THE LAST LEAF

Part 1: Summary`
This story took place in New York City, two young artists Sue and Johnsy met at a little restaurant. They became friends and found their tastes and opinions so congenial then they decided to share a studio. Johnsy fell ill with pneumonia. She lay on her bed watched the leaves fall from a dying vine outside of her window and she decided that she will die when the last leaf dropped. Mr. Behrman, an old artist lived in the apartment below Sue and Johnsy, who was a heavy drinker he worked sometimes as an artists model. Sue visited Behrman and told him that their friend needed a reason to live. It had started raining and snowing outside and was very windy. They knew that all the ivy leaves would soon be gone. They are afraid for Johnsy. The next morning, after Johnsy woke up, she asked Sue to open the blind so she could see the ivy. After all the rain, wind, and snow, there was still one leaf on the vine. Day after day the last leaf was still there. Johnsy began to improve. The doctor visited and gave her a much better chance to survive. Then he told Sue that Behrman was dying of pneumonia and he took him to the hospital. They found him in his room sick, wet, and cold. Outside were a ladder and his palette of paints where he had painted a single leaf on the wall. It was the last leaf that had given hope to the Johnsy, which had given her the will to live. The next day, the doctor came and told Sue that Johnsy would fine, but Behrman died in the hospital.

Kaoutar Derouech

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Part 2: Opinion essay

I think Johnsy was ready to die because she believed that she was going to die. But when she decided that she could live if she wanted to, her strong belief helped her to recover. So we can say the power of mind is stronger that the body. The people can control whether or not they get sick or feel pain, so if we are sick and we say in my mind, I am not sick, and I can do anything. People cannot control the time of own deaths, but life and death are controlled by GOD. He determined the exact time when we are born and when we die. Other thing Sue and Behrman did everything they could to keep johnsy from dying so all of us need love in our life. Because of his love for Johnsy, Behrman sacrificed his own life to give her the great gift of life. Its very difficult to find people do like this.

Kaoutar Derouech

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