comment on style / language

The language of "The Leap" is generally accessible and straightforward, with the narrator adopting a reflective and realistic tone throughout. It is often the narrator's voice that provides the grounding element to what would otherwise be a set of fantastical circumstances. When the storm suddenly destroys the circus tent, for example, the narrator interrupts to provide context that makes the disaster more predictable: "I have lived in the West," she says, "where you can see the weather coming for miles, and it is true that out here we are at something of a disadvantage. When extremes of temperature collide, a hot and cold front, winds generate instantaneously behind a hill and crash upon you without warning. That, I think, was the likely situation on that day in June" (4). Here, the narrator becomes the mechanism through which the author is able to shift the story from the realm of the surreal to that of the real. In other words, the narrator offers more practical judgement on the fantastical circumstances of her mother's life by returning readers to the present tense.