Symbolism In The Leap Theme

Unlike The Cask of Amontillado, The Leap is a loving story about a mom that saves her daughter multiple times while giving something up of her own every time. The story begins by introducing the main characters, Anna Avalon, and her daughter, Kathleen. Kathleen began watching over her mother when she became a widow after her husband’s death. Her mother needs someone to be there for her because she is blind. The story takes place in west New Hampshire at Kathleen’s birth home. Kathleen goes on to explain how her mother has saved her. The first time her mom saved her was before she was born. She did so by saving herself. Kathleen’s mother survived a very tragic incident, on page 45, she says that her mother is the surviving half of a blindfolded …show more content…
The narrator went to the place where her mother saved herself, and the weather was the exact same that day as it was the same day long ago. The day Anna saved herself the weather was mildly overcast, but they weren’t aware of the storm’s severity. When the storm hit, a form of symbolism is used, “That lightning struck the main pole and sizzled down the guy wires, filling the air with blue radiance.”(47) In this case, the dark clouds symbolize that bad times are coming. Both of the Avalons stood near the top of the tent, waving to the crowd. When they Anna swung to Harry, the lightning struck, and Harry fell to his death. The moment Anna did not feel his hands, she remained calm, and quickly tore off her blindfold and grabbed onto a wire keeping the tent from collapsing. She was then lowered safely to the ground, only to have her arm broken by a man excavating her from the premises. After this, she was severely injured, and needed medical …show more content…
The detail that was added into this excerpt was that the narrator was 7 at the time of the fire, which allows you to infer that even if she tried to act calm on the outside, she was petrified. When Kathleen’s parents arrived, Anna quickly jumped into action by climbing a tree and leaping to Kathleen’s bedroom window. She then picked up Kathleen, and brought her down to safety from the burning building. An example of diction is depicted on page 51, when the character described what it was like returning to safety in her mother’s arms, “I felt the brush of her lips and heard the beat of her heart in my ears, loud as thunder, long as the roll of drums.” This is a great form of diction because it portrays Anna as a true hero to her daughter. In conclusion, The Leap is a story about a daughter repaying her mother for saving her three times once she is old by reading her books she can no longer read because of her