The Leap Louis Erdrich Analysis

The Leap: Life is full of them
Are you afraid of what is to come in future? Well, in life, you can never fully know what is to come, unless you take the risks and find out these opportunities. In the short story The Leap by Louis Erdrich, this idea of taking risks is shown through the narration of the daughter tells us about her mother's courageous story. The mother is seven months pregnant and she and her husband were in a trapeze act called the Flying Avalon. On a stormy day during their trapeze act, lightning strikes the circus and causes Mr.Avalon falls to his death. This sends Mrs. Avalon to the hospital where her unborn girl dies and she meets a new man there, which later they marry and move into into a farmhouse in the same town. In …show more content…
In The Leap , the emotional setting is introduced with the quote, “extremes of temperature collide, a hot and cold front, winds generate instantaneously behind a hill and crash upon you without warning”. This sentence explains the tense and stressful situation that Mr. and Mrs. Avalon experience and the emotions, the daughter feels. The quote shows the physical setting of an intense storm that occurs without warning, which represents risks being extreme and must be dealt with as they come without warning, not fearing them. As well, it represents the emotions of the family as the “hot and cold fronts” represents the changes of mood like death or a new creation of a family. This quote shows the emotional and physical setting well, as well as helping to reveal the theme. To add to the quote, the physical circus setting also supports the risk taking them. In The Leap, Mrs. Avalon works at heights where, “It’s incredible that she would work high above the ground when any fall could be so dangerous”, stated by her second daughter. The circus setting and the quote represents how the circus setting is full of risks where a false move would up with fatality. We can see this happen to Mr. Avalon when he falls to his death from a lightning strike. This occurrence shows that they continue to perform even though death is inevitable. At the circus, the place is filled with tension and suspense as the crowds are in awe, hoping that nothing bad occurs. This would be the feelings of a person who is not afraid of taking risks should feel, and being prepared for what happens next. This circus setting shows this emotional setting and the it has a representation of risk which proves the theme thoroughly. Also, the hospital setting where it is confining and where the mother rests to heal, supports the theme. It shows how the mother experiences the negative outcome after