Importance of Blindfold

The blindfolds that The Flying Avalons wear symbolize the extreme circumstances that define Anna's young life. The narrator explains that her mother is most comfortable living in risky or even dangerous situations, and attributes her ability to navigate her house while blind to her past training as a blindfolded trapeze artist. As the story progresses, the concept of vision becomes a motif that the author uses to suggest the narrator's own discomfort with the impending future of her mother's death.