Comparing The Leap By Louise Erdrich And Twins By Eric Wright

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The idea that life is full of unexpected moments and big risks is a common theme in both The Leap by Louise Erdrich and Twins by Eric Wright. Both stories succeed in portraying this theme, but The Leap does it in a way that is most effective. The Leap discusses the life events of Anna Avalon, a retired circus performer, who find herself in many life threatening situations. Twins is a story about a woman named Lucy, who is married to a mystery murder author, who decides to live out one of his stories with her as his victim. One aspect of the stories that differed would be the plot structure. In The Leap, the story is broken up into three smaller stories. Anna takes three main risks in her life and the story illustrates positive and negative consequences for taking each of these chances. This structure is most effective because it allows the theme to be viewed in multiple scenarios and perspectives. In Twins the author limits the plot to only one situation. Although planning a murder is a very large risk, it limits the character development and only portrays their response in that specific situation. Erdrich uses a unique plot structure that theme easier to interpret. …show more content…

Both stories use a third person viewpoint, but The Leap uses the viewpoint of a specific character in the story, while Twins is narrated by an outside source. By using a character as the narrator, the effects the characters risks had on other people around them is much more relevant. This helps further explain the theme and how others are affected by the risks we take. In Twins, the narrator has no personal connection with the story and no information on outside character thoughts are presented. The consequences of taking risks are not clearly presented