In Nadine Gordimer's short stories published in 1989, entitled Jump and Other Stories, the South African author constantly fights the status quo with her controversial and touching contents. In one of the stories, Once Upon a Time, the narrator tells herself a bedtime story about an unnamed family in an affluent neighborhood during apartheid who experiences tragedy through the manifestation of their fears of protection against external threats . Throughout the story, Gordimer conforms to the typical conventions of a fairy tale through the simplicity of his writing and the inclusion of some stereotyped phrases. However, it also departs from typical fairy tale conventions by starting with a parallel plot outside the fairy tale and with a reverse order of stereotypical events. Ultimately, these conventions combined enhance the reader's perspective as they experience the narrative and literary value of the story exponentially. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay First, Gordimer refrains from more heightened writing during the “bedtime story” to apply the simplistic writing usually seen in the typical fairy tale genre. For example, Gordimer begins his bedtime story with "in a house, in a suburb, in a city, there were a man and his wife who loved each other very much" (25). Indeed, Gordimer's opening line describes the simple setting through its parallelistic syntax and deliberately childish diction. In turn, her repetitive writing style creates a lighthearted atmosphere for the reader, but sets a more sarcastic tone for herself. In another example, multiple neighborhood watch signs display “YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED” (25) throughout the main family's neighborhood. Setting the plot's extremely basic conflict point within the story, the constant reminder to drive away the invaders plagues the characters and repeats throughout the story, instead changing the once lighthearted mood into a darker and more sinister one for the reader . In essence, Gordimer's simplistic technique aligns with typical conventions of the fairy tale genre and helps establish how readers should initially feel during the beginning of Gordimer's bedtime story. Similarly, Gordimer also conforms to part of the fairy tale genre. when he includes stereotypical fairytale phrases even during his bedtime story. For example, whenever the characters refer to the husband's mother within the main family, they refer to her as the “wise old witch” (28). By choosing to nickname the grandmother that way, the character reminds readers of similar fairytale slang and the basic method of giving archetypes to every possible character, despite the "witch" simply being a grandmother. Furthermore, Gordimer also refers to the “Prince who braves the bush… and kisses Sleeping Beauty” (30) as he describes the young boy of the family as he ventures out of the house recalling the story he is reading. The story reference alludes to the story of Sleeping Beauty, where the barbed wire fence with dragon's teeth directly symbolizes and parallels the thorny thicket through which the prince trudges, as well as the actual dragon he faces in the allusion. Overall, Gordimer's inclusion of fairy-tale stereotypes, which usually diminish the literary value of a story's originality and meaning, adds a deeper layer to the typical technique and, in turn, increases the value of its history. Contrary to the tale's similarities to other fairy-tales, Gordimer includes a plot..