The Leap Louis Erdrich Summary

The Leap: Life is full of leaps (essay)

Are you afraid of what is going to occur to you in the future? 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, conducts the idea of taking chances through the narration of the daughter telling us about her mother's story, starting with her mother, Anna Avalon who is seven months pregnant and in a trapeze act, “Flying Avalon” with her husband, Harold Avalon. On a stormy day during their trapeze act, lightning strikes the circus and causes Mr. Avalon falls to his death. This also sends Mrs. Avalon to the hospital where her baby is stillborn and she meets a new man there, which later they marry

and move into a farmhouse to raise a daughter. Later years, the house catches fire with her daughter in it and Anna performs a trapeze act to save her from the burning house. Afterwards, the mother lives happily with her daughter, but Anna is blind because of cataracts. Through narration/characterization, setting and symbolism, they clearly emphasize the theme to take risks without fear in the short story, The Leap.
To start, the narration and characterization of the main characters clearly aid the theme of not being afraid of the outcomes of the chances taken.

The first person narration by the daughter helps emphasize the theme by giving the readers feelings from the daughter and the point of view that the daughter sees in these tense situations. This point of view exhibits the gratitude from the daughter as she says, “I owe her my existence three times”. In the story, it explains why she says this phrase because her mother takes many gambles in her life, not fearing these outcomes. Her risks include leaping into the burning farmhouse that they live in to save her daughter, which in the end is why the daughter is alive. The daughter gives an indepth feeling of her emotions towards her mother instead of a third person point of view which would be emotionless and too general. Since she overdramatize the story exclaiming the dangerous gambles of her mother leading to a happy ending, it helps reveal the theme of not being afraid of the choices made. In addition to narration, the mother’s characterization of quick thinking helps persuade the main message. In The Leap, the mother shows quick thinking traits where during the accident at the circus, she grabs onto a hot metal rather than grabbing her husband and going down with him. This results in her staying alive, but losing her husband. Her quick thinking skills allows for her to live and give birth to her second daughter who lives and tells this story. Quick thinking character traits would associate with taking risks where opportunities come and go quickly, so they must make the decisions quickly, like in the example above. Thus, the agile thinking of the mother assists in uncovering the theme, to always take those risks whenever. Moreover, the daughter’s trustworthy characteristics helps with revealing the main idea, to go with opportunities without doubts, In the ending of The Leap, the daughter trusts her and her mother in

getting out of the burning farmhouse safely by jumping out of the window. During the jump, the daughter tells us, “I slowly wonder what happens if we miss the circle or bounce out of it”. This shows that after she made the trustful decision with herself and mom, she only thinks about what the possible outcomes could occur, however, she does not display her worry or fear, but rather only states the facts. This shows the message, to trust yourself with the contingencies you take, not being afraid. As a result, the characterization of Anna and her daughter and the first person narration carries out the theme effectively.
Furthermore, the tense and suspenseful emotional and physical setting supports the message of always taking gambles. In The Leap, the emotional setting is set 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 contingencies can be 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 uncovers the emotional and physical setting well, as well as helping to reveal the main message. Another setting supporting the theme is the circus where Anna works at heights where her daughter says, “It’s incredible that she would work high above the ground when any fall could be so dangerous”. The circus setting and the quote represent how the circus setting is full of risks where a false move could end up with a 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, there 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 prepare for what happens next. This circus shows this emotional setting and it’s representation of chance proves the theme thoroughly. Also, the confining hospital setting where the mother waits for her arm to heal, supports the theme. It displays how the mother experiences the negative outcome after her baby is stillborn and she is stuck to the hospital bed until her arm heals. She deals with this situation well, but after staying in the hospital, she experiences positive outcomes of these risks where she meets a new husband, They marry and raise a daughter who tells her mother’s story. This exhibits that Anna did not fear the gambles, experiencing the outcomes. Some were negative and some were positive which changes her life. This aids the theme as she takes the risks and does not fear what will happen, and some which would lead to better opportunities. Therefore, this evidently shows that the different tense setting in The Leap supports the theme of following contingencies.
Indeed setting is a convincing way of portraying the idea, but through the symbolism of actions and objects in the story can also benefit the the idea of enduring outcomes of the contingencies. As an obvious symbol in the story, the title, The Leap assists the theme as it symbolizes the literal leaps that save the mother and daughter. The title also symbolizes the emotional and mental leaps taken within the story, such as the mother making the decision to not grab her falling husband. After the accident, she leaves trapezing and dislike taking risks as Mr. Avalon dies because of one. Later, it uncovers that she makes the mental decision to use her trapeze skills after all the time of guilt, she moves on and takes the contingency to save her daughter. The title symbolizes these occurrences, which supports the idea by showing to always make leaps even if they mess up, not being afraid of what will happen in the future. Another point of symbolism is when the mother burns her palms“...so terribly that once they heal, they would bare no lines”. This event symbolizes Anna’s life becoming unknown and changing drastically like meeting her new husband and a sudden fire which all occur after she burns her palms. The lines on a palm represents Anna’s unique life and they disappear later which symbolizes her life changing and becoming different. This occurs because she takes the chance of saving her own life, and in doing so, the events like a new family are the effects of the gambles. This helps in revealing the theme to take the risks because they can turn into life opportunities. Also, The Leap provides another symbol which is the mother’s last physical leap where saves her daughter from the house fire. To illustrate, the daughter narrates“...my mother leaps through the ice-dark air towards the thinnest extension”. This tells us about Anna’s bold move to leap towards an unlikely place to grab hold of easily. Her last leap symbolizes her change in character after the incident, she gives on her trapezing life and decides that she will not attempt trapezing after, however, at the last leap, it symbolizes perseverance and continuing on to take risks. Also the quote tells us that she leaps towards the “thinnest extension”, which represents Anna taking a gamble that has a dangerous outcome if it goes wrong. This helps support the theme, to always take chances, even if they go wrong. Just as before with Mrs. Avalon’s situations, she did not fear what possible outcomes would occur. Therefore, through the multiple points of symbolism, it assists in building up the central idea of taking risk.
All in all, the short story, The Leap displays the theme of taking gambles without fear through the literary devices of characterization/narration, multiple settings as well as symbolism. Through the main point of view of the daughter narrating to us about her and her mother’s fearless acts, it provides us with the sense of their character traits which continue to emphasize the focal theme. The multiple settings of the circus, hospital and weather conditions give the reader a feeling of suspense and tension throughout the story. The actions of Mrs. Avalon and her second daughter’s actions accompany these emotions, which correlate with risks and the different moods that associate with them. The short story provides many symbols which the title sums up and they proceed to represent taking chances. Altogether, how will you be able to benefit in life if you are afraid to take risks?