English(Moment) Class 9 : Lesson 7 - The Last Leaf
Lesson 7
The
Last Leaf
Think about it
1. What
is Johnsy's illness?What can cure her,the medicine or the willingness to live?
Ans: Johnsy was suffering from pneumonia.Only the
willingness to live could cure her.She had made up her mind that she was not going
to get well.The doctor said that if she did not want to live,then medicine would
not help her.
2. Do
you think the feeling of depression Johnsy has is common among teenagers?
Ans: Yes,the fear Johnsy has,is common among the
teenagers.Johnsy was under depression.She had lost her interest in life.The young
minds are immature,sensitive and emotionally unstable.They cannot cope with the
demanding competition in their lives.They want to perform but if there is failure
they go in to depression.
3. Berhman
has a dream.What is it? Does it come true?
Ans: Behrman has a dream.He wanted to create a
painting which would be his masterpiece.Yes,his dream come to true when he paints
the last leaf on the ivy creeper to keep the hopes of a young girl alive though
he had to lose his life doing so.
4. What
is Behrman's masterpiece? What makes Sue say so?
Ans: Behrman was an old artist.His masterpiece
was the painting of an ivy leaf.The leaf looked so real that even the artist like
Johnsy could not realize its genuineness. She thought that it was a real leaf.This
leaf was a masterpiece in the sense that it saved the life of a girl.She was justified
in making the statement.
Extra Questions
Ans: Behrman symbolizes, both literally and figuratively, the final sacrifice and as such is a validation of the commitment inherent in true friendship. The remaining leaf, the one that sustains Johnsy and changes her outlook towards life and death, is not a leaf on the tree, but the one painted by Behrman on the window. This becomes the old artist's masterwork. He dies from the pneumonia he develops while painting the leaf outside in a storm. This was his ultimate sacrifice for his friend. This final act of Behrman's life not only helps Johnsy to recover, it is a life-affirming event for Behrman even as it leads to his death. Although money and the creation of a masterpiece had proved elusive, creating the simple, yet masterfully painted leaf for Johnsy's salvation, completed his life's work.
2. What was the doctor's observation about Johnsy's health?
Ans: The doctor examined the ailing Johnsy. He was not sanguine about her ability to fight off the virulent pneumonia which had virtually dragged her to the brink. He conveyed this to Sue, but assured her that Johnsy still had 10% chance of survival. He promised to give the best medicine, but regretfully said that the patient's mental submission to the infection was undermining her body's capacity to fight back. He advised Sue to do everything possible to inject some hope and willpower back to desolate Johnsy If this happened, the efficacy of the medication would be doubled, he assured. He suggested Sue to explore if Johnsy had any un-fulfilled desire that could be met to make her recover her lost mental strength.
3. Analyse Johnsy's character.
Ans: Shea is young artist from California. She lives with her friend Sue in a studio apartment in Greenwich village and has long dreamed of visiting Italy to paint the Bay of Naples. She falls seriously ill with pneumonia and becomes convinced that she will die when the last leaf from the vine outside her window falls. The doctor presents Johnsy's hopelessness and her acceptance of death as the primary obstacle to her recovery, but Johnsy nonetheless cannot shake her fatalistic insistence that she will die when the last leaf falls. Sue's attempts to cheer her up are unsuccessful, but when Mr. Behrman paints a realistic-looking leaf onto the wall outside Johnsy's window—tricking Johnsy into believing that one leaf has improbably survived a storm—Johnsy realizes that her attitude has been unacceptable, and she regains her health.
4. What is the doctor's role in the story?
Ans: The doctor is a busy, old man with "shaggy grey eyebrows" who attends to Johnsy and Behrman. He diagnoses Johnsy with mental as well as physical illness, telling Sue that he cannot help a patient with medicine when she doesn't want to get better. He is skeptical of the idea that unfulfilled artistic ambitions might be the cause of Johnsy's depression, asking Sue whether she is depressed over a man. He visits Johnsy again after she has recovered and gives her a good prognosis, but tells Sue that Behrman has died of pneumonia.
5. Analyse the theme of friendship and sacrifice in the story.
Ans: Behrman's "great masterpiece" is not a typical painting, but a single leaf he has painted onto the tree—a leaf so realistic that both Johnsy and Sue believe it is truly the last leaf on the vine. This masterpiece saves Johnsy's life by returning her the will to live. Because he went outside in a storm to paint the leaf, Behrman catches pneumonia and dies. This sacrifice is not the only selfless act in the story: although the three protagonists have few possessions to call their own, they survive hardship by loving and caring for one another.
When Johnsy first becomes ill, she turns away from human companionship, which seems to equate social isolation with illness and death. Convinced that she is dying, Johnsy wants to be alone. Without her friendships, Johnsy would have succumbed to her own melancholy and must have had died : it's Sue's attention and Behrman's act of kindness in painting the leaf that restore her to health.
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