I also copy it here.
“The Last Leaf” is one of the most delightful O Henry stories with a twist in the tail.
Young, struggling artist Johnsy is down with a severe attack of pneumonia one autumn. Her best friend and roommate Sue nurses her with deep love and care. The doctor gives her the best that modern medicine offers. But Johnsy’s condition deteriorates by the hour.
She doesn’t respond to any medicine because she is convinced that she is going to die soon. She knows exactly when she will die: the moment the last yellowing leaf on an ivy falls. Lying in her bed she can see that ivy climbing on the wall across her window. Unfortunately it is shedding its leaves fast because it is lashed by heavy rains and strong winds.
Sue tries to convince her that it is silly to link her life with a few yellowing ivy leaves. She begs her to cheer up. To encourage her, Sue even lies to her that the doctor considers her chances of survival excellent. Nothing works – neither logic nor love. By the time night falls, there are just two or three leaves on the vine.
Sue doesn’t know what to do to save her best friend. She mentions her predicament to Behrman, an old painter who lives on the ground floor beneath them. He pooh-poohs Johnsy’s idiotic belief.
Johnsy expects all the remaining leaves to have fallen off during another night of rains and fierce winds. When day breaks and the curtain is drawn back, however, she is amazed to find one recalcitrant leaf clinging to the vine on the wall. It bravely withstands battering by strong winds the following day and night, too. That does the trick for Johnsy. It convinces her that she is not going to die. She asks Sue for soup and milk and for a hand mirror. Now she wants to live; she wants to paint.
The following day the doctor gives Sue the good news that Johnsy is out of danger. He also gives her the bad news of old Behrman’s death. He caught pneumonia because he was out in the cold, windy, and rainy night standing on a ladder and painting a leaf on the ivy on the wall across Johnsy’s window.
*** *** ***
The last leaf is not a leaf at all. But it pulls Johnsy out of her deep conviction that she is going to die. We may find her belief silly. How can there be any link between a yellowing leaf falling off from an ivy vine during autumn and a person breathing her last? We may also wonder why she doesn’t see through the trick of the painted leaf. It doesn’t flutter in the wind; a real leaf should. Why doesn’t she wonder? Why doesn’t she investigate?
But the fact is that we are no different from Johnsy – we all have some such beliefs that we hold tightly and without questioning. Our beliefs are, of course, well-founded while others’ beliefs are laughable superstitions. We can readily punch holes in others’ beliefs but we can’t see anything wrong with ours. However unreasonable it appears to the rest of the world, we cling to our behaviour shaped by such beliefs.
Our politicians are in the forefront of those who organise their public lives around some such beliefs. They may swear in at the unearthly hour of 2.39 am because they believe that that is the most auspicious time to open a new momentous chapter in the history of the world.
The strange behaviour of many famous sportsmen and women is common knowledge. During matches Michael Jordan used to wear his university’s blue shorts under his Bulls uniform. Whenever Goran Ivanisevic won a match, he would repeat everything he did the previous day: eat the same food, talk to the same people, and watch the same shows on television. During the recent cricket World Cup, Virender Sehwag stopped wearing shirts with numbers at the back while M.S. Dhoni sported 7, the date of his birth, both apparently on sound astrological advice. During each match Zaheer Khan is said to have kept a yellow handkerchief on his body.
The power of such beliefs is so strong that, when a star sportsman is denied his lucky number or underwear, he may lose the game. That is why people who know about such beliefs make sure that there is no disruption so that the players can play their natural game and do well.
When he heard about Johnsy’s strange belief, old Behrman had nothing but contempt for it. But he understood the power of belief. That is why he risked his own health to go up in the cold rain and paint in a leaf. He framed his response in perfect alignment with Johnsy’s fears and expectations. If her belief was that with the fall of the last leaf she also would leave this world, a leaf clinging to the vine tenaciously and fighting the storm should persuade her to give up the thought of death and start thinking about the business of life.
Behrman could save Johnsy’s life because she had made her belief known. The problem with the corporate world is that everyone pretends it is governed by reason and evidence. Many wonderfully competent and visionary corporate leaders may not reveal to anyone some of the beliefs that drive their actions because they are afraid of being ridiculed. Would a CEO let the world know that after an expensive transcontinental flight he returned home without attending a crucial meeting because he had forgotten to pack his lucky undies?
The next time your boss doesn’t listen to reason and refuses to be persuaded, perhaps you may want to look out of the boardroom window for the last leaf. Or a hidden hand that stops him from doing what you want him to.
I have read The last Leaf By O Henry many times. Your post is excellent. It convinced me that we all have beliefs that we cling to and these beliefs shape our behavior and our lives.
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