It is curious that the narrator used a story of this proportion to soothe herself, when the story’s elements are anything but soothing. Ironically they are more of disturbing nature, using the simple fairy tale format of once-upon-a-time straight to the happily-ever-after, but this time with a twisted sense of that concluding happiness. In fact, all throughout this piece irony seems to be the connecting element.

In a white community plagued by fear of criminal activities by blacks, particularly break-ins and theft, a family took action to secure their home and their life. This family, made up of a wife, husband, and young son, lived with their “absolutely trustworthy” maid and “itinerant” gardener, whom the reader assumes are both black (Gordimer, 82). The family installed an electronic gate, was a member of the neighborhood

In the typical style of a fairy tale, the main characters – the wife, husband and son – do not have a clear cut personality of their own. There is no direct speech or dialogue, and they have no individuality assigned to them. Strangely enough it is the mother-in-law, though she never engages in dialogue either, who is the only character that stands out as unique in the sense of a personality trait. She was addressed in the story as the “wise old witch” which, whenever read, would temporarily displace the sense of ‘fairy-tale flow’ in the story

But undoubtedly the greatest irony lies in the end of the story, the grisly demise of the young boy. For it was the barbarically designed metal dragon’s teeth, the climax of the husband and wife’s obsession with security, that was the final curtain. That which they installed to keep intruders out, in turn fenced grief in. The ending was horrifically pathetic, cruelly comical, gruesomely ironic.

watch, and implemented an alarm system as a means to protect themselves from potentially rioting thieves.

In this story, there are no direct “good folk” and “baddies. The reader assumes that the protagonists are the family, because of their good-natured, loving ways. There is no obvious antagonist, so perhaps one would label the black rioting thieves as such, but out of lack of option. They serve the role as the indirect antagonist. Therefore according to fairy tale logics, it no members of the family tale family would perish. In true fairy tale style there would be a dramatic conclusion, protagonist versus antagonist, perhaps a thief’

Some topics in this essay:
, fairy tale, wife husband, wife husband son, protect themselves, metal dragon’s teeth, tale family, husband son, obsession security, metal dragon’s, death boy, rioting thieves, “wise witch”,