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Summary Of Racism In 'Once Upon A Time'

Decent Essays

Pierre Berton once said “Racism is a refuge for the ignorant.” This relates to the story “Once upon a time” by showing how the couple in the short story portray uneasiness while giving into fear letting it create their limitations and blinding them from seeing that they were building their own cage still constantly trying to upgrade security leading themselves to loss of their son. In “Once upon a time”, Nadine Gordimer utilities characterization and diction to reveal the complexity of fear and racial discrimination and illustrates that one can't have a happy ending if he/she is too busy worrying about what could possibly destroy it.
In “Once Upon a Time”, Gordimer utilities characterization by limning “the fence” around them as a cage they created to illustrate how fear can undermine one's ability to take control of their thoughts and actions and realize the true ignorance behind them. For instance, during the story the wife chose to upgrade the security again but the husband told her that he believed the amount of security they had was already enough. In the story, it states “These people were not allowed into the suburb except as reliable housemaids and gardeners, so there was nothing to fear, the husband told the wife. Yet she was afraid that some day such people might come up the street and tear off the plaque YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED and open the gates and stream in…” This evidence relates to fear because of how the couple chose to handle their illusions through callous actions. The author chose to include this because the couple is characterized as melodramatic at this point because they're constantly upgrading their security for the wife's growing obsession with security. The threats that motivated the wife's fixation were the riots that were happening outside of the suburb but the robbery that happened within their home. “The wife said, She is right, let us take heed of her advice. So from every window and door in the house where they were living happily ever after they now saw the trees and sky through bars…” This evidence illustrates how the couple delineates ignorance and commits callous actions and now tries to place what just happened as a reason why they've been continuously upgrading their

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