Skip to main content

What is the meaning of the theme, "To take care of other people, we first need to take care of ourselves" as it relates to the short story, "The...

The narrator of "The Leap" states that she owes her continued existence to her mother three times. If her mother were not in great physical condition, the narrator would not be alive.


The first time that the narrator owes her existence to her mother is, of course, her birth.
If Anna Avalon had not saved herself from falling when lightning hit the main circus pole, the narrator would never have been born. Anna was in great physical condition, and as she was falling from the collapse of the circus tent, she twisted her body toward one of the wires that was sizzling from the lightning that had run down it. She grabbed this wire and saved her life. 


The second time the narrator owes her existence to her mother began while her mother recuperated in the hospital from her burns and accidental breaking of her arm by one of the men who rescued her. While Anna was in this hospital, she fell in love with her attending physician, who was a specialist in complicated breaks. He fell in love with Anna and taught her to read. Because of her healthy nature, Anna healed and became pregnant with her daughter, the narrator. 


The third time the narrator owes her existence to her mother's health and great conditioning and talent because her mother rescued her from a fire when there was no way to reach the girl. Trapped upstairs in her bedroom with the fire climbing the stairs to her room, the narrator feared for her life. 


The babysitter, who had been asleep, awoke to call the authorities, and ran outside the girl's window. Volunteers drew water from the fire pond and sprayed the outside of the house. They were going to try to reach the narrator, but they did not know there was only one stairway, which was already lost to the fire.


Truly, there was no one who could have saved the child but her acrobatic mother. She took off her clothes and, in her bra and girdle, climbed a ladder to balance on a branch and leaped onto the roof of the house. Then she hung upside down by the backs of her heels as only a trapeze artist could. Next, she called to her daughter to open the window and make sure it stayed open because she would come inside. She then swung down with ease and crawled into the window to grab her daughter. Together they leaped gracefully onto the fireman's net. 

Without doubt, Anna Avalon's having taken care of herself allows her to give birth to her daughter and care for her in ways almost no one else could.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

etymology - Origin of the greeting "Sweet dreams".

Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

What are the similarities between the relationships of the characters in The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet?

At first glance, it might appear as if the characters in  The Outsiders  by S. E. Hinton and  Romeo and Juliet  by William Shakespeare do not have much in common; however, when one isolates the core of the conflicts, it becomes clear that the relationships in both stories are rooted in rivalry and secrecy.  In both  The Outsiders  and  Romeo and Juliet , an overarching theme is rivalry. While   socioeconomic status separates the greasers from the Socs in The Outsiders , last names separates the Montagues from the Capulets, who appear to be relatively equal in terms of socioeconomic status. Due to these rivalries, there are instances of deadly interactions in both stories. In  The Outsiders , Johnny kills Bob (whether his actions were justified or not is debatable). In  Romeo and Juliet , Romeo kills Tybalt and Paris, and Tybalt kills Mercutio. These deaths have profound effects on the main characters. In Ponyboy's case, the Johnny's death and other events in the novel inspire h...
Post a Comment
Read more