There Was Once by Margaret Atwood is a retell of the Cinderella. There are two speakers in this story. First which is the story teller and second who keeps correcting the first. The whole story was never told because the second speaker kept interrupting the first speaker. She was trying to tell a story of a girl who lived with her step mother and what not. The second speaker rudely kept interrupting her and forced her to make changes in the way she told her story. She made her use different words simply because the words the first speaker used were too mainstream. First the second speaker didn’t like the word poor. Clearly the two speakers had their own definitions of poor and which were very different from each other. Then she was forced not to use the word beautiful, and when she described in details how the girl looked like she was unable to do that as well. Overweight and front teeth sticking out apparently encouraged anorexia. To a reader when each word is question it either means that the second speaker wants to hear the story their way or doesn.t want to hear the story at all. As far as elements of fiction this piece never got to the plot because of her being questioned to every word she said. The characters have to different personalities. The first speaker who wants to tell her story and get straight to the point. Where the second character is rude and wants to hear what she wants to hear.  The story teller seemed to get annoyed of the second speaker’s changes. Nothing was good enough for her to hear.

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