Student Question
In "The Leap," how do a sound, odor, and setting spark the narrator's memory at the beginning?
Quick answer:
The narrator's memory is sparked by the crackling sound of a fire and the smell of smoke while sitting in her childhood bedroom. These sensory cues remind her of a childhood incident when her mother, Anna, rescued her from a house fire by climbing a tree and leaping into her daughter's burning room. This memory highlights the narrator's gratitude to her mother for saving her life, symbolizing the "leap" that her mother took to ensure her safety.
In the exposition of "The Leap," the narrator, the daughter of the former Anna Avalon of the flying Avalons, has her childhood memories triggered by the sound of a crackling fire and the smell of smoke as she sits in the sewing room which was once her bedroom as a child.
These sensory memories are reminders to the narrator, whose blind mother now lives with her, that she owes her life to this remarkable woman. For, it was she who first preserved her own life in a life-threatening accident under the big top, then again using her tremendous acrobatic skills, she rescued her seven-year-old girl from the child's burning bedroom on the second story of their home. By climbing a ladder, then inching along the length of a tree's branch that "curved above a branch that brushed the roof," the mother was able to balance upon this delicate...
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branch and leap onto upon the roof. Once there she gently tapped upon her daughter's window so as not to alarm the child, and she motioned for the girl to open wide the window. "She swung down, caught the ledge, and crawled through the opening." Once inside the room, the mother picked up her child and they
...flew out the window, toward earth...her toes pointed as [they] skimmed toward the painted target of the fire fighter's net.
This daring rescue, therefore, is what the daughter will always remember whenever she has the sensory experiences of sound, smell, and place.
How do sound, odor, and setting trigger memory in "The Leap"?
The narrator's memory is sparked in the second paragraph of "The Leap" when she is sitting in her childhood bedroom. Suddenly, she hears the "crackle" and "catches a whiff" of the stove downstairs, and the room around her goes dark. This combination of sight and smell (which evokes an image of burning) sparks a memory from when the narrator was seven years old and her house caught fire.
This memory is explored at the end of the story and, in fact, forms the third 'leap' in which the narrator explains how she owes her existence to her mother. As the house became engulfed by flames, the narrator realized she might not be rescued. Her mother, however, became determined to save her and promptly removed her clothes, climbed up a tree and leapt towards her daughter's bedroom. Once inside, Anna took hold of her daughter and together they leapt from the window and down into the firefighter's net to safety.