Reread lines 227-252. What does the narrator learn? What inferences can you make about the story's theme?

(The leap)

The narrator got insight that her mother learned to read and write in the hospital to overcome her depression and to kill her time.

The inference that can be made from these lines about the story's theme is making a leap.

Explanation:

"The Leap" is a short story written by Louise Erdrich. The story is about the narrator's mother, Anna, who was a circus performer. The story's theme is making a leap, physically as well as emotional, and in making this leap.

In lines 227-252, the narrator got to know that her mother learned to read and write when she met her second husband at the hospital. Her husband was a doctor and thus encouraged the narrator's mother to learn to read and write. And the narrator's mother then never have been without a book after that.

The inference that can be made from these lines is about making a leap. The narrator's mother made a leap from being illiterate to learning to read and write. The narrator's mother make a leap emotionally after she lost her second husband as she was left with no one to read to her.