The Last Leaf
is a famous story by the renowned American writer O. Henry, published in
1907 in his collection The Trimmed Lamp and Other Stories. This story describes the friendship
of two female artists Sue and Johnsy, and an old man named Behrman. It is set in a colony in
Greenwich Village, which functions as a colony for artists. Sue and Johnsy are emerging
artists. Behrman wants to paint a masterpiece for years but is not able to do so. When Johnsy
falls ill, she loses hope and expects to die soon. The hopeless girl leaves behind all her dreams
and believes that when the ivy vine on the wall outside her window loses all its leaves, she will
also die. Therefore, Behrman tricks her by painting a leaf on the wall. Johnsy recovers, but
Behrman dies as he caught pneumonia while painting the leaf. The story gives the moral lesson
of never losing hope.
The theme of hope is the main idea of this story. The author has highlighted the
importance of will power in the story. Personally, I can relate to the story that there were times
in the past when I feel like losing hope and trying to find something that will keep me going.
Johnsy held on to the ivy vine and decided to cling her destiny to it. Although there is no link
between the leaves falling off and her dying just because there is no leaf left. This appears to be
Johnsy’s belief during her difficult times. It may be strange to some but in reality, we also have
strange beliefs around the world. Others wear red shirts to bring good luck, put a coin on their
shoes to ease nervousness, knock on wood to prevent something bad to happen, and many
more. Those are just some of the beliefs that shaped our view to life as well. But we shouldn’t
depend our fate to these things but rather find inspiration that good things will happen and to
never lose hope. Lewis Smedes once said, hope is to our spirits what oxygen is to our lungs, lose
hope and you die. Not to be taken literally, what it wanted to say is that without hope, a person
is dead inside therefore hope is the energy of the soul. Moreover, the story was written
creatively. The plot is in proper sequence and went in a smooth flow. The characters and
sceneries were described with no rumble of thoughts. It also has its incredible plot twist. The
reader expects Johnsy to die but she gets well and Behrman dies. It is also unexpected that he
has painted his masterpiece before his death.
Overall, the Last Leaf is a story of hope, friendship, and sacrifice. Johnsy regains her
hope by getting inspiration from Behrman’s masterpiece, the last leaf on the vine that never
falls off. Sue and Behrman’s loving efforts to help Johnsy. And Behrman sacrificing his life if it
means Johnsy will have her will to live again. In the future, I would love to reread these kinds of
stories with really good plot especially a story that inspires its readers to think positive. As for
the author O Henry, I researched about him and found out that his works have similar plot
twists which I find interesting. Therefore I can recommend this text to other readers because it
will be a good source of inspiration to them not to lose hope in life.
