24 pages • 48 minutes read
O. HenryThe Last Leaf
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1907A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Personification
Personification is a literary device that humanizes an inanimate object, abstract quality, or a force of nature. In “The Last Leaf,” both the wind and pneumonia are personified. Pneumonia is referred to as a “cold stranger” who “walks around touching one person here and another there with his icy fingers” (13). Henry even gives the disease a title, Mr. Pneumonia, and describes him as “not a nice old gentleman […] [who] touched Johnsy with his cold fingers” (13). This serious illness lacks chivalry, attacking weak women like Johnsy. Similarly, the season, winter, is also personified as having “cold breath” like a human. It attacks Behrman and becomes a driving force in his demise. The author’s descriptions of Mr. Pneumonia and winter give the reader a chilling feeling of a predator stalking its victims.
Point of View
Henry often uses the limited omniscient third person point of view. Other than direct dialogue, the reader only hears the narrator’s descriptions, seeing things only from the narrator’s point of view. This point of view is more objective and does not provide readers with the characters’ thoughts; the anonymous narrator’s only role is that of an observer. Much of the story focuses on Sue’s reactions to what happens in the two days of Johnsy’s illness and the announcements of the doctor. The reader is never brought into the reader’s mind. Similarly, the reader never sees inside Behrman’s mind to determine how his emotions and thoughts prompt him to brave the storm to paint the leaf. We only know that he did it. As a result, the characters are somewhat one-dimensional, staying secondary to the plot and themes.
Irony
Irony is a literary device that describes a situation that is the opposite of what the reader expects. In The Last Leaf, for example, the reader is informed of the doctor’s bleak prognosis that Johnsy has no will to live, and he cannot help her. Additionally, it becomes apparent that Johnsy will not eat and admits she is resigned to death—even welcoming it. Johnsy then identifies with the leaves that are quickly dying on the tree outside her window. She claims when the last leaf dies, so will she. However, when Behrman paints the last leaf on the wall, Johnsy is driven to change her perspective. Equally ironic is the fact that Behrman has failed at everything artistic, yet his last painting of the leaf is his greatest masterpiece. His “masterpiece” is not displayed in a museum but is painted on an inner courtyard wall, and he dies due to his exposure to the brutal winter weather. While the reader is led to believe that Johnsy will die, it is an unexpected surprise to learn that it is Behrman who has died.
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