"Once Upon a Time" by Nadine Gordimer is a modern fairy tale. It tells the story of a once happy family living in an affluent suburb of South Africa who move emotionally from contentment to fear as they protect and isolate themselves from the rest of the population who are the disadvantaged and poor "people of another color." Gradually they add more protection to their home as their fear grows. Ultimately and ironically, the protection they install boomerangs back and injures, perhaps kills their son.
             Although the story has several obvious fairy tale elements, a "once upon a time" beginning, a happy family of good law-abiding people, who license their dog, insure against fire, flood and damage, and a wise old witch, the author employs several other fairy tale devices in the story.
             First, there is the use of simple, repetitive language like that in a fairy tale: "in a house, in a suburb, in a city there was 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 ..." Phrases such as "trusted housemaid", "you are right, said the wife" and "itinerant gardener" are repeated many times.
             In addition to simple repetitive language, flowery, descriptive language used to embellish a story is employed in fairy tales. There are numerous examples of this: "...a deeper and sharper hooking and tearing of flesh," "...twelve inch pikes fanned like zigzags of lightning...," "the sunlight flashed and slashed, off the serrations, the cornice of razor thorns encircled the home, shining." and "...under the jacaranda trees that made a green tunnel of the street."
             As the family progresses to feel more and more under siege, they build higher and higher walls around their "castle", removing themselves from society and fro...