Loss In The Last Leaf

Loss becomes an event that each main character in “Gwilan’s Harp” by Ursula K. LeGuin, “The Washwoman” by Isaac Bashevik Singer, and “Last Leaf” by O. Henry has to experience and overcome. Each main character loses an object or person that has become close to them through different ways. Gwilan from “Gwilan’s Harp” loses both her harp and her passion, sadly ending her career as a harpist. Later, she also loses her husband, Torm, through illness, causing her to reach her lowest point. The washwoman passes away in “The Washwoman”, an act that impacts the narrator greatly because of its unfairness, as the washwoman has only worked hard in her life and received misery in return. In the last short story, “The Last Leaf” Sue and Johnsy lose their dear neighbor and friend, Mr. Behrman, and in a surprising twist, the death can be indirectly linked to Johnsy. These loses extensively affect the lives of the young characters, forcing them to meet Death which
Behrman, who has been trying to paint his masterpiece for fifty years. One day, Johnsy suddenly takes ill with pneumonia and begins to become depressed, only waiting for the last leaf on the ivy vine to fall to allow her to die. However, the last leaf never falls, and Johnsy believes this signals a punishment for her wish of death. “Something made that last leaf stay there to show me how wicked I was. It is a sin to want to die” (O. Henry). Later, Mr. Behrman takes ill with pneumonia and passes away shortly after with green-yellow paint and a misplaced ladder found in his room before he was rushed to the doctor. Sue and Johnsy realize that the reason why the last leaf has not fallen is because in the freezing weather, the leaf was painted Mr. Behrman. Mr. Behrman contracted pneumonia through this, and basically sacrificed his life for Johnsy’s life, making the loss even more monumental to