English – Maren, Frida & Vilde

Explain apartheid and give examples

- Apartheid is a law system in white segregates black South Africans from white South Africans.
The apartheid started in 1948 and ended in 1991. It covered all aspects of life: marriage, careers, justice, education and where one could live.

- Under the apartheid people were classified into one of three groups: white, black or colored.
-Black people could not vote in parliamentary elections, and until 1990 many public facilities and institutions were restricted to the use of one race only.

One upon a time

Present Nadine Gordimer:
Nadine Gordimer is born in 1923 and come
from South Africa. She won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1991.
She likes to write about how apartheid in South Africa destroys
the lives to her countrymen and women and moral and racial issues.
The last few years she has been interested to write about hiv and
aids, and questions about that. Her interest for author came early
and her first short story was published in South Africa when she
was only 15 years old.




Plot:
A white man, a woman and their little boy lives happily ever after in an overly secured house, that will protect them against riots. Their lives go by and they buy more and more safety equipment, as they are afraid of what the unemployed loafers could do to them and their property. However they cannot secure themselves from the security system, which ends up killing the happy couple’s little boy.


Explain why apartheid is one of the themes in the story:
Apartheid is one of the themes in the story, because the suburb people segregate themselves from other people on the street with high defenses. Therefore they create a high wall between the two different groups of people, which are hard to tear down. They also use a walkie-talkie to make sure that the people they let in to their property are trustworthy and would not do any damage. Mainly they segregate themselves, which are the idea of apartheid.

Find elements of fairy tales:
- It start with “One upon a time.”
- It has many repetitions like “loved very much.”
They said it three times at the beginning.
“Happily ever after”
- Wise old witch. (Husband’s mother)
- The number three is used (loved dog, cat and boy)
- Short number of people
- Short story with few unnecessary details.
- The suburb people are rich, and the people outside the wall is poor.  

Why can we call this story a reverse fairytale?
- In the beginning everything is wonderful, however the story ends badly and sad.
- Evil wins over goods
- It is a very abrupt ending.  
- It is not any heroes and there are not any obstacles.