And The Golden Rule Backfires

In the short story Once Upon a Time by Nadine Gordimer, it is quite clear that the story within the story is to be a fairytale type of story. This is apparent from the beginning with the repetition of the phrase, "Once upon a time", and the telling of everything they "loved very much" in a laundry list style. The story begins with a man and wife who love eachother and have no problems (unrealistic). Then, the little boy is mentioned and, once again, he is loved very much. Then, he loves the cat and dog very much. Listing the cliches in order like that and using elementary words gives the story that fairytale effect. This atmosphere relates to the theme in the sense that the childlike and naive outlook the parents have toward the problem of the invading poor people is carried over into their attempt to prevent these poor people from becoming a problem for them. They set up a monsterous contraption to scare off any wrongdoers, but what they end up causing is far from innocent. The death of their son is a stab of harsh reality to a sheltered, uptight couple of parents.