Literary Analysis Of Nadine Gordimer's 'Once Upon A Time'

Historically, surveillance came in the form of a watch tower, designed to watch out for danger in order to protect citizens. In a more recent context, the implementation has evolved now to supervise the citizens in order to watch out for danger. The modern “watch tower” does not occupy the same physical space as its predecessor and does not impress by its height, but rather, impresses by its seemingly omnipresent eye in all channels of society and its reach into the lives of individuals, but that reach is only enough to protect very specific dangers. Although mass surveillance portrays itself as proficient in preventing threats to a collective, Nikki Giovanni’s “Surveillance” reveals her mother’s physical abuse and, as a result, the dissonance

Relegated to an underemployed underserved neighborhood by a combination of government policy and inaction, Lauren’s community is required to find a way to be self-sustainable despite lacking wealth and resources. Instead of submitting themselves to the abject poverty, they conceive of new ways to flourish given the few resources they do have, and with the guidance of religion to keep morale up. However, unlike in wealthy gated communities, Lauren’s primary objective is continued survival and perseverance. In her survival planning, she tells Joanne that they need to have a plan to “‘survive and rebuild’” (Butler, 55) so as to not end up impoverished on the streets of the world outside. Despite feeling unsafe and uneasy in their privatopia, she still seeks to recreate a similar community if she was to, as she says,“survive and rebuild” (Butler, 55). She cannot imagine an alternative to that type of living, merely aspiring to have a better, more sustainable version of her walled community. The wall separates Lauren and her psyche from the “pitiful, unwalled residential areas” (Butler, 10) not only physically but also cognitively. Her walled community does not encourage her to feel the pain of those on the outside as she would when empathizing with the members of her own community. It is easier to view the outside as other when physically separated by a wall; they are no longer

“There must be something in books, something we can imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.”(Pg. 51) Main character Guy Montag is a servant to a society that is controlled by censorship and the fear of knowledge; Montag has spent his life burning books, to prevent the spread knowledge. But a series of events cause Montag's mind to change, and result in him breaking free from his society. The internal struggle of dynamic character Guy Montag, as to whether he should go on believing the lies his society has told him, or risk his life for something as simple as words on a page, brings readers into the corrupt society of Fahrenheit 451. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 author Ray

The mother leads a life where her duties and societal expectations are met, but by doing this her happiness is lost. Once upon a time implies that she thought her life as a wife and mother would be perfect. The wife even attempts to find new roles to replace the ones she holds which do not suit her, “She tried these personalities on like costumes, then discarded them” (Godwin 42).

In this world what people often forget about that a human can do is cause mass destruction, things one should remember can be forgotten easily and just as fast as it came it leave, this can be seen in the books around us. Authors share their opinion through the words they write talking about society and how if we keep going the direction we are going we will find ourselves in deep trouble, the messages authors are trying to send can be seen through social commentary, many books have powerful messages behind them; especially in dystopian novels and movies. They show these messages through diction,syntax, imagery, and character development; for examples the books and movies; Fahrenheit 451, Incarceron, Wall-E, and Hunger games. The authors Ray Bradbury, Catherine Fisher, Andrew Stanton, and Suzanne Collins all convey a message through their works through syntax, diction, camera angles, and imagery; emphasizing their warnings of what they fear may happen.

In the story ‘‘Once Upon A Time’’, the relationship between the people and the society is family takes incremental steps to protect themselves from crime, a representation of the unknown other.

In the memoir, “The Glass Castle”, there were characters that desired freedom from the rules of society while the others however, wished for a normal life that had the happiness and security that they wanted. A normal life would be having a decent home, going to school everyday, parents with stable jobs, bills paid and at least three meals a day. The Walls Family didn’t have a normal life, in fact they always traveled from place to place because they couldn’t pay their bills, the children were home tutored by their parents (although later on they go to school) and worst of all, the Walls would starve going many days without food. For every child, it’s important that they have a sense of freedom by being able to do what they want while they’re still young. Then again, children should also feel like they’re secured, protected and safe from everything. Although if I were to choose which is more important for children, I would say security is more important .

