Have you ever come across Emily Dickinson’s quote, “Hope is the feathered thing that perches in the soul?” Well, that basically summarizes O. Henry’s short story, “The Last Leaf.” In this story, O. Henry writes about a young artist by the name of Johnsy who gets pneumonia. She then ties the idea that when the last leaf from the tree outside her window falls, she must go too. Later on in the story, an older artist sacrifices his life to paint a single leaf to provide a sense of hope to Johnsy so she can get better. The message O. Henry is trying to get across is that sometimes all you can do to help other people is provide them with actions that ignite hope in them to inspire them to do better.
One example of this idea is found on page fourteen when Johnsy explains to Sue that when the last leaf of the tree outside her window falls down, she must die too. This causes Sue to scoff at the idea and say, “The doctor told me your chances for getting well. He told me this morning. He said you had very good chances!” We can infer that the reason she tells this white lie to Johnsy is probably in the hopes of sparking some hope in her. This reaction reveals that she hasn’t lost any hope in trying to get Johnsy to get better even though the doctor said, “She has a very small chance…But when a sick person begins to feel that he’s going to die, half my work is useless.”
Later on in the story, Sue told Johnsy that their neighbor—an elderly artist by the name of Behrman—died after being sick with pneumonia for only two days. The story describes how he appeared shaken up upon discovery, with his shoes and clothes both wet and as cold as ice. She then explained that they found out that he had taken a light and painted outside. She then says, “Look out the window, dear, at the last leaf on the wall. Didn’t you wonder why it never moved when the wind was blowing? Oh, my dear, it is Behrman’s great masterpiece—he painted it there the night that the last leaf fell.” This shows how Behrman willingly died to paint his masterpiece, which was entirely devoted to Johnsy and showed how hopeful he was that Johnsy would make it out alive. Here we can see that Behrman gave up his own life for even the slightest hue of hope that he could give to Johnsy.
Throughout this bittersweet story of hope, love, and sorrow, O. Henry brings to light the idea of performing actions to give even a flicker of hope to other people. After all, most people won’t disagree when I say it feels great to know that you were the reason for someone else’s spark of hope.