Summary
Narrated from a third-person perspective, “The Last Leaf” opens with a description of the Manhattan neighborhood of Greenwich Village. The streets do not conform to a grid but crisscross at unexpected angles and curves, such that some streets seem to double back on themselves. The narrator jokes about how an unnamed artist once thought of a benefit to the confusing streets: someone trying to find an artist who owes money for paints and materials might get so turned around that he finds himself coming back the direction he came without having collected the money.
The narrator comments that artists flocked to Greenwich Village looking for cheap apartments with north-facing windows, eighteenth-century gables, and Dutch attics. It is in one of these studios, at the top of a three-story brick building, that Sue and Johnsy (a nickname for Joanna), the story’s protagonists, live. Having come to New York from Maine and California, the two women met at a restaurant on Eighth Street, and bonded over shared tastes in art, food, and fashion.
They moved into the studio in May. In November, a pneumonia epidemic hits the city. On the east side of Manhattan, the lung infection kills large groups of people, but it spreads more slowly through the winding streets of Greenwich Village. Mr. Pneumonia, in his cruelty and unfairness, preys on the weak; Johnsy, as a small woman used to warm California weather, contracts the illness. She does nothing but lie still in bed, looking out the small Dutch windows at the brick wall of the neighboring house.
An overworked doctor pays a house call. He takes Johnsy’s temperature and then goes to the hall to tell Sue that Johnsy has a one in ten chance of surviving. He bases his pessimistic assessment on Johnsy’s stubborn instance that she will not live; he says a patient’s desire to live determines much more of the outcome than does medical intervention.
He asks if she has anything to live for and Sue says she’s always wanted to paint the Bay of Naples. The doctor scoffs at the suggestion, dismisses the importance of painting, and says he means does she have a man worth living for. Sue is surprised, and begins to question whether a man is worth living for, but then says no, she doesn’t.
The doctor concludes that he’ll do his best with medicine, but once a patient begins to imagine their funeral, he subtracts half of medicine’s effectiveness. He says he’d imagine a better outcome if Johnsy started asking about new winter fashions.
After the doctor leaves, Sue has a private cry then comes into Johnsy’s room with her drawing materials. Johnsy lies, as if asleep, turned toward the windows. To make money until she is a professional artist, Sue is working on an illustration of a story for a magazine. She sketches an elegant pair of horse-riding trousers, worn by an Idaho cowboy.
Sue rushes to Johnsy’s bedside when she hears Johnsy quietly counting down from twelve; Johnsy is awake, counting something out the window. Sue wonders what she could be counting. She looks out the window and sees only a dreary yard and, twenty feet away, the blank brick wall. An old ivy vine climbs halfway up the brick wall. Most of its leaves have fallen because of the frigid autumn temperatures; the vine’s almost-bare branches cling to the crumbling bricks.
Analysis
“The Last Leaf” begins by establishing the story’s setting, which is the artistic enclave of New York City’s Greenwich Village. Before introducing any characters, the narrator digresses to explain how the neighborhood is known for its winding, peculiar streets. The anecdote about the bill collector getting spun around and “meeting himself” coming back establishes that this setting is one in which ironic reversals of expectations may take place. In this anecdotal mini story, the narrator primes the reader for the main story’s ironic twist ending.
The narrator’s ironically detached tone continues into the main story, as O. Henry personifies New York’s deadly pneumonia outbreak, comparing the illness to a cruel man who preys on the weak. Johnsy was raised in California, and the constant warm weather made her unprepared for a miserable New York November.
The theme of willpower and fate are introduced when the doctor gives his pessimistic diagnosis. He believes that modern medicine is only effective if a patient has the will to live; Johnsy, however, is certain that she is fated to die.
The motif of the Bay of Naples, which Johnsy wishes one day to paint, first arises when the doctor asks Sue if Johnsy has anything to live for. It is also significant that the doctor dismisses the notion that art could be the thing that would keep Johnsy alive, as Behrman’s painting of a leaf is precisely what keeps Johnsy alive.
The themes of art and fate are also conveyed through Sue’s illustration. Though it may seem inconsequential that she is drawing an illustration for a story, her need for a model is what will prompt her to ask Behrman for help. Incidentally, she will let slip that Johnsy is ill and believes her fate is tied to the ivy leaves. This information will lead Behrman to paint a leaf on the wall; therefore, Sue’s seemingly unimportant illustration will end up being directly connected to Johnsy’s fate.
