The
story under analysis is “The Last Leaf” written by a popular and
very talented writer O.Henry. The title of the story is
misleading because it make us to think about the connection this
story with last leaf.
O.
Henry (pseudonym
for William Sydney Porter) was
born on September 11, 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina.
U.S.
short-story writer. He wrote for newspapers and later worked as a
bank teller in Texas, where he was convicted of embezzlement; he
began writing stories in prison as O. Henry. He moved to New York,
where his tales romanticizing the commonplace, particularly the life
of ordinary New Yorkers, and often using coincidence and surprise
endings, became highly popular.
His
collections include Cabbages and Kings (1904); The Four Million
(1906), including The Gift of the Magi; The Trimmed Lamp (1907),
including The Last Leaf; and Whirligigs(1910), including
The
Ransom of Red Chief.
The
text describes that Johnsy and Sue are both artists that are living
as roommates in NY. They are friends more than sisters. Johnsy
has pneumonia because of the cold weather. She lies in the bed..and
she thinks about her death. She has been watching a vine
of leaves steadily losing their leaves everyday. She believes
that when the last leaf falls off of the ivy vine she will die.
She
refuses to eat or do anything to help improve her health because she
is fixated on dying when the last leaf falls.
Old
Behrman, a painter, who resides downstairs and is past 60 years old,
finds out about Johnsy's thoughts. But firstly he says that her
thought are stupid. Late one night he sneaks out and paints a
leaf to match the last one on the wall so it looks like it is still
attached. Success has always slipped away from him. He
has always wanted to paint a masterpiece.
Johnsy
watches the leaf cling to the vine. She is unaware that it is
painted. She gets better because she sees that the leaf is
still there. She recovers but Mr. Behrman dies. He has
painted his masterpiece that gave Johnsy life.
The
general slant of the text is a 3rd person narration. It contains
different elements: an account of events, portraiture. The
description is intercepted with a dialogue.
Characters
of the story:
1.
"At the top of a squatty, three-story brick Sue and Johnsy
had
their studio. "Johnsy" was familiar for Joanna.
One
was from Maine; the other from California."
The
two most important characters of the short story.
Sue
is a very kind girl and she loves her friend. She takes care about
her.
Joanna
is sick and tired of pneumonia. That's why she has thoughts of dying.
2.
Mr.Pneumonia.
The
killer disease which plays so important a role is personified
by O.Henry in this short story.
3."The
busy doctor"
who
treats Joanna and "Old Behrman."
4.
and lastly, "Old Behrman
was
a painter who lived on the ground floor beneath them."
Old
Behrman was a painter who lived on the ground floor beneath them. He
was past sixty and had a Michael Angelo's Moses beard curling down
from the head of a satyr along with the body of an imp. Behrman was a
failure in art. Forty years he had wielded the brush without getting
near enough to touch the hem of his Mistress's robe. He had been
always about to paint a masterpiece, but had never yet begun it. For
several years he had painted nothing except now and then a daub in
the line of commerce or advertising. He earned a little by serving as
a model to those young artists in the colony who could not pay the
price of a professional. He drank gin to excess, and still talked of
his coming masterpiece. For the rest he was a fierce little old man,
who scoffed terribly at softness in any one, and who regarded himself
as especial mastiff-in-waiting to protect the two young artists in
the studio above.
I'd
like to say that I like Sue and Johnsy. They are normal girl. It's
great when friends help each other in hard times of life. honestly I
didn't like Mr. Berhman at the beginning of the story but at the end
of the story I saw his kind heart.
The
author used description of the place where actions take place because
he wanted to introduce the reader with this streets cheap
apartments.
"These
"places" make strange angles and curves. One Street crosses
itself a time or two. An artist once discovered a valuable
possibility in this street."
EXPOSITION:
The
action begins when Sue and Johnsy shared a flat on the third store of
the old house. The author describes that this girls have things in
common.
"At
the top of a squatty, three-story brick Sue and Johnsy had their
studio. "Johnsy" was familiar for Joanna. One was from
Maine; the other from California. They had met at the table d'hte of
an Eighth Street "Delmonico's," and found their tastes in
art, chicory salad and bishop sleeves so congenial that the joint
studio resulted."
But
in the month of November Johnsy got a pneumonia.
RISING
EVENTS:
Johnsy
was thought that she would die when the last ivy leaf fell.
"Five
what, dear? Tell your Sudie."
"Leaves.
On the ivy vine. When the last one falls I must go, too. I've known
that for three days. Didn't the doctor tell you?"
Then
Sue told this words to their neighbor Berhman their problem.
CLIMAX:
Johnsy
learnt a lesson from the last leaf. She wanted to correct her
mistake. She wanted to live.
"I've
been a bad girl, Sudie," said Johnsy. "Something has made
that last leaf stay there to show me how wicked I was. It is a sin to
want to die. You may bring a me a little broth now, and some milk
with a little port in it, and - no; bring me a hand-mirror first, and
then pack some pillows about me, and I will sit up and watch you
cook."
And
hour later she said:
"Sudie,
some day I hope to paint the Bay of Naples."
