The Last Leaf is one of the most famous short stories in the world, which is written by O. Henry. It is published in O. Henry's collection The Trimmed Lamp and Other Stories in 1907.
The story happens in Greenwich Village, New York, where living a lot of poor artists. Two young women, Johnsy and Sue, are part of them who sharing one apartment. One day, Johnsy comes down with pneumonia. Because she is so poor that Johnsy refuses to go to hospital. Johnsy gradually loses the willing of living and begins to count the number of leaves which falls down from a vine outside the window. She even tells her roommate that when the last leaf falls down, she will die. Sue is so sad that she visits their neighbor, Old Behrman, who always dreams to paint a masterpiece, and tells him the situation Johnsy is in, after that, Sue goes back to her home. However, in the following days, Sue and Johnsy finds that the last leaf is always on the vine. This makes Johnsy picks up her confidence, and begins following doctor's words. When Johnsy almost recovers, the doctor tells them that Old Behrman died because of pneumonia two days ago. Then, Sue and Johnsy realize the reason why the last leaf never falls down.
Most of the stories written by O. Henry are based on his own experience or what happened to other people. One of the features of O. Henry's stories is that he always pays a lot of attentions on the description of the characters, and the ending of most of his stories are always unexpected. Just like the Last Leaf, a lot of words are used to describe how sick Johnsy is and how she counts the number of leaf. Also, most of readers may think that Johnsy is so poor that she will die after the last leaf falling down, however, the author lets her alive.
The stories written by O. Henry always have something serious or ironical. So does the Last Leaf. In this story, Johnsy has great chance to alive, but she gives up and insists that her life just like the falling leaves, will finish soon. It is exactly Johnsy herself that pushes her to the death.
However, this story still moves a lot of readers. Take Old Behrman as an example. He always dreams to finish a masterpiece to shock the world. So he particularly put a blank easel at the corner of his painting room. In order to help Johnsy find the belief of living, he picks up his brush again and painting in the heavy rain. Though Old Behrman loses his own life, he still lets Johnsy find hope. Old Behrman finally finishes his masterpiece.
Work Cited:
Chenggang Ren, Yumin Wang, "the Real Masterpiece - Appreciation on the Last Leaf" Journal of Shandong Normal University Foreign Language Institute, Vol.2(2001) pp. 51-53
KP Deep'ak, "Themes, Styles & Techniques of O.Henry" <http://literarism.blogspot.com/2011/02/themes-styles-techniques-of-ohenry.html>
Implications of Literature <https://safe.acsi.org/iweb/upload/TE.Henry-The%20Last%20Leaf.pdf>
Don Agold, "The Last Leaf by O. Henry" Short Story Review, Feb. 12, 2005 <http://shortstoryreview.blogspot.com/2005/02/last-leaf-by-o-henry.html>
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