Previous
The Woman / The Wife
The little boy is the only child of the man and the woman. Given his age, the little boy is largely oblivious to his parents’ safety concerns throughout the story. They fear that the impoverished black people at the fringes of the community will riot in the suburbs and/or steal from the wealthy white people there, themselves included. For instance, while the husband and wife debate the merits of their neighbors’ security systems (like broken glass embedded in concrete walls and lances affixed to metal grilles), the little boy races around the neighborhood with his pet dog, unaware of the violence creeping into the suburb. When the boy’s parents install a metal wall of coiled razors along the walls of the house for extra protection against intruders, they worry that the little boy’s cat will get stuck in it—the so-called “Dragon’s Teeth” wall will shred any person that tries to climb over it or back out of it. Luckily, the little boy’s cat wisely avoids the house’s exterior from then on, but the little boy himself is not so fortunate, and his innocence causes him to tragically meet his death. The boy decides that climbing through the wire is the perfect way to roleplay the story his mother read him the previous night about a Prince who must face a dense thicket of sharp thorns to get to the Sleeping Beauty and kiss her back to life. The razor wall, though, is every bit as destructive as it promised: the little boy is instantly caught in the coils and dies a gruesome death. His body has to be hacked out of the metal coils, but his parents, the housemaid, and the gardener can’t cut him out without hurting themselves and resorting to all kinds of heavy equipment. This highlights how the logic of separation and apartheid—symbolized by the razor wall—isn’t easily dismantled and kills innocent people. It even bloodies the very people who thought they would benefit from it.
The Little Boy / The Son Quotes in Once Upon a Time
The Once Upon a Time quotes below are all either spoken by The Little Boy / The Son or refer to The Little Boy / The Son. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Once Upon a Time
Quotes
In a house, in a suburb, in a city, there were a man and his wife who loved each other very much and were living happily ever after. They had a little boy, and they loved him very much. They had a cat and a dog that the little boy loved very much. They had a car and a caravan trailer for holidays, and a swimming pool which was fenced so that the little boy and his playmates would not fall in and drown. They had a housemaid who was absolutely trustworthy and an itinerant gardener who was highly recommended by the neighbours.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
[…] [The housemaid] implored her employers to have burglar bars attached to the doors and windows of the house, and an alarm system installed. The wife said, She is right, let us take heed of her advice. So from every window and door in the house where they were living happily ever after they now saw the trees and sky through bars, and when the little boy’s pet cat tried to climb in by the fanlight to keep him company in his little bed at night, as it customarily had done, it set off the alarm keening through the house.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
When the man and wife and little boy took the pet dog for its walk round the neighbourhood streets they no longer paused to admire this show of roses or that perfect lawn; these were hidden behind an array of different varieties of security fences, walls and devices. […] While the little boy and the pet dog raced ahead, the husband and wife found themselves comparing the possible effectiveness of each style against its appearance […].
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
One evening, the mother read the little boy to sleep with a fairy story from the book the wise old witch had given him at Christmas. Next day he pretended to be the Prince who braves the terrible thicket of thorns to enter the palace and kiss the Sleeping Beauty back to life: he dragged a ladder to the wall, the shining coiled tunnel was just wide enough for his little body to creep in, and with the first fixing of its razor-teeth in his knees and hands and head he screamed and struggled deeper into its tangle.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
[…] the alarm set up wailing against the screams while the bleeding mass of the little boy was hacked out of the security coil with saws, wire-cutters, choppers, and they carried it—the man, the wife, the hysterical trusted housemaid and the weeping gardener—into the house.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Once Upon a Time LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Little Boy / The Son Quotes in Once Upon a Time
The Once Upon a Time quotes below are all either spoken by The Little Boy / The Son or refer to The Little Boy / The Son. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Once Upon a Time
Quotes
In a house, in a suburb, in a city, there were a man and his wife who loved each other very much and were living happily ever after. They had a little boy, and they loved him very much. They had a cat and a dog that the little boy loved very much. They had a car and a caravan trailer for holidays, and a swimming pool which was fenced so that the little boy and his playmates would not fall in and drown. They had a housemaid who was absolutely trustworthy and an itinerant gardener who was highly recommended by the neighbours.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
[…] [The housemaid] implored her employers to have burglar bars attached to the doors and windows of the house, and an alarm system installed. The wife said, She is right, let us take heed of her advice. So from every window and door in the house where they were living happily ever after they now saw the trees and sky through bars, and when the little boy’s pet cat tried to climb in by the fanlight to keep him company in his little bed at night, as it customarily had done, it set off the alarm keening through the house.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
When the man and wife and little boy took the pet dog for its walk round the neighbourhood streets they no longer paused to admire this show of roses or that perfect lawn; these were hidden behind an array of different varieties of security fences, walls and devices. […] While the little boy and the pet dog raced ahead, the husband and wife found themselves comparing the possible effectiveness of each style against its appearance […].
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
One evening, the mother read the little boy to sleep with a fairy story from the book the wise old witch had given him at Christmas. Next day he pretended to be the Prince who braves the terrible thicket of thorns to enter the palace and kiss the Sleeping Beauty back to life: he dragged a ladder to the wall, the shining coiled tunnel was just wide enough for his little body to creep in, and with the first fixing of its razor-teeth in his knees and hands and head he screamed and struggled deeper into its tangle.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
[…] the alarm set up wailing against the screams while the bleeding mass of the little boy was hacked out of the security coil with saws, wire-cutters, choppers, and they carried it—the man, the wife, the hysterical trusted housemaid and the weeping gardener—into the house.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
