Once upon a Time by Nadine Gordimer

The first and clearest theme is the threat of death and danger in the narrator's neighborhood. Because of social injustice and the element of organized crime, the narrator tells a short story about the opposite threat. Consider the danger of paranoia and over-protection. In his short story, the son even dies, cut to shreds by the barbed-wire designed to protect him. The threat of death is not one that they can fix, because the threat looms in every circumstance.