In the short story " once upon a time" Gordimer uses irony to kind of trick the reader into thinking or predicting a certain happy ending but only to be left with a somewhat horrific conclusion. Gordimer consistently uses the words "happily ever after" to ensure the reader that the family in the story would live peacefully and all of there new house security systems would protect them. When the story ends with the boy almost dying because he gets caught in the barbed wire that was supposed to protect him i was really left wondering how a story could end in such a dark way. I think that Gordimer uses cosmic irony to surprise the reader the way she did. She continued to refer to fairy tales when talking about the family while an unknown dreadful occurrence was coming the family's way. Irony is a good way to get a point across because its an interesting form of writing and gets readers interested.