The Leap

Which characters share the most love in this story? How is that love defined?

Why do you think that the stone lamb on the baby’s grave “looms larger” and becomes more sharply etched as the years go by? What role does the stillborn sister play more broadly?

When Anna trades the trapeze for learning to read, one kind of flight for another, does the story suggest that she is making a good trade?

“The Leap” is full of moments where the narrator says something “must be,” or is “perhaps” or “probably” the case. What function does the narrator’s insistence that she is uncertain of many of the story’s details serve?

The narrator calls the meeting of her parents “the debt we take for granted since none of us asks for life” (Paragraph 17). Why does she think of herself as owing a debt for this moment? What does this view of life imply?

The final paragraph of “The Leap” contains words and images that echo ones used earlier in the story. Identify at least three of these parallels and explain what Erdrich shows or emphasizes by revisiting these motifs at the conclusion.

Erdrich’s subtle incorporation of fantastical events into her otherwise realistic work is sometimes considered magical realism. What parts of “The Leap” could constitute incidents of magical realism? What impact do these extraordinary occurrences have on the plot and meaning of the story?

The narrator describes the news coverage of the disaster at the Flying Avalons show as “breathless.” What tone does the narrator’s own account strike, and why?