Questions from Once Upon a Time
1. What motivated Nadine Gordimer to write this short story for children?
2. Summarize the advantages of the family in the story.
3. What warning did the family receive?
4. What proved the family wasn’t racist, according to the narrator? Was she being facetious?
Explain.
5. Why didn’t the father fear riots in their area? What did the wife fear?
6. What negative activities were happening in the “other” neighborhood?
7. What negative activities were happening in their own neighborhood?
8. What did the housemaid suggest for the protection of their house?
9. Why weren’t all the alarm systems in their neighborhood as effective as they should be?
10. Did all of the protections in the neighborhood prevent burglaries? Explain.