Nadine Gordimer's story "Once Upon a Time" discusses the bleak and complex realities of life while retaining elements of a fairy tale.Elaborate.

I think that one can look at the style of Gordimer's
writing to see how fairy tale elements can be integrated into a very sad tale of
modernist failure.  There is complexity revealed in the fairy tale notion of
composition.  Even in the basic idea of Gordimer writing a fairy tale, she explores
complexity and divergence in making the argument that the artist should never be told
what to write or what to compose.  The complexity is that despite her assertions, she
feels the need to write the fairy tale as a response to her own fears and panic.  Notice
here that the fairy tale is motivated out of a desire to placate doubt and confusion.
 The resultant tale is actually one that causes more doubt and fright, completely
inverting the idea that the fairy tale is something that is meant to comfort.
 Gordimer's style of her fairy tale creates the family as an almost mythically regal
family with the father, mother, and child being king, queen, and prince. The protection
of their home and their life is the kingdom.  The ending where the boy tries to climb
over the barricade (inspired by a fairy tale) is one where the gallant prince tries to
cross over challenging physical obstacles and barriers.  The subtleties that Gordimer
brings out in her fairy tale style do not take away from the basic idea that the story
is a modernist fable about a family trying to appropriate the world in accordance to its
own subjectivity and actually causing more destruction and pain in the process.  The
fact that such a complex theme is brought out through fairy tale form is only a
testament to Gordimer's innovative style and her sheer brilliance in understanding
intricate concepts within supposedly simple presentation.