Unit 3: O.Henry: The Last Leaf and After Twenty Years

I. O. Henry (William Sydney Porter, 1862-1910): An Overview

William Sydney Porter, known by his pen name O. Henry, was a master of the American short story. His work is characterized by:

• The Twist Ending: A surprise, often ironic, conclusion that re-contextualizes the entire story.
• Irony: Heavy reliance on situational, dramatic, and verbal irony.
• Sympathy for the Common Person: Stories often feature working-class people, artists, and even petty criminals in New York City, treating them with warmth and humanity.
• Concise and Witty Prose: A distinctive, conversational writing style filled with clever wordplay.

II. "The Last Leaf": A Study in Sacrifice and Hope

A. Synopsis

In Greenwich Village, two young artists, Sue and Johnsy, share a studio. Johnsy falls gravely ill with pneumonia and loses the will to live. She decides she will die when the last leaf falls from an old ivy vine visible from her window. As the leaves fall one by one, Sue grows increasingly desperate. Their downstairs neighbor, an elderly, failed artist named Behrman who has always dreamed of painting a masterpiece, scoffs at Johnsy's morbid fancy. After a stormy night, a single leaf miraculously remains. Seeing the leaf cling to life inspires Johnsy to recover. The story concludes with the revelation that Behrman had gone out in the storm to paint the leaf on the wall, creating his long-awaited masterpiece. He caught pneumonia in the process and died, sacrificing his life to save Johnsy's.

B. Themes of Sacrifice and Friendship

1. Sacrifice: The story presents sacrifice as the highest form of love and artistry.

• Behrman's Ultimate Sacrifice:
  • He sacrifices his health and, ultimately, his life to save Johnsy.
  • The act is a culmination of his artistic ambition. His masterpiece isn't for fame or fortune but is a selfless act of compassion.
  • He transforms from a cynical, grumpy old man ("a mastiff-in-waiting") into a quiet hero. His gruff exterior hid a deeply protective and loving heart.
• Sue's Constant Sacrifice:
  • Sue embodies the theme of nurturing sacrifice through her unwavering care for Johnsy.
  • Emotional Sacrifice: She hides her own fear and grief to maintain a cheerful façade for Johnsy's sake.
  • Financial and Physical Sacrifice: She works tirelessly on her drawings to earn money for food and medicine, while also spending countless hours nursing her friend.

2. Friendship: The narrative is built on the profound bonds between the characters.

• Sue and Johnsy: Their friendship is the story's emotional core. They are "pards," sharing dreams, finances, and a home. Sue’s fierce determination to save Johnsy drives the plot forward. Her love is practical and relentless.
• Behrman's Paternal Friendship: He views himself as a protector of the two young artists. His final act is the ultimate expression of this paternal, selfless friendship. His gruff complaint, "Are there people in the world so foolish as to die because leaves drop off a vine?" masks his deep concern.

C. The Role of Irony

Irony is central to the story's emotional impact and its famous twist ending.

• Situational Irony:
  • The most powerful irony is that the painted leaf, a work of art meant to deceive, ends up saving Johnsy's life by giving her genuine hope. The illusion becomes the source of salvation.
  • The ultimate irony is Behrman's fate. He, the healthy and robust protector who mocked Johnsy's weakness, dies from the very illness he helped her survive.
  • Behrman spent his entire life wanting to paint a masterpiece. He achieves this goal not in a grand studio for the world to see, but in secret, on a brick wall during a storm, and its success is measured not by critical acclaim but by the life it saves. His greatest artistic triumph leads directly to his death.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • For a portion of the ending, the reader and Sue are aware of the truth about the leaf and Behrman's death, while Johnsy is not. We understand the true cost of her survival before she does.

D. Setting as a Reflection of Character

The setting of Greenwich Village is crucial to the story's atmosphere and themes.

• An Artist's Colony: O. Henry describes it as a place of "queer angles and curves," where artists flock for low rent and a bohemian atmosphere. This establishes the characters' poverty, their shared artistic dreams, and their sense of community.
• A Place of Sickness and Despair: The quaint, romanticized village becomes a grim setting with the arrival of the antagonist, "Mr. Pneumonia," a personified illness who stalks the colony. The setting reflects the fragility of the artists' lives.
• Johnsy's Room: The room is a microcosm of her internal state. The view from her window—a blank brick wall and a decaying vine—mirrors her bleak, hopeless outlook. Her world shrinks to this single, morbid focal point, reflecting her surrender to fate.

E. The Role of Fate and Destiny

The story explores the conflict between perceived destiny and the power of human intervention.

