"And then last night I woke up--or rather was awakened without knowing what had roused me. A voice in the echo-chamber of the subconscious? A sound. A creaking of the kind made by the weight carried by once foot after another along a wooden floor" (Gordimer, 231)
Through her satirization of society, the woman in Gordimer's story creates an irony/disconnect between herself and the society she creates. From the beginning, the character presents the paradoxical manner in which these families live. They live "happily ever after" lives, yet at the same time are obsessed and worried about the security of their houses and families at every moment. How can this be? How can one be living happily ever after while being worried every second of every day. This obsession with security is the hubris of the family the character focuses her night time story upon; it also presents one of the many points of irony in the story. Rather than the outside world coming in and taking their son, the safety system they have established is what kills him. From this, a larger irony is built. The character who tells the story seems to have less fear in a house that has no security/alarm/fence system than the family who has all of these things. She can better rationalize and recognize reality in situations such as these, while the family's sight has been obscured by society.
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