FALLING
ACTIONS:
The
doctor said to Sue that her friend would recover.But Mr. Berhman got
a pneumonia and there was no hope for him. "Even chances,"
said the doctor, taking Sue's thin, shaking hand in his. "With
good nursing you'll win." And now I must see another case I have
downstairs. Behrman, his name is - some kind of an artist, I believe.
Pneumonia, too. He is an old, weak man, and the attack is acute.
There is no hope for him; but he goes to the hospital to-day to be
made more comfortable."
RESOLUTION:Sue
said to Johnsy that Mr. Berhman sacrificed his life for the sake of
her."I have something to tell you, white mouse," she said.
"Mr. Behrman died of pneumonia to-day in the hospital. He was
ill only two days. The janitor found him the morning of the first day
in his room downstairs helpless with pain. His shoes and clothing
were wet through and icy cold. They couldn't imagine where he had
been on such a dreadful night. And then they found a lantern, still
lighted, and a ladder that had been dragged from its place, and some
scattered brushes, and a palette with green and yellow colors mixed
on it, and - look out the window, dear, at the last ivy leaf on the
wall. Didn't you wonder why it never fluttered or moved when the wind
blew? Ah, darling, it's Behrman's masterpiece - he painted it there
the night that the last leaf fell."
The
author used dialogues. He wanted to make this story easier to the
reader. He used not a lot description.
To
make the story brighter the author used different stylistic devices.
Symbolism: The
last leaf is the symbol of 'hope' that empowers a person for having
the strength to fight death. Johnsy's believe that the last leaf
would make her life too cease with its fall was so firm that no
miraculous drug could save her against her rigidity. Behrman's wait
for the right time to make his master-piece that he had fancied for
so long was over the moment he realized that he had the ability to
save a life by inflicting 'hope' in that person's mind. The Last
Leaf of the ivy vine had the power to sustain Johnsy's life and
Berhman had the power to sustain the last leaf by creating it. This
art gave Johnsy the power to sustain her 'hope' to live and indeed,
until hope persists.
Lexical
devices.
Personification:
“One street crosses itself a time or two. Here the features of
a person were ascribed to the street.
“The
cold breath of autumn had stricken its leaves from the vine until its
skeleton branches clung, almost bare, to the crumbling bricks”.Here
the features of a person were ascribed to the autumn.
“The
cold breath of autumn had stricken its leaves from the vine until its
skeleton branches clung, almost bare, to the crumbling bricks.” In
this sentence the features of a person were ascribed to the branches.
“In
November a cold, unseen stranger, whom the doctors called Pneumonia,
stalked about the colony, touching one here and there with his icy
fingers.”- In these sentence the features of a person were ascribed
to the disease.
“ But
Johnsy he smote; and she lay, scarcely moving, on her painted iron
bedstead, looking through the small Dutch window-panes at the blank
side of the next brick house.” In this sentence the features of a
person were ascribed to the disease.
Epithet:
“ cold stranger, icy fingers, chivalric old gentleman, red-fisted,
greedy-self, a jew’s harp twang, a mite of a little woman”
These
devices were used to make the text more emotional and reinforce
the impression about a person who is described with the help of
epithets.
Simile:
“ as especial mastiff-in-waiting to protect the two young
artists in the studio above ,as the hermit miner on an upturned
kettle for a rock ,she was just like one of those tired leaves,
she was lying white as statue ”. Here the simile is used to
show the objects, described here more clearly. The comparison of two
objects helps us better imagine and understand described object or a
person.
Zeugma:
“So, to quaint old Greenwich Village the art people soon came
prowling, hunting for north windows and eighteenth-century gables and
Dutch attics and low rents”, “ They had met at the table
d'hte of an Eighth Street "Delmonico's," and found their
tastes in art, chicory salad and bishop sleeves so congenial that the
joint studio resulted.” Zeugma is used here to create humorous
effect.
Irony:
“Then they imported some pewter mugs and a chafing dish or two
from Sixth Avenue, and became a "colony.”, “Young
artists must pave their way to Art by drawing pictures for magazine
stories that young authors write to pave their way to Literature”-
here irony shows a positive attitude of a speaker to the objects, but
at the same time expresses a negative evaluation of them.
Comparison:
“Why, that’s almost as good a chance as we have in New
York when we ride on the street cars or walk past a new
building”. Is used to point out some events.
Oxymoron:
“Magnificent scorn”- used by the speaker to show some irony.
Periphrasis:
“Ravager, hemmitdunderhead”- used to stress the individual
perception of the object.
Parallel
construction: “I’m tired of waiting”, “I’m tired of
thinking”
Syntactical.
Polysyndeton:
“"Twelve," she said, and little later "eleven";
and then "ten," and "nine"; and then "eight"
and "seven", almost together.” It was used to make the
sentence more rhythmical.
Repetition:
“Old-old, down-down, counting-counting”-used to show the strong
emotions of the speaker.
In
conclusion I would like to say that this story helps to believe in
better world. Helps to believe in pure relationship between people.
O. Henry brilliantly used surprised ending. This last leaf gives us
magic hope and change our ideas of rude life. Personification,
symbolism and similes catch the reader’s attention and bring to us
the main idea.
