Once Upon A Time By Nadine Gordimer

Power and control are the two most important things a human can obtain. It is human nature to want to control everything in your power. Power can come from family, wealth, social status, marriage, race, and religion. History has shown time and time again that power is one of the driving forces to live. To live an important life, one must feel self worth and to feel self worth, one must have power. Narratives describing the struggle for control are in abundance throughout many different cultures around the world. These stories are used to explain and expand on the many theories of power and control in society and to understand human’s relationship with power and control. For example, in the short story, “Once Upon a Time,” by Nadine Gordimer,

When the family is first told by the old witch about the dangers of the poor they immediately sign up with the neighborhood watch and given a “plaque for their gates lettered YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED,” (25). The phrase “you have been warned” directly connects to the idea of worried, anxious, and paranoid thought processes, which would not be recognized as a usual theme throughout children’s bedtime stories. This type of imagery shows that Gordimer is concerned with the notion of paranoia and the connection it has with the need for control. It explains that an obsession with control leads to paranoia and can happen amongst even the most “white collar” citizens. In addition, the family purchases intense barbed wire due to their constant paranoia: “a continuous coil of stiff and shinning metal serrated into jagged blades so that there would be no way of climbing over it … only a struggle getting bloodier and bloodier,” (29). The words “stiff,” “serrated,” and “jagged” not only describe the metal wire but also could suggest the feelings and nature of paranoia. The physical stiffness of a body that is under constant stress and discomfort due to excessive worrying, the serrated movement and unorganized order of thought processes, the jagged and tense feeling of not knowing what could happen next—all examples of symptoms of paranoia, which result from the need and lack of