Introduction

The story “The Last Leaf” shows how important hope and giving up things are in life. In the story, Sue and Johnsy are friends who live together. As soon as Johnsy is sick. Even though her friend works hard to help her get better, Johnsy loses all hope and desire to live. She starts to think that she will die as soon as the last leaf falls from the ivy creeper outside her window. Then, their neighbour Behrman, who makes a living as an artist, gives Johnsy hope again. He gives up his own light to paint a leaf on the ivy creeper that looks real.

Summary

Two young artists named Sue and Johnsy lived together. They shared a small flat. It was on the third floor of an old building. Johnsy got pneumonia in November and got sick. When she was sick, Johnsy would just lie on the bed and look out the window. Sue was worried about Johnsy, so she called the doctor.

Even though the doctor came every day, Johnsy’s health didn’t get better. The doctor told Sue one day that Johnsy was no longer willing to live. So, without hope and a desire to get better, no medicine could help her. Since then, Sue has tried to get Johnsy to care about what’s going on. She would talk about clothes and style, but Johnsy didn’t care about any of that. Sue even took her drawing board into Johnsy’s room so she could finish her work there.

One day, Sue saw Johnsy counting backwards while he looked out the window. Sue saw that Johnsy was looking at an old ivy plant that was growing up the brick wall across from their window. The strong winds caused the leaves on the vine to fall off. When Sue found out that Johnsy thought she would die when the last leaf on the creeper fell, she was shocked. Sue didn’t care what Johnsy thought. She told Johnsy to have a good attitude and told her not to look at the ivy creeper.

Sue needed to paint an old miner, so she called Behrman to be her model. Behrman was a painter who lived on the ground floor of the same house. He was sixty years old. Behrman didn’t do well as an artist. He always wanted to paint a masterpiece, but he was never able to do so. Sue told Behrman about Johnsy’s illness and what he thought. Later, Sue and Behrman went to Johnsy’s room and saw that the creeper had only one leat left.

The next morning, Johnsy saw that the last leat was still hanging from the ivy creeper. She was surprised to see that the leaf had not fallen even after the storm and strong winds. It looked green and healthy, in fact. Johnsy saw her mistake when she looked at the leaf. She called Sue and told her she was sorry for giving up.

Even Johnsy’s doctor told Sue that he would soon feel better. He also told Sue that Behrman had pneumonia and was going to die soon. The next morning, Sue told Johnsy that Behrman had died from pneumonia after only two days of being sick. The building’s caretaker or doorkeeper found Behrman wet and lying on his bed. His clothes and shoes were also wet. When Sue and Johnsy went to see Behrman, they found a ladder and a lantern next to his bed.

Sue had figured out what had happened to Behrman and told Johnsy that the last leaf was still there and that it had been painted. Behrman painted it on a stormy night when a real leaf had just fallen. He had painted his masterpiece and given his own life to save Johnsy.