• Johnsy's Surrender to Fate: She passively accepts her "destiny," tying her life to the random, natural process of a dying vine. She gives up her agency.
• Behrman's Defiance of Fate: Behrman actively intervenes to change Johnsy's perceived fate. His act of painting the leaf is a powerful statement that human compassion, sacrifice, and art can defy and reshape destiny. He doesn't wait for a miracle; he creates one.

III. "After Twenty Years": A Study in Time and Duty

A. Synopsis

On a dark, rainy night, a police officer on his beat encounters a man named Bob, waiting in a doorway for his old friend, Jimmy Wells. Twenty years ago, they had promised to meet at that exact spot. Bob, who went West to make his fortune, boasts of his success, while describing Jimmy as a reliable but unambitious "plodder." After the officer leaves, another man arrives, claiming to be Jimmy. As they walk to a well-lit place, Bob realizes this man is not his friend. The man reveals he is a plainclothes officer who is arresting Bob, a wanted criminal known as 'Silky' Bob. He hands Bob a note from the original patrolman, who was the real Jimmy Wells. Jimmy recognized Bob but couldn't bring himself to make the arrest, so he sent a fellow officer to do it for him.

B. The Significance of Time and Change

Time is the central force in the story, acting as a test of character, friendship, and morality.

• Time as a Revealer of Character: The twenty-year gap serves to reveal the true natures of both men. It has forged their destinies on opposite sides of the law.
  • Bob: Time has transformed him from a good friend into "Silky" Bob, a man hardened by a life of crime. His success is material ("diamond scarfpin") but morally bankrupt. He is arrogant and overconfident, blind to his own moral decay and to the changes in his friend.
  • Jimmy Wells: Time has transformed him into a man of duty and integrity. He remained a "plodder" in Bob's view, but he built a life of honor as a guardian of the law. His loyalty to his duty ultimately outweighs his personal loyalty to a past friendship.
• The Illusion of Unchanging Friendship: Bob clings to the romantic notion that his friendship with Jimmy has remained static over two decades. He fails to comprehend that twenty years of vastly different experiences and moral choices have created an unbridgeable gap between them.
• Change in the Physical Landscape: The restaurant where they parted is gone, replaced by a hardware store. This physical change mirrors the profound internal changes in the characters. The past, as they knew it, no longer exists.

C. The Role of Irony

The story is a masterclass in situational irony, culminating in one of O. Henry's most famous twist endings.

• Situational Irony:
  • The entire premise is ironic: a meeting meant to celebrate a long-held friendship becomes the catalyst for an arrest.
  • Bob waits faithfully for the friend who will ultimately be responsible for his capture.
  • Bob’s praise of Jimmy as a "fine fellow, staunch and true" is deeply ironic because it is precisely Jimmy's "staunchness" and "truthfulness" to his duty as an officer that leads to Bob's downfall.
  • The man Bob confides in and brags to is the very person who has already sealed his fate.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • On a second reading, the entire conversation between Bob and the first officer (Jimmy) is filled with dramatic irony. We know Jimmy is assessing Bob, looking for the scar, and grappling with his duty, while Bob remains blissfully unaware.
  • Jimmy’s line, "I'll be on my way. Hope your friend comes around all right," is loaded with double meaning. He hopes Jimmy (himself) will handle the situation "all right," which he does by upholding the law.

D. Setting as a Reflection of Character

The dark, nearly deserted street corner is more than a backdrop; it reflects the story's themes of concealment and revelation.

• Darkness and Shadow: The setting is shrouded in darkness, reflecting the hidden identities and moral ambiguity of the situation. Bob stands in a lit doorway, physically and metaphorically exposed, while Jimmy remains in the shadows of his beat, his true identity and purpose concealed.
• An Atmosphere of Suspense: The wind, light rain, and emptiness of the street create a classic noir atmosphere, heightening the mystery and foreshadowing the grim conclusion.
• The Shift from Dark to Light: The final revelation occurs when the two men step "into the blaze of a drug store window." Light symbolizes truth and exposure. It is in this bright light that Bob finally sees the truth about the man he is with and, by extension, the truth about what has become of his old friend, Jimmy.

E. The Role of Fate and Destiny

The story suggests that destiny is not a matter of chance but a direct result of one's character and choices.

• Divergent Paths: The two men made a "proposition" twenty years ago. Bob chose the path of ambition and risk ("a hustle"), which led to a criminal destiny. Jimmy chose the path of stability and duty, which led him to become an enforcer of the law.
• Character is Destiny: The story's climax feels fated, but it's a fate forged by two decades of individual choices. Bob's destiny was to be caught; Jimmy's was to be the one to catch him. Their appointed meeting simply forces this collision of their self-made destinies. Jimmy's final, difficult choice—to uphold the law over personal sentiment—is the ultimate confirmation of the man he has become.