The Last Leaf Summary by O. Henry

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The Last Leaf was a short story written by O. Henry. The story begins with Johnsy  and sue who were young artists and friends living together in a small flate. Once, Johnsy fell seriously ill in the month of November. The doctors diagnosed that she was suffering from pneumonia. Her friend, Sue was really worried and tried to cheer her up so that she would recover soon. But Johnsy had given up the hope of survival. She had somehow made up her mind that she would never recover and would die soon. Seeing her condition deteriorate, the doctor asked Sue to relieve Johnsy from all worries, otherwise, her medicines wouldn't respond to her illnes.

 She tried her best to cheer up Johnsy, but she took no interest in the surroundings. She was non-responsive to any of Sue's efforts. One day, while Johnsy was lying on her, she noriced an ivy plant through the window that was gradually losing all its leave. Seeing the bare conditions of tree, Johnsy said that she would die the day the last leave would fall off the plant. Although the ivy plant had nothing todo with her illness.

Sue  tried her best to cheer up johnsy and continued convincing Johnsy that she would recover  from her illnesbut she took no interest in the surroundings. She argued that she should not pin her journey of survival on the last leaf of the ivy plants. As days passed, Johnsy kept counting the remaining leaves of the plant every day. Unable to bear the pain of her friend, Sue approached Behrman, an aged artist who lived downstairs and explained about Johnsy 's mental state. She told him how her friend had pinned her survival on the last leaf of the ivy plant. 

Soon, Behrman came to visit Johnsy but found her asleep. Sue pulled the curtain of the window  of her room and they went to sit in other room.That day, it was raining heavily along with a storm and she felt the leaves of the ivy plant would shed off soon. She hesitantly peeped out of the window and saw only one leaf on the creeper  while Johnsy was asleep. But while doing so, he fell ill due to exposure to freezing cold weather and heavy rainfall outside. After two days, he died of pneumonia.

This following morning, Johnsy looked out of the window after the vicious storm the previous night and saw there was a last leaf still clinging to the ivy plant. This gave her the hope to live. She realised that she was foolish to pin her survival on the last leaf of a plant. She understood that there must be a definite reason why the last leaf remained in the creeper and it was sinful of her to want to die at such a young age. Soon, Johnsy recovered from her illness and Behram died had died of pneumonia. He had contracted the disease while being out in the cold and wet weather and he had painted the last leaf to give johnsy the hope to survival. Finally, Behrman had successfully painted his master piece -the leaf that saved Johnsy 's life and gave her hope to live longer.

Qv(1)Competencey based question.

How will you motivate the sick person near you?