The Last Leaf
讀書樂編號：8813
推介人： 郭詠恩老師
The Last Leaf was written by O. Henry, an American writer who is famous for his short stories.It is very short that I think you can finish it within one hour including looking up the dictionary. The story happened among three artists, Johnsy, Sue and Behrman. Johnsy and Sue were good friends. They found their tastes in art so they set up an art studio and lived together. Johnsy was dying of pneumonia, a kind of lung disease. She lost her will to live. Every day she looked out the window and counted the leaves on the tree. “When the last one falls I must go, too.” she said. Sue told their neighbour Behrman, a failure in art, about Johnsy’s condition. Then, Behrman drew the last leaf on the wall in a rainy night. The next day morning, when Johnsy got up, she found that there was still a leaf on the tree so she decided to fight against her disease bravely. Unfortunately, Behrman died of acute pneumonia after two days. I was moved by Behrman’s good deed. He helped his friend to gain the will to live but sacrificed his own life. A tear fell from my eye when I read the ending. The plot was cleverly set that you won’t know why there was still a leaf on the tree until you read through to the end. Yet, at that time you will also find out that Behrman had died. The ending tugged at my heartstrings.
