Once Upon a Time

I liked this story. It reminded me of the stories my daddy used to tell me and my siblings before we all fell asleep. They were always vulgar, violent, and inappropriate for the audience, but oh so hilarious. I think it explains a lot about who I am today.

But anyway, here's question 2: "What stylistic devices create the atmosphere of children's stories? How is this atmosphere related to the story's theme?"

First and foremost, there is the title: "Once Upon a Time." This is the classic opening line to a children's story. Every time I hear that line, I just want to cozy up on the floor for storytime and insist that they show me alllll the pictures. It's just inherently child-story-oriented. Second, the characters involved are not really people. They are a man, a woman, a child, a gardener, etc...they are as flat as flat can be. And usually that's how a children's story character is. There is the dashing knight and the beautiful princess and the evil witch, all with about as much depth as a kiddie pool. So it makes sense that all of the characters in this story go without name, physical description, or any characterization whatsoever. Furthermore, the entire story is comprised of extremely simple language and syntax. All of the sentences are simple and easy to understand, and the diction is not very advanced at all. This of course, makes sense; when one writes a story for children, it had better be simple enough for a child to understand. Also, the phrases "Dragon Teeth" and "the wise old witch" are very indicative of a fairy tale feel which creates that children's story atmosphere.

So then what's the point? Well, the author is trying to create a fairly tale in order to convey the horrors of Apartheid. History Lesson?? Apartheid was the system of racial segregation in South Africa, where the white minority oppressed the non-white majority. The author herself is from South Africa, and the story is rampant with racial tension. The children story format is simply an interesting and unexpected way of conveying the current state of South Africa at the time and the criticize the oppressive system.

This is ridiculous. There are no tigers in Africa.