Question

Summary of chapter moments the last leaf

Answer 1

Hint: The context of the above question is given in the chapter ‘the last leaf’. The story is written by O. Henry. It is a story where an old artist saves the life of a young artist through the use of his art.

Complete answer:
There were two young artist friends Sue and Jhonsy who lived together. Mr Behrman, an old artist, was their neighbour. It happened that, once, Johnsy got ill in the month of November. She was diagnosed with pneumonia. Jhonsy started stressing over it and thought that the end of her life was near. Nothing that Sue did to cheer her up, made her happy.

Johnny had given up the hope of living and one day while she was lying on her bed, she saw an ivy plant outside her window. After seeing it, she convinced herself that she would die on the day when the last leaf of that plant would fall off. So she started counting the leaves of that plant every day, to check how many more days were left for her to die. Sue became extremely worried after seeingJohnsy condition. She approached Mr Behrman to discuss the matter.

Mr Behrman learned about the ivy plant and paid a visit to Jhonsy but she was fast asleep at that time. The weather that evening was extremely rough and cold. Due to such weather, all the ivy leaves had fallen but one and Sue were extremely worried about it. Mr Behrman took notice of the entire situation and quietly left for home. He took out his things and made a leaf identical to the leaf on the ivy plant.

He then went out in the cold to put his leaf on the ivy plant. While doing so he fell ill and 2 days later succumbed to pneumonia. However, the next day, when Johnny got up and found one ivy leaf intact on the plant, she felt hopeful. The masterpiece of Mr Behrman had given Johnsy the hope of living again. It was only after she had completely recovered when Sue shared the story of Mr Behrman.

Note: The last leaf is a lesson that elaborates on the morals of sacrifice. It teaches that sometimes being a ray of hope for others is far greater a deed than anything else. Sometimes through the help of others, we help ourselves as well, as is evident in the story that in order to give hope to the young woman when the old man draws the leaf, it turned out to be a masterpiece.