Individual work

FERGANA STATE UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES FACULTY

PHILOLOGY AND TEACHING LANGUAGES (English language)

Group: 17.78

Student:Abdurahimova Mukhlisa

Literature of the Countries of studying language

INDIVIDUAL WORK

Theme: Play analysis

Teacher:

2020.

Last leaf (by O Henry)

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  Place: Washington Square.
  

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  Plot: ‘The Last Leaf’, a marvelous story by O. Henry, depicts the treasury of life and the inevitability of faith to tackle the hindrances we battle through our life. The value of the life is the cynosure of the story where all things go back and revolve around it. The sequence of events is smoothly carved in with the supporting details. The story starts with a whimsical setting called the ‘places’ and the description of the present situation of Johnsy, the main character. The melodramatic and picturesque setting of the story connects to the negative status of Johnsy facing life and death subject matter. The setting also helps to describe the resources at hand to ‘combat’ the pneumonia mentioned later in the story because they are in a small district where they find themselves unable to treat it effectively with traditional methods.
  
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  Characters: Johnsy , Mr Behrman Sue, Mr Pneumonia.
  

The way of introducing story: The story begins as Johnsy, a young girl victimized by pneumonia, lies in bed waiting for the last leaf of an ivy vine on the brick wall she spies through her window, to fall. She watches each leaf fall. She is very pessimistic about her health and says that with the fall of the last leaf, she will die. Mr. Behrman, an old man considers himself as a frustrated but magnificent painter who is just waiting for the right opportunity to create his first masterpiece. He daubs the last leaf on the wall after the real one falls. At the end, he is able to finish his masterpiece, a real one not because it is fabulous but it serves as a tree of hope for Johnsy to fight against what many believes as an unbeatable illness. Then he catches pneumonia and dies.

Conflicts: The system of this universe is based on two opposite things i.e. day and night, black and white, good and bad, hope and frustration etc. ‘The Last Leaf’ is very symbolic story which conveys the theme of Pessimism and Optimism. Pessimism deals with the darken aspects of life. As optimism is totally against to pessimism, it deals with the positive ways of life. It also can be said that optimism and pessimism are the two sides of a single coin. Johnsy always leads her life as a pessimist. Sue consoles Johnsy and she consults a painter to paint the fancy of Johnsy in an optimist way. It is a technique used by O’ Henry to explain things through contrast and comparison. It is based on the quality or quantity of something. Art and literature are very close to each other but the writer compares them on the level of their functions. He pleads,

“Young artists must pave their way to art by drawing pictures for magazine stories that young authors write to pave their way to literature.”

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  Point of view: The last leaf by o Henry is that even if we have to face bad things, we should always help our loved ones and ourselves. It aims not only to describe that periods' one of the most severe condition called pheneumonia, but trys to also remind love, hope, loyalty.
  
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  The theme: “The last leaf” shows the theme of friendship and sacrifice. Friendship is such a relationship that is completed with the ties of sacrifice, sincerity, love, loyalties etc. Sue is friend of Johnsy and she progresses this relation through sacrifices.
  
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  Style: The author is a good at portraying minor characters. The sense of humour is the biggest characteristic of his short stories. He tends to make the end beyond all expectations, and he focus on the minor characters` living condition.