about similar crimes that have happened in her area. The family, too, fears an imaginary threat while ignoring the true causes for alarm in their social context. Unlike the family, the narrator has no security systems to protect her. Ironically, the unstable mines under the house—her symbolic reference to the shaky foundations on which apartheid rests—pose a far greater danger than any intruder. This idea misses the narrator, however, as she relaxes and tries to fall back asleep after realizing there is no intruder in the house. 

Related Titles

By Nadine Gordimer

Plot Summary

logo

Burger's Daughter

Nadine Gordimer

Burger's Daughter

Nadine Gordimer

Study Guide

logo

July's People

Nadine Gordimer

July's People

Nadine Gordimer

Study Guide

logo

Jump and Other Stories

Nadine Gordimer

Jump and Other Stories

Nadine Gordimer

Plot Summary

logo

None to Accompany Me

Nadine Gordimer

None to Accompany Me

Nadine Gordimer

Study Guide

logo

Six Feet of the Country

Nadine Gordimer

Six Feet of the Country

Nadine Gordimer

Plot Summary

logo

The Conservationist

Nadine Gordimer

The Conservationist

Nadine Gordimer

Study Guide

logo

The Moment Before the Gun Went Off

Nadine Gordimer

The Moment Before the Gun Went Off

Nadine Gordimer

Plot Summary

logo

The Pickup

Nadine Gordimer

The Pickup

Nadine Gordimer

Study Guide

logo

The Train From Rhodesia

Nadine Gordimer

The Train From Rhodesia

Nadine Gordimer