• The Last Leaf [Poem]

By: Oliver Wendell Holmes

• The Last Leaf [Story]

By: William Sydney Porter or also known as "O.Henry"

[O.Henry was one of the best known American writers. He was noted for writing short stories with surprise endings.]


Actually, I didn't understand the poem clearly but I will try to manage so I can
discuss it. Based on what I have read, the poem was all about an old man who was so
weak and sad. He is the only one who is alive. He’s maybe nearly going to die. Oliver
Wendell Holmes uses this older man as a relic of the season. He has held on to be the
last of this generation that have all fallen before him, but he still holds stubbornly to
life like the "last leaf" on a tree in spring time. He is out of place; a withered
discolored leaf among thriving new buds.

Unlike the poem, I understand much better the story itself. When I was on my
second year in high school, it was already discussed by my teacher but I didn't pay so
much attention on it. As I was started reading the story, I try not to be bored. Based
on what I have understood, the story goes on the 3 main characters: Sue, Johnsy and
Mr. Behrman.

Living in early 20th century Greenwich Village are two young women artists, Sue and
Johnsy(familiar for Joanna).They met in May, six months previously, and decided to share a studio apartment. Stalking their artist colony in November is "Mr. Pneumonia." The story begins as Johnsy, near death from pneumonia, lies in bed waiting for the last leaf of an ivy vine on the brick wall she spies through her window to fall. Then; an unexpected hero arrives to save Johnsy. It’s not the brusque doctor who gives her only one in ten chances to survive, raising them to one in five if Sue can get her to hope for something important like a man, not her true desire to "paint the Bay of Naples some day”. And it was Mr. Behrman.
Mr. Behrman, an old man who lives in the apartment below Sue and Johnsy, who
enjoys drinking, works sometimes as an artist’s model, and as yet has made no progress over the past 40 years on painting his own masterpiece, becomes in typical O. Henry fashion the hero. The evidence of his heroics are found the day before he dies from pneumonia: outside Johnsy’s window are a ladder, a lantern still lighted "some scattered brushes, and a palette with green and yellow colors mixed on it . . . it’s Behrman’s masterpiece--he painted it [a leaf] there the night that the last leaf fell”, Sue informs Johnsy.
There are two interesting things I found in this story in addition to the general
theme of death and dying. First, there is the ambiguity surrounding the relationship of the two women. I believe that they may have been lovers, but it was something that the author only felt comfortable hinting at. Second, I’ve been fascinated for years about the number of persons; especially among the "house cases" I’ve seen on rounds, which have been cared for by neighbors. In this story, the neighbor, Mr. Behrman, makes the ultimate sacrifice through his neighborly care giving. I’m convinced that there are many persons whose lives are saved (or at least the quality of their lives are significantly improved) by caring acts of friends and neighbors.


I think, the poem and story are the same in a way; Johnsy and the old man still holds their life on the last leaf that will fall.


REFERENCES:
Web page:

http://www.poetry-online.org/holmes_the_last_leaf.htm

http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lastleaf.html