Once Upon a Social Issue
Fairy tales have always been told to us as children; whether to comfort or entertain us, they always seem to be a part of most everyone’s childhood. When Nadine Gordimer was asked to write a children’s story, she replied with a short story titled “Once Upon A Time”. Although the title is characteristic of a fairy tale, she leads the tale to an ending that is anything other than “…happily ever after.” Gordimer distorts the fairy tale by dealing with certain issues rather than giving the reader the usual fairy tale characteristics. Three of the more significant issues Gordimer likes to deal with in her story are racial discrimination and prejudice, society’s insecurities, and the persuasive way fairy tales have with children.
Gordimer’s “Once Upon A Time” has the feeling of insecurity right away. In the first part of her story, Gordimer reminds us of our own insecurities. She brings up a familiar situation in which one is awakened by a bump in the night and cannot go back to sleep because of fear or their own insecurities. Gordimer writes, “I have no burglar bars, no gun under the pillow, but I have the same fears as people who do take these precautions...” So, to better convey this issue of society’s insecurities, she tells herself a bedtime story. In the story, there is a family who is living “…happily ever after”, yet is seems it is all that they can do to keep it that way. Rather than putting their insecurities aside and getting on with their lives, they feel that they must put their trust in security devices to protect their selves. For a short while, the family has a sense of security by posting a plaque stating “’YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED” over the silhouette of a prospective intruder. After a short time the family’s psychological need for more security calls for a number of new security devices in order to sustain the top level of security. It is in the family’s pursuit of this “security” that they virtually imprison themselves. After the installation of burglar bars, Gordimer describes the view “from every window and door in the house where they were living happily ever after they now saw the trees and sky through bars.”
One of the less obvious issues lining “Once Upon A Time” is racial discrimination. Gordimer first suggestion that this suburb may be slightly racist is by stating that the plaque on their gate warning possible intruders didn’t designate black or white, therefore protesting too much the owner of the home not to be a racist.
The true antagonist of the play is the town of Salem itself, because of the judgemental and self concerned peoples, and its oppressive views. Abigail;s outrageous actions are due to her desensitized views on death and actions otherwise viewed as unethical. From her youth ABigail recalls: “ I saw indians smash my dear parents’ head on the pillow next to mine and i have seen some reddish work at night” (Miller 20), because of this Abigail is numb to death and suffering and is in fact quite morbid. There is no problem in condemning other to death in Abigail’s eyes because she doesn’t see the issue with it. Abigail does not seem to comprehend that it is unethical to let people be hanged and stoned to death and has no issue telling others that she “ can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down” (Miller 20). Not only is Abigail desensitized to murder and death, she is also numb to other unethical dilemmas. Abigail is desensitized to corrupting the Proctor’s marriage because of her childish lust and obsession for John Proctor. Such desires can be seen through her encounters with Proctor. In regards to their so called “relationship” she says: “it’s she put me out, you cannot pretend it were you. I saw your face when she put me out, and you loved me then and you love me now!” (Miller 22). Abigail does not view her behavior t...
...ical problem. She seems to be lost in the world, and the only way for her to go through life is by being deceitful. She has no remorse for what she’s done or caused. It becomes even worse when she steals from her own family members. In addition Abigail eventually ran away with Mercy Lewis. Abigail is cold-hearted and she basically plays the devils character in her town. In this case Abigail was never the victim and she will always be an unforgettable character.
When analyzing a classic fairytale such as, Snow White, by the Brothers Grimm through a feminist lens, it is clear that it is a phallocentric fairytale that includes stereotypes, gender roles, the male gaze, and paternalism.
Think for a moment of a world without bees; a world without our buzzing friend. They might look like they barely do much to help our ecosystem. However, bees are a vital part of our agriculture and this makes it vital that we keep them around. The bee population decline in recent years is troubling for both us and our little friends. As their friends, we must do all we can in order to ensure their survival which in turn will ensure our own.
Though the evils of the world may discourage us from reaching our full potential, fairytales such as Little Snow-White by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm teach us that good will always triumph over evil. As many tales of its kind, Little Snow-White uses a number of literary devices to attract a younger audience and communicate to them a lesson or moral that will remain with them throughout their lives. Since children have such an abstract stream of thought, it is vital to use language and devices that will appeal to them as to keep them interested in the story.
At first glance, what makes a fairy tale a fairy tale may seem obvious—some kind of magic, hidden symbols, repetition, and of course it’s evident it’s fiction—but fables are more than that. As Arthur Schelesinger puts it, it’s about “[expanding] imagination” and gaining understanding of mysterious places (618). While doing this, it also helps children to escape this world, yet teach a lesson that the reader may not be conscious of. A wonderful story that achieves all of this is Cinderella, but not the traditional tale many American’s have heard. Oochigeaskw, or The Rough-Faced Girl, and Ashputtle would be fitting for a seven-year-old because they get the gears of the mind turning, allowing for an escape on the surface, with an underlying enlightenment for children of the ways of the world.
