Summary Literature embraces various perspectives on the world and allows writers to explore social, economic, political, religious, and psychological issues prevailing in society at different times. Racial segregation has provided the basis for a broad discussion about ethnic disparities and discriminative practices against minority groups. Nadine Gordimer was a prominent South African writer who contributed to the discourse and elaborated on themes of apartheid and repression in South Africa in her literary works. Written in 1989, her short story “Once Upon a Time” explores the discrimination subject and disguises the anti-apartheid statement as a fairy tale (Rizzardi 43). This paper aims to analyze Gordimer’s “Once Upon a Time” from the perspectives of “new” and post-colonial/ethnic criticism, as well as examine the historicist context and major themes presented in this short story. Narration To begin with, it is necessary to explore how the story is narrated. The author starts her “Once Upon a Time” with the first-person narration, where the unnamed main character recalls how strange noises in the house scared her the previous night. She has not taken any special safety measures, such as installing burglar bars or having a gun within her reach; however, she still has “the same fears as people who do take these precautions” (Gordimer 1). The narrator immediately feels like a crime victim, which defines the social context of the story and highlights that crime rates are likely high in the area where she lives. To her relief, the character realizes that the creaking is not caused by human steps on the floor but by the shifting of the house. From this point, Gordimer uses the third-person narration as the character tells herself “a bedtime story” to be able to sleep again (1). In other words, “Once Upon a Time” can be viewed as a story inside a story, narrated in the form of a fairy tale. Themes The major themes reflected in “Once Upon a Time” need to be defined. The narration reveals that the bedtime story was inspired by the character’s frightening experience in her own house on the previous night. As a result, a fairy tale about a man, his wife, and their son struggling to keep themselves safe was written. It is presented as a story for children, requested from the writer by an individual convinced that every writer must be committed to contributing to a children’s anthology. However, the symbolism and historical context of this literary work implies that “Once Upon a Time” explores the theme of racism, apartheid, and racial segregation and addresses issues that extend beyond youngsters’ audience. According to Rizzardi, Gordimer’s work is a “classical tragedy … that dictates both the form and the content of this brief story, which perfectly mirrors the three Aristotelian unities” (43). The themes of fear, security, separation, and wealth inequality are explored in “Once Upon a Time” through the use of conventional fairy tale elements which prevent the author from making an explicit political statement. Post-Colonial/Ethnic Criticism “Once Upon a Time” is narrated as a fairy tale that does not explicitly mention the geographical and time frames of the story. However, the writer’s background an