In Jeannette Walls’s memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette and her siblings are constantly plagued with various accidents and injuries, more so than “typical” children would be. Her parents have a carefree and lenient approach to parenting, oftentimes leaving the children to fend for themselves or in perilous situations. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette recounts some of the injuries she and her siblings suffer, the reaction her parents have to those injuries, and the parallel episodes they refer to.

I chose to do my analysis on the short story, “The Story Of An Hour”. The themes I see in this story is the quest for identity/coming of age, romantic/love, birth, and death. It is about a woman named Mrs. Mallard. She was an elderly lady and had a heart complications. Her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend Richards had to break the news to her that her husband, Brently Mallard, has been killed in a railroad disaster. Mrs. Mallard was sorrowful and sobbed in her sisters’ arms. After her grieving process, she wanted to be alone, so she went to her room and locked herself in. As she sat in the window, she seem to be calmer and accepted her husband’s death. She was not distressed of what had happened. She began to say the words “free” and her heart

Dave Pelzer once said “Childhood should be carefree, playing in the sun; not living a nightmare in the darkness of the soul” (Goodreads). Indeed, most parents and other caregivers do not intentionally hurt their children. However, many children each year are traumatized by physical, sexual, emotional, psychological abuse, and neglect. In the memoir The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls reveals that she cannot lift the burden of her childhood experiences. Throughout writing The Glass Castle, the author tries to comfort herself to relieve her pain, examine her past and portray to her readers how damaging the legacy of abuse and neglect can be.

In Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag is one man attempting to turn his society upside down. After discovering for himself the injustice of his society as it shuns all literature, Montag relentlessly fights to fix this corruption and endures large amounts of persecution in the process (Bradbury). Meanwhile, in his autobiography, Narrative in the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass recounts his past as a single slave doing his best to right the evils of southern slaveholders. Although one takes place in a fantasy and one during 19th century America, both works portray individuals going against the unjust grain of their societies, and persevering through extreme opposition in the process. After escaping the grip of slavery, Douglass recounts his life story to a curious, yet most-likely privileged audience in an intelligent and revealing manner. Throughout his narrative, Douglass praises the surprising resilience of the human spirit even in the midst of constant hardship.

“Then, moaning, she ran forward, seized a book and ran toward the kitchen incinerator. He caught her, shrieking. He held her and she tried to fight away from him scratching,” (63). In the novel Fahrenheit 451 follows the protagonist, Guy Montag, and his interactions with society discouraging and encouraging his discovery of the illegal books. Along the way he understands who are the poisonous people in his dystopian world and who are not; changing his perspective to lose trust in his wife Mildred, from previous quote, and finding safety with Faber, a retired professor he came by one day in a park. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 the author demonstrates the idea that when there is censorship in the world, ignorance will follow because when a subject is hidden from one anything they do regarding it is under the impression of their lack of knowledge surrounding the topic, this becomes more relevant when Ray Bradbury acknowledges the emotions of people who have read books and whom haven't and their general opinions of them.

In Margaret Atwood’s poem “There Was Once”, Atwood uses irony to point out the societal problems within the genre of fairy tales. Charles Perrault, the author of the short story “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”, writes about fantastic creatures, magic, and love, following the generic conventions of fairy tales. When compared to Perrault’s short story “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”, Atwood’s poem both compliments and contrasts Perrault’s. These two texts, although similar, offer different views on the genre of fairy tales.

At first glance The story of one hour leaves the reader with an absence of details. The first impression given by Chopin is that Mrs. Mallard is an old woman that is stricken with a heart condition. It is why, she must be notified carefully of her husband’s demise in a train accident. As it turns out Mrs. Mallard is a young woman described as having “a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression,” portraying her as being older beyond her youthful years. A repressed independence which can only be relished behind closed doors.

The story’s first paragraph starts with family existing by a man, his wife, their grandmother, and their son. They live in the suburb, in a city, in South Africa under the apartheid system. The separation between blacks and whites are huge, and every family in the suburb is secured in any possible way. No one from the outside is allowed in. Even though the husband keeps telling his wife that “these people were not allowed into the suburb except as reliable housemaids and gardeners, so there was nothing to fear” (Gordimer 12), the family keeps developing their safety equipment, in case something could happened. The irony is that the family has no idea what is happening outside the fence. They call them “these people” (Gordimer 12) as if they don’t even know that they look like. Gradually