Fairy tales portray wonderful, elaborate, and colorful worlds as well as chilling, frightening, dark worlds in which ugly beasts are transformed into princes and evil persons are turned to stones and good persons back to flesh (Guroian). Fairytales have long been a part of our world and have taken several forms ranging from simple bedtime stories to intricate plays, musicals, and movies. However, these seemingly simple stories are about much more than pixie dust and poisoned apples. One could compare fairytales to the new Chef Boyardee; Chef Boyardee hides vegetables in its ravioli while fairytales hide society’s morals and many life lessons in these outwardly simple children stories. Because of this fairytales have long been instruments used to instruct children on the morals of their culture. They use stories to teach children that the rude and cruel do not succeed in life in the long run. They teach children that they should strive to be kind, caring, and giving like the longsuffering protagonists of the fairytale stories. Also, they teach that good does ultimately defeat evil. Fairy tales are not just simple bedtime stories; they have long been introducing cultural moral values into young children.
How about fruits, vegetables, coffee, even shampoo or lotion? Our livestock depend on bee-pollinated plants like grain. Poorly pollinated plants produce fewer fruits and seeds leading to higher prices (New Agriculturist, n.d.). Some crops are entirely dependent on pollinators such as almonds and others are 90 percent dependent like blueberries and cherries (ABF, 2015). Bees give us honey and we use this honey in food, shampoo, and moisturizers (Mercola, 2015). Bees pollinate 70 out of our 100 major crops; that includes apples, cucumbers, pumpkins, and many more. Our bees are dying at the highest rates ever recorded: 42 percent of the United States bee colonies collapsed in 2015 (NRDC, 2015). 50 to 80 percent of the worlds food supply is directly affected by honeybee pollination (Pennsylvania Apiculture Inc., 2011). Reduced crop pollination will make food more expensive and can even make some crops harder to grow successfully (Worland,
During the 19th century, Grimm’s fairytales were strongly disapproved of due to harsh, gruesome details and plots. One American educator from 1885 stated, “The folktales mirror all too loyally the entire medieval worldview and culture with all its stark prejudice, its crudeness and barbarities.” As childre...
Fairy Tales have been around for generations and generations. Our parents have told us these stories and we will eventually pass them down to ours. In this time of age the most common fairytales are Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and The Beast and many more. Children idolize their favorite character and pretend to be them by mimicking everything they do in the stories. The character’s behavior is what is viewed as appropriate in society. These fairy tales show a girl and a boy fall in love and live “happily ever after”. The tales in many people’s eyes resemble a dream life that they would want to have of their own. However, have you ever really looked at what makes up a fairy tale? Many things are unrealistic but the most unflattering aspect of these tales is how women are depicted in them. Fairy tales give an unrealistic view to how women should look and behave in real life.
..., Maria. “An Introduction to Fairy Tales.” Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Ed. Laurence Behrens, Leonard J. Rosen. Toronto: Longman, 2013. 230-235. Print.
The honey bees started to vanish rapidly without any reason in the year 2006. Honey bees are vital to the life of humans, plants, and animals. In the article “The Importance of Honey Bees”, Maria Boland writes, “Honey bees pollinate 80% of the earth’s plants, which converts to 1/3 of what humans eat.” The world should look into saving the honey bees because, without them, plants would not be pollinated, animals would die, humans would have a hard time finding things to eat, and the world would lose staggering sums of money. In the book The Backyard Beekeeper, Kim Flottum writes that Albert Einstein once said, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man. Because the honey bee is important to all life on earth, our government should work to help educate children and adults on the honey bees, regulate pesticides sold, and help fund research towards protecting the honey bees.
I am writing this paper because I was assigned to write it as a class project. Along the way I realized the importance of sharing the real meanings of all these stories. Stories are important because in the society we live in things are constantly changing. Fairytales change but the base of the story always remain the same no matter how many times it has been retold. It’s important to reveal the true meanings of these stories, even with its dark characteristics, because the world is dark .Children need to know that there are people that have told stories relatable to what they are going through. Fairytales help the development of children; it helps their maturity as they confront someone else’s tough situations, instilling hope of a more positive ou...
Honey bees are interesting and work very hard during their lifetime. Some say we owe our survival to the honey bee. They help pollinate everything from ornamental flowers to our food supply. They have become very efficient and effective at pollination unfortunately, honey bees face many dangers in their daily life to survive. They have to defend from predators in flight as well as in their hive, not to mention the wide use of pesticides. Honey bees also produce delicious honey that some use for medicinal purpose and human and animal food production. Honey bees are important to our society, from evolution through the pollination process. Unfortunately, the bees face many dangers, however, humans need them to help pollinate crops and assist
Have you ever thought about our honey bees? Some people think they're a nuisance but these hardworking small insects make it possible for your favorite foods to reach your table. In the winter of 2006 a strange event happened with the honey bee hives across the country. Millions of bees vanished from their hives. The disappearing bees left billions of dollars of crops at risk and it threatened our food supply. So today I will be talking about The honey bee and answering the following questions: First,what is the honey bees purpose in life, secondly how we are harming them and thirdly how the honey bees help us in our daily lives and their importance.