Respect Life in All Form

Title of book review : The Last Leaf

Author : O. Henry

Genre : Ironic

Year of Writing : 1907

Page : 6 pages

The Last Leaf is the one of the best creation from O. Henry. O. Henry, the name pen of
William Sydney Porter, original name William Sidney Porter, (born Sept. 11, 1862,
Greensboro, N.C., U.S.—died June 5, 1910, New York, N.Y.) He went to Texas in 1882 and
worked at various jobs—as teller in an Austin bank (1891–1894) and as a newspaperman for
the Houston Post. In 1898 an unexplained shortage in the Austin bank was charged to him.
Although many people believed him innocent, he fled to the Honduras but returned to be with
his wife, who was fatally ill. He eventually served three years in prison, where he first started
writing short stories. Upon his release he settled in New York City and became a highly
successful and prolific contributor to various magazines. His short, simple stories are noted
for their careful plotting, ironic coincidences, and surprise endings. Although his stories have
been criticized as shallow and contrived, O. Henry did catch the color and movement of the
city and evidenced a genuine sympathy for ordinary people. His approximately 300 stories
are collected in Cabbages and Kings (1904), The Four Million (1906), The Voice of the City
(1908), Options (1909), and others with his well-known stories "The Gift of the Magi", "The
Skylight Room", "The Green Door" and many others.

In “The Last Leaf” story starring with Sue, Johnsy, and Mr. Behrman. Sue and Johnsy are
painters, because they have same things they live together in a building in the 3 rd floor. Both
of them are very interested about art. Sue is from the State of Maine. Her characteristic is
very friendly and charitable. Then, Johnsy is from California. She has a dream that she looks
forward to go to Italy and painting a picture of the Bay of Naples. In the first time Johnsy is
very pessimistic person. However, she changes to be optimistic person after getting a
motivation from Sue. In winter season, many people in the city became ill. The illness was
called pneumonia. One of them was Johnsy, she had pneumonia. A doctor had already tried
to cure her illness but he could not do anything and Johnsy was not getting better. One day,
Sue looked in on Johnsy condition by visiting her room. Suddenly Sue heard quiet sound
from Johnsy’s bed direction. She found Johnsy was counting vine leaves outside the window.
Johnsy said that the last falling leaf will become the end of her life. Looking at that condition
Sue as her best friend gave motivation directly. Sue said that Johnsy had to be strong and
optimistic in order to make the illness disappeared. However, Johnsy still grumbled about
that. Finally, Sue asked her to close her eyes and go to bed. In the apartment also lived an old
people named Behrman. He lived in the downstairs. He was also an artist who wanted to
paint a masterpiece. Sue told everything about Johnsy condition and the vine leaves to him.
After hearing her story he was angry but he loved the two young artists very much. In the
morning, Johnsy found the last leaf was still there all day long. She became aware and the
case had taught the lesson to her. Sue told her about Mr. Behrman, he had pneumonia too and
he died this morning. Someday, it was found that the last leaf in the vine is Mr. Behrman’s
masterpiece. He painted it on the night of the storm.

In the story “The Las Leaf” by O. Henry, Sue, Jhonsy and Mr. Behrman are the main
character. The author tells about their characteristic along the story goes. Sue is a
compassionate and caring friend to Jhonsy, like the author tells in the line “Johnsy dear…”,
“I’d rather be here with you” (p.4) shows that Sue is a caring friend that protects her friend.
Then Jhonsy, a pessimistic and hopeless person showed in line “Leaves, on the tree. When
the last one falls, I must go, too. I’ve known that for three days. Didn’t the doctor tell you?”
(p.3). Meanwhile Mr. Behrman told in the story an old and frustrated artist because the author
tells that Sue find him in his dark room and he had been drinking because Sue can smell it
(p.4). The author also tells that He had had no success as a painter. For forty years he had
painted, without ever painting a good picture. He had always talked of painting a great
picture, a masterpiece, but he had never yet started it (p.4) but at the end surprisingly he has
self-sacrifice and tells he is a good guy which paints a leaf which means hope for Jhonsy’s
life. In this story Sue and Mr. Behrman become my favorite character because they are
personally lovable person.

