Fairytales Don't Always Have a Happy Ending

Nadine Gordimer uses situational irony in "Once Upon a Time"to show how people's paranoias cause them to consider the extreme, and how that sometimes backfires in unexpected ways.
The citizens in the town are so worried about the outsiders breaking in to their houses that they try and take huge safety measures to prevent this from happening. However, they are basing all their fears off rumors. This creates some very ironic moments. For example, all the houses put up alarms that are constantly set off by animals in the neighborhood. This happens so much that "that everyone soon became accustomed to" the "shrills and bleats and wails." The people in the town became accustomed to the thing they thought would keep them from harm.
Also, one of the safety measures ends up by killing a family's son. They were so worried about protecting themselves, the mother and father actually harmed the child they were trying to keep safe. And who tried to help the boy? The gardener who they were so afraid of who "tore his hands trying to get at the little boy."