Characters
Plot
Setting
Author
Parallels
100
What is responsible for the mothers physical disability stated at the beginning of the story?
She is blind from cataracts
100
How many times does the reader owe her mother her existence?
You guessed it... three
100
Where does the mother first work
The circus as a Flying Avalon
100
What is the author's name?
Louise Erdrich
100
Why does Anna Avalon take the two literal leaps in the story? (What is she trying to accomplish?)
To save her daughter
200
How many months pregnant was Anna when lightning struck the tent?
7 months
200
Where did Anna break a bone? (Bonus if you say why the future father had to be called in)
Arm (The set of her arm was very complicated)
200
Where does the narrator first live in the story? (Hint: has something to do with seeing the weather)
"The West"
200
Where was the author born?
Little Falls, Minnesota
200
The narrator introduces the story saying her mother is blind, at what other point can she not see?
While doing her trapeze act
300
Where did Anna's second husband work where he learned to deal with broken bones?
The Air Force
300
How old is the narrator when the house lights on fire?
7
300
Where does the mother live in the beginning of the story?
New Hampshire
300
What year was she born?
1954
300
What was the dangerous element present at both of Anna's leaps?
Fire
400
How did the narrator view stillborn sister?
"I considered her a less finished version of myself."
400
What object does Anna Avalon end up keeping from her youth?
Nothing
400
Where does the house fire first start?
Near the stove, in a flammable box of some sort, ashes, or the chimney
400
In what city is Birchbark Books (a small bookstore that the author owns) located?
Minneapolis
400
What is the narrator referring to when she says "I sit sewing in the room of the rebuilt house in which I slept as a child, I hear the crackle, catch a whiff of smoke from the stove downstairs and suddenly the room goes dark, the stitches burn beneath my fingers, and I am sewing with a needle of hot silver, a thread of fire."
Her house fire from when she was 7
500
Where is Harry Avalon buried
Next to his Uncle in the circus cemetary
500
Name one of the three acts that went on before The Flying Avalons.
The White Arabians of Ali-Khazar, Mysterious Bernie, or The Lady of the Mists
500
Name two of the five places Anna had visited while she was in Europe with the Avalons.
Venice, Rome, Mexico, all through France and Spain
500
What did she win the Pulitzer Prize for?
Fiction
500
What are the two instances in the story where the narrator mentions the sound of thunder and roll of drums?
Before Anna does her final trapeze act and when the narrator is being saved by her mother from the fire.
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