"He was masked; it could not be said if he was black or white, and therefore proved the property owner was no racist" (233). Once Upon a Time is seriously a great "fairy" tale. Well, anti-fairy tale. The satire is so prominent, that at times its almost humorous, but the kind of funny that you know you're not really supposed to laugh at. To begin with, the author right off the bat says she doesn't want to write a children's book, but then does The family is so afraid of the rioters and bumbs, that instead of the others going to jail for what they do, the family jails themselves in. They keep building up and up trying to keep people out, then build a Nazi-like barbed wire fence, but still they get hurt. The satire of the society in it really shows what the time period was like.