What Is The Theme Of The Leap By Louise Erdrich

Losing a loved one is a challenging obstacle for many people to overcome. Sometimes the feeling resulting from losing a loved one can only be overcome through spending time with current loved ones. In the short story “The Leap,” written by Louise Erdrich, the mother, Anna, experiences the loss of many people close to her, and must keep her living loved ones closer in order to cope. Erdrich portrays this by utilizing flashbacks throughout the story to demonstrate how Anna has coped with her past trauma through interactions with her remaining loved ones over the years. Anna’s many encounters with losing people close to her have allowed and required her to connect with her current loved ones in order to cope with the trauma and turmoil of losing

This connects to when Anna loses her baby. Erdrich uses flashbacks as she transitions from Harry’s death to later on in the text when Anna is in the hospital. It is soon revealed that Anna’s baby eventually dies or as Edrich describes Anna’s baby as being “born without life” (10). Similarly to earlier in the text, the narrator’s father decides to help and support Anna through the recent losses of two of her family members by helping and supporting her. The narrator’s father taught Anna how to read and write, and allowed her to “overcoming [overcome] the boredom and depression” (Erdrich 14) of her confinement and loneliness. His assistance with Anna’s emotional turmoil ultimately led to them falling in love and eventually getting married. This connects back to the thesis because it shows that in order to cope with the recent losses of her loved ones, Anna had to connect and bond with her newly found loved

It supports this by going through the history of Anna’s life to explain how she owes her life to Anna. It helps transition through different points in time, and in the majority of them, Anna has experienced the loss of someone she loved. Although, it also shows how the loss of a loved one can strengthen bonds and bring people closer together. This is evident in many instances throughout the story where Anna loses someone special to her, such as her husband, and because of that, it brings the other people special to her closer to her to support and help her through her time of emotional trauma and