Answer:
It most likely means a reminder that your past is still there and will not ever be truly gone
What is your question
Vast means too large to see and trunk less means Legs without a body. If referring to problems that is a figurative way of saying it is too large of a problem and being trunkless means no substance. And too many little things building up to too many things.
Lots of interpretations above without a question or context. Sorry I wasn’t much more of a help
The role of a foil in a literary work to to provide contrast against the protagonist, in order to further highlight one or more characteristics of the protagonist.
First of all, if the story would be in chronological order, there would be no story at all. This is because the main character of the story, Anna, won't tell the narrator, her daughter, a lot about her past. "She has kept no squinted costume, no photographs, no fliers or posters from that part of her youth".
Because the narrator tells the story in the present and uses flashbacks is the reason that she can unify certain themes, such as the three times her mother saved her life because of her leaps. "I owe her my existence three times". These three leaps the narrator owes her life might be: when Anna Saves herself when she falls from the trapeze, when she falls in love with the narrator's father, and when she saves the narrator life from a fire by climbing to the room where the narrator is trapped.
