BY NADINE GORDIMER
The story starts like the end of a fairy tale where the family is living a perfect fairy tale life. There was perfect harmony in the family. They had good values and they regarded everyone as part of their family and highly trusted people. The people around were afraid for their houses and this fear could be seen through all the equipments which they installed and were expensive because they were afraid of colored people, the couple included several devices to make themselves more secured but which made them drift away from the society.
The once happy living family restrained from their freedom. In fact, they started living in fear and listened to all kinds of advices and implemented new security measures to give a peaceful life. Yet they were not at peace nor were they happy. The alarms in their houses were often ringing because of the cats and mice that finally no one was awakened by the alarm. Its function was useless as the thieves seized the opportunity to break into their houses without any kind of apprehension. In fact, more robberies were taking place because of the useless alarms.
The husband's mother was the one that inserted all kinds of fear in their minds. Hearing about the different robberies around the suburb, she made them raise their walls by giving them more bricks. The wife was so naïve and innocent that she couldn't see the suffering of the poor people in front of her house. She wanted to feed them. But what she didn't know was what they might be looking for at the right moment to go inside and rob their house.
The couple finally going outside didn't enjoy the scenery but in fact they were on the lookout for new techniques of security. They were always comparing the security devices of their neighbors' to reach a conclusion where they would get maximum confidence of security. Therefore they would use that in their own house. By implementing new forms of security devices, they were imprisoning themselves. They were far from a perfect life.
The cat became cautious of the security measures and took its precautions not to be heard. In the end the little boy became victim of all the invented techniques. They could not save him from endangering himself with coils.
In the end, all security measures took away the
peace of mind of the family and they suffered. The child became a victim of all
the innovative systems of security. The fairy tale like story life they had
been living had a dreadful end. Though they wanted to have a nice life and
protect themselves, they couldn't protect the values and thus they lost their
peace
B'
