‘The Last Leaf’, first published in O Henry’s collection ‘The Trimmed Lamp’, is quite a moving story that cherishes the treasury of life and the existence of faith and hope. While the story is set in Greenwich village, New York, it speaks volumes on the many battles humans strife through their journey of life.
The story presents the life of three struggling artists – Sue (who was from Maine), Johnsy (who was from California) and old Behrman. They live an impoverished life in an artists’ colony in Greenwich village. It is an area marked by low rents. Thus we understand that they belong to the lower strata of the society and strive hard for success while hoping to make it big one day. They understand each other's fate very well and yet support each other even at the cost of their own life. They may be impoverished but their lives are splendid. The notion of friendship and self-sacrifice is the central idea of the story and keeps the reader hooked till the end.
The story commences in Sue and Johnsy’s jointly owned apartment, that is at the top of an old three-story brick house, in an artists’ colony of Greenwich village. The two friends also use this apartment as their studio.
In the month of November, Johnsy comes down with a serious attack of pneumonia. The disease has a bad reputation in this village and seems to have taken several lives. When Sue calls for the doctor, she is told that her friend Johnsy has slim chances of survival. This was not because of her physical illness, but more because Johnsy had foolishly associated her chances of survival to that of the falling leaves of the ivy-tree.
We are then introduced to Behrman, an old artist who was way past sixty years in age. He lived on the ground floor of the same apartment as that of Sue and Johnsy. He comes forward to help Sue in saving Johnsy’s life.
The story while maintaining the surprise elements, ends with a sting in the tail. Throughout the story, we read that Johnsy was ill and was expected to die with the fall of the last leaf. However, Behrman who paints the last leaf on the wall and battles the stormy night dies of pneumonia. Behrman was successful both in painting his masterpiece and in saving Johnsy’s life. Though Behrman appears once and speaks only twice in the story, his affection for Johnsy and Sue is well manifested in the story through his sacrifice. He thus becomes the very epitome of the theme of the story that self-sacrifice through love for others achieves happiness. The unexpected ending not only creates hope for other artists like Behrman but also recognizes him as a typical O Henry hero.
Fixed mindset and Growth mindset.
‘Fixed mindset’ as the name suggests is a state where a person believes that his abilities are fixed traits and which be changed. ‘Growth mindset’ on the other hand is a state where a person believes that his abilities can be changed and amplified through hard work and commitment.
Consider the following demonstration: since childhood I had a fixed mindset that I won’t ever be able to speak in front of a group of people because of my fear of public speaking. Because of this, I avoided speaking in elocution competitions despite being good at writing.
Now consider the next stage when my fixed mindset traits changed: After years of struggle and realization, it hit me that anybody can speak if one is confident enough. This stage of my life was called growth mindset when I even started taking parts in elocution competitions and even won the first prize in almost all the competitions.
You see, when fixed mindset of ‘I can’t do this’ changes to a growth mindset of ‘everything is possible’ great things begin to happen.
Answer:
For this question in this excerpt, the answer is the vast setting of distant landscapes.
Explanation:
Answer:
1. An ellipsis is a punctuation mark consisting of three dots.It used to indicate words have been omitted.
2.A capital letter are alphabetical letters used to begin a proper noun or the first word in a sentence.
3. colon is a punctuation mark consisting of two equally sized dots to show list , examples , etc.
4. The dash is a mark of punctuation used to set off a word or phrase after an independent clause.
5. a comma indicates a smaller break.
Explanation:
