The last leaf

That winter, they met in a community organization called loving collecting. His gaze was drawn irresistibly to her inexpressible temperament with rosy cheek, red lip, supple knee and the like. He fell in love with her. They both love collecting the specimens of leaves. Meanwhile, his wiry frame, especially his humor attracted her notice. Finally, they were in love. Usually, they walked in the neat school road. Birds sang joyfully, the sunlight was genial, while the breeze swayed. They enjoyed all these. And then, they always together made the specimens. In their college days, there remained lots of specimens which were richly variegated in color. However, the gods send nuts to those who have no teeth, on that day, he fought against one man for her. What is accidental is that man

 

第二篇：the last leaf论文

Contents

Contents ......................................................................................................................... 1

Abstract .......................................................................................................................... 2

摘要................................................................................................................................ 3

1. Brief Introduction of the Author ................................................................................ 4

2. Brief Account of the Novel ........................................................................................ 5

2.1 Main Content of The Last Leaf ................................................................................ 5

2.2 Major theme of The Last Leaf .................................................................................. 6

3.Role of the “Blank” Technique ................................................................................... 6

3.1 Enchanting the Plot .................................................................................................. 6

3.1.1 Making the Plot More Suspenseful ....................................................................... 7

3.1.2 Making the Plot More Humorous ......................................................................... 8

3.2 Creating the Surprising Ending................................................................................ 8

3.2.1 The Ending:Twisting ............................................................................................. 8

3.2.2 The Ending:Misleading ......................................................................................... 9

4. Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 10

Bibliography................................................................................................................. 12

Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... 13

1

Abstract

O.Henry, one of the three most famous short-story writers in the world, enjoys equal status with Chekhov and Maupassant. His short stories are famous for its unexpected ending, as well as their exquisite plots. The figures written by him are full of delight of life so Henry is praised as the “Humorous encyclopedia of American life”.

The style of O.Henry’s short novels’ ending is well known throughout the world literature with its unexpected results produced by the “blank” technique. The Last Leaf is a typical example. Blank plot is an important means of expression in short stories. It can help readers to exercise imagination and establish associations which can make the stories colorful and glistening.

So, the paper is to analyze the “blank” technique used in The Last Leaf and tries to explore the role of this technique in expressing the theme of the novel in order to grasp the meaning of the novel exactly, so that the readers can understand the aims of the author and enjoy the charm of the stories.

Keywords: O.Henry; plot; “blank” technique; ending

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摘 要

作为世界三大小说家之一，欧·亨利与契诃夫，莫泊桑齐名。他的作品因其奇巧的艺术构思，出其不意的结尾而著称。他语言诙谐，描写的人物富有生活情趣，因此被誉为“美国生活的幽默百科全书”。

“欧·亨利式的结尾”主要是通过“情节空白”这种写作手法来达到出人意料的结局，使小说具有极强的戏剧性并享誉世界文坛。《最后一片叶子》就是一个典型代表。情节空白是短篇小说创作的重要表现手段，有助于读者建立想象和联想,使得作品丰富多彩，熠熠生辉。

因此文章通过分析最后一片叶子中情节空白的技法，并试图探究此技法对于表现小说主题的作用来达到对小说内涵更准确的把握，从而帮助读者透过表象看到作者真实的意图，进而发现其作品中的艺术魅力。

关键词：欧亨利；情节；空白技巧；结尾

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The “Blank” Technique of The Last Leaf

论最后一片叶子的空白技巧

姓名：朱方圆 班级：07英语本科2班 学号：0705111144

指导老师：徐练宏 职称：讲师

1. Brief Introduction of the Author

O. Henry, originally named William Sydney Porter, is a distinguished American storywriter. He wrote more than 300 short stories in his life. His stories are full of colorful characters most of whom are derived from his inclination to wander streets and parks, and to talk to people of every kind and condition. And all of his stories are ingeniously conceived, with the endings always contrary to readers' expectations. Though his stories' endings are always surprising, yet it is not beyond reason, for both ways conform well to the logic of life. He creates an original, typically American democratic form of short stories, at its best, a valuable critical awareness of life and society tellingly expressed through humor. Therefore, some critics call him "the founder of American stories". (Carcia, 1976:62) Being gifted with humor and a keen awareness of details, he objectively shows us what America looks like. As his experience shows, the majority