I love this story very much. The plots are simple, but it is a very touching story that makes I
recognize many things in life. The author tells the story linearly. Start from the explanation
about the place, then Sue and Jhonsy shared room but Jhonsy got pneumonia. Then the rising
action when Jhonsy thought that she would die when the last vine leaf fell down then Sue told
Mr. Behrman about Jhonsy. Then the climax when Johnsy learnt a lesson from the last leaf
that it is sin to want to die. Continue to the falling action that doctor told Sue that Johnsy
would recover but Behrman got Pneumonia, and there was no hope. Lastly when the author
surprisingly made the reader knows that Behrman had sacrificed his life for the sake of
Jhonsy when Sue and Jhonsy realize the dead cause of Mr. Behrman.

The theme that author shared is about Life is meaningful only for people who have hope and
love. The hope helps us live better and heals our body and spirit. Hope is the foundation of
our personal futures; each of us would probably suicide without hope. It is the virtue that
helps us overcome obstacles. Without hope, we seem to give up easily like Johnsy in the
story. Without hope, there is nothing. Another important thing in life is love. O. Henry,
through the story, advices us should love ourselves and other people. The love between three
persons, Johnsy, Sue and old Behrman makes a moving story. Johnsy had sometimes
forgotten loving herself and cause the worry for Sue, but the biggest love is the love of the
old Behrman for Johnsy. He was self - sacrifice to save the life of Johnsy. Despite being a old
man, he didn't hesitate to go out in a cold weather, climb up the ladder and paint the last leaf,
because he know that it is the leaf of hope, a hope for a life that is giving up.

In the story “The Last Leaf” by O. Henry The physical setting indicates that the action takes
place in Greenwich Village which is the small part of the city West of Washington ”This part
of the city is called Greenwich Village” (p.1). An important focus is placed on Sue and
Johnsy’s room in the 3rd floor, which is the place where Sue paints and takes care of her sick
friend. The story also reveal the season of the place “Toward the Winter a cold stranger
entered Greenwich Village” (p.2). Then about the time or the situation tells in the story the
author made it dramatically which made the reader also imagine about that, showed in line
“But after the beating rain and the wild wind that had not stopped through the whole night”
(p.5) means that it is rainy and there is a storm.

My favorite part from this story is when Johnsy aware of her despair and realizes her
mistakes so she becomes healthier, “I’ve been a bad girl, Sue. Something has made that last
leaf stay there to show me how bad I was. It is wrong to want to die. I’ll try to eat now” (p.6).
Although the reason she can realize was the Mr. Behrman’s masterpiece which made him
died.

The Last Leaf story has some strength because Henry told the story with full of moral values.
In this story tells about Optimism to decrease the pessimism, tells about friendship, about
hope, love and also self-sacrifice. This story also connected to the society uses many different
type of figurative language for example in the sentence “Mr. Pneumonia was not a nice old
gentleman” (p.2) the figurative language is personification to personify the illness Pneumonia
by turning it into a man.

This story also has some weakness for me. This story is not recommend for the teenagers or
younger audience because there are depressing and sad sentences which not appealing to
young reader. Another is in the line “His name is Behrman. A painter, I believe. Pneumonia,
too. Mike is an old, weak man, and he is very ill” (p.6) There is a name Mike which not
explained in the story so make me confuse and re-read the story from the first paragraph to
know who he is.

I would recommend the story “The Last Leaf” by O. Henry because it teaches you a great
theme. It teaches us to have optimism in life, having hope, Love ourselves and also respect
everything in life. This story would make you won’t stop to read until the story end because
the story a little bit hard to guessed, O. Henry brilliantly uses the twist or surprise ending (a
technique that O. Henry is famous for). It was the final realization that the last leaf was not
real but a painting which seemed to have a magical healing power that renewed Johnsy's will
to live and to defeat her pneumonia.

Overall, it was a great story to read. The theme was great and you can actually notice what
the author is trying to send out. The theme actually connects to the world today because there
are people who don’t have respect of everything. This story connects to reality today and it is
kind of sad how people hopeless and had no love in their life. It tells that Love the life god
has given to us no matter how short or hard it would be.

Mutia Tanjung
E-mail: mutiatanjung97@gmail.com