The 'last leaf' is a story of supreme sacrifice by a wretched drunken artist discuss.
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O. Henry brings out the themes of selflessness and sacrifice in his story 'The Last Leaf'. Sue and Johnsy, both from California are striving to succeed as artists. How they help and support one another reveals their selflessness. Unfortunately, Johnsy gets pneumonia and relates her sickness to the falling ivy leaves as it is autumn she can see from her window the ivy vine during the fall. She somehow feels that she would die when the last leaf would fall. An old, frustrated artist Behrman lives in the same building asJohnsy and Sue. He longs to paint a masterpiece and has even attempted to do so. Sue goes to him and tells him that her friend is dying of pneumonia and that Johnsy claims that when the last leaf falls off the vine outside her window, she will die, Behrman scoffs at this as foolishness, but as he is protective of the two young girls he decides to see Johnsy and the vine.
In the night, a very bad storm comes and wind the wind is howling and the rain is splattering against the window. Sue closes the curtains and tells Johnsy to go to sleep, even though there was still one leaf left on the vine. Johnsy protests but Sue insists on doing so because she doesn’t want Johnsy to see the last leaf fall. In the morning, Johnsy wants to see the vine to be sure that all the leaves are gone, but to their surprise, there is still one leaf left. She regains her will to live and makes a full recovery throughout the day.
In the afternoon, doctor talks to Sue. Behrman painted a masterpiece; he painted it there the night that the last leaf fell. Unfortunately, he dies after his attempt to paint his masterpiece. He sacrifices his life for saving Johnsy's life
The story “The Last Leaf” is all about an old man’s sacrifice for one blooming life of an girl artist. Johnsy and Sue were two young girl artists living together at the top of a brick house. An old man above sixty was living beneath them. His name was Behrman.
Behrman too was a painter. But for several years, he had painted nothing except now and then a daub in the line of advertisement. He also served as a model for the young artists in the colony and often talked of his coming masterpiece. On the other hand, the two girls, Johnsy and Sue, used to draw illustrations for magazine story and such.
These two girls set up a new studio in the colony. But, after six months Johnsy caught pneumonia and when doctor says that she have only time left is when the last leaf of the ivy vine tree has fallen. But the doctor also suggests that her strong desire to live can help her to fight against this disease. She daily used to stare at that tree and count the leaves falling down.
One day, the old man Behrman get to know about Johnsy's condition and he decides to paint the last leaf falling from the ivy vine tree on the brick wall of the house. At that night he work very hard in the snow and finally completes the painting. But, unfortunately he dies of pneumonia the next day.
Behrman painted the last leaf so carefully and accurately to make it look original and help Johnsy recover from her wicked thought of death. He probably knew that he would get the cold and almost surely the pneumonia too. But still, he risked his own life for saving the life of Johnsy. This is a selfless sacrifice for a noble cause. He kept his promise of protecting the two young artists and also of painting his masterpiece
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