What is the theme of Once Upon A Time?

A theme always contains the main emphasis and intent of the story. In Once Upon A Time by Nadine Gordimer, the theme essentially relates to fear and how this fear pervades, in this case, the life of the family, destroying their so-called "happily ever after." The family traps itself inside the home always increasing security so that "the people of another color" cannot destroy the illusion that the family is trying to hold onto. 

Gordimer reveals that the changing political landscape of South Africa at the time of publication in 1989 worries many people who cannot see a resolution. Fear of the unknown is readily felt and the tragic outcome for this family suggests that the major conflict of man against man becomes one of man against himself. Themes of fear and the anticipated loss of freedom allow Gordimer to serve her warning. In the opening to the story, Gordimer even admits her fear of the unknown. However, she is able to rationalize it and dispel her fear but not so the family, indicating that many South Africans will be similarly affected and instead of embracing the unknown future, they will try to perpetuate the current untenable situation. This theme of fear may paralyze many people and Gordimer is warning that what many think is the comfortable and safe alternative is more deadly than ever. 

What is the overall theme of "Once Upon a Time"?

There are several themes that can be seen in Gordimer’s short story.  I would examine the enotes essentials page on themes of the story. I think that there are several themes that can be taken.  One of which would be the idea that the more people strive for something that is “perfect,” the more seeds of personal destruction are planted.  The family in the short story are so concerned with crime and the external world that they build this fortress of a home, complete with alarms, protective gates, and barbed wire along with jagged edging on the exterior walls surrounding the home.  These elements are progressive steps taken in the hopes of ensuring that the outside world will not cause terror to the family.  They find that this ends up killing their child.  The example helps to bring out Gordimer’s idea that those who fail to fully understand and work with their existing reality and try to keep themselves insulated from it can end up concocting a cocktail of personal destruction as opposed to a state of created perfection.

How does the final paragraph elucidate the theme in Once Upon a Time?

Gordimer's story is a political commentary on the system of apartheid that governed South Africa at that time. The minority white population was kept legally separated from the majority black population. The whites had most of the resources and lived increasingly walled off from and in fear of the oppressed black population. Whites felt that by staying apart from the increasingly angry blacks they would keep themselves safe.

Gordimer's theme or message in this story is that walls won't keep us safe. (She universalizes this theme by not setting her tale in any particular place or time.) The last paragraph reinforces her theme by showing what happens when the family tops the wall around their house with razor wire. Their beloved young son, after hearing a fairy tale, pretends to be the prince in Sleeping Beauty. He tries to scale the wall of their home and gets tangled up in the razor wire and killed. In other words, by putting up walls to keep out the undesirable "other," we end up destroying ourselves. Walls and razor wire are not the answer.

How does the final paragraph elucidate the theme in Once Upon a Time?

The closing paragraph is where everything comes into realization.  It is at this point where we see the family's desire for perfection in the form of absolute security turn into disaster on massive levels.  The wall built to keep the outside world out becomes the height that the child as "Prince Valiant" must scale in order to rescue the princess.  The barbed wire and jagged edges on the top of the wall end up ensaring the boy, cutting him each time he moves and piercing through the life of his body.  In the end, the family's inability to make out their own screams of horror with the blaring alarms in their home going off simutaneously are another reminder of how the family's desire for perfection ends up yielding personal destruction.  In the end, this paragaph results in the reader fully understanding and comprehending how the thematic development of the desire for perfection and totality leads to destruction and fragmentation of hopes and dreams.

How does the final paragraph elucidate the theme in Once Upon a Time?

I remember first teaching this short story to my Seniors and the way that they were all repulsed by the final paragraph and the ending of this modern fairy tale in South Africa. In particular, the bloody end that the boy meets whilst trying to enact the fairy tale in his book is incredibly shocking. Note how this ending is depicted:

Next day he pretended to be the Prince who braves the terrible thicket of thorns to enter the palace and kiss the Sleeping Beauty back to life: He dragged a ladder to the wall, the shining coiled tunnel was just wide enough for his little body to creep in, and with the first fixing of its razor teeth in his knees and hands and head he screamed and struggled deeper into its tangle.

There is an intense irony in this passage which is crucially linked to one of the main themes of the story. The family have supposedly had the "Dragon's Teeth" installed to protect themselves, but they end up by damaging themselves in a way that they could never have foreseen. It appears that walls or barriers, no matter how sophisticated or high, cannot guarantee safety or peace, and that often, when we try to protect ourselves we actually just end up hurting oruselves, as is shown through the way the boy is mauled.