THE LAST LEAF by O. Henry

This story takes place in a small part of the city West of Washington Square. There were two young ladies named Sue and Johnsy that shared a apartment. Both of them are artist. Suddenly, Johnsy had a pneumonia. the doctor visited their apartment and advises Sue that Johnsy will only recover if she has will to live. Johnsy always stares out the window. Johnsy watched the leaves fall from the vine on the top of the opposite building wall, she said to Sue that when the last leaf falls, she will die. Sue didn’t know what to do so she decided to talk to old Behram who lives downstair. Sue told him about Johnsy’s sickness and he agreed to what Sue had asked him. As time passed by, the last leaf is still on the vine until the nest day and so on. johnsy begins to improve and has a lot of chance to live as days passed by. The doctor told Sue that old Behram died because of pneumonia. They found him in his room sick, wet and cold. Outside was a ladder and his pallete of paints where he had painted a single leaf on the wall. It was the last leaf that given hope to jhonsy, that given her the will to live.

 

“The Last Leaf” written by O. Henry was quite a very interesting story. This story brings a lot of emotions and when you read it, you can feel the true emotions that the characters felt on that situation. And because of that, a lot of readers will be more encourage to read it. For me, this story is more on friendship and sacrifices. The way the author write this story is showing how good he is at widening his own imaginations.

 

 

In this story, I learned that if you love, you need to sacrifice even if it’s you’re own happiness or you’re dream. You must know how to sacrifice if you loved. To this story, the self-sacrifice of one girl for her friend. And in the ending, the old man makes a lot sacrifice for the sick girl. He sacrificed a lot that even if it’s his life was the thing that he is sacrificing to. Another thing is that friends will be always right by you’re side no matter what. Just like the situation of Sue and Johnsy that even if Johnsy was pale and weak, Sue was there to help her and she stays by her side. This shows what true friendship really is. We need to treasure the love that we receive from the others. At this moment I realized that all the things around us must be given an importance because you will find its value when it’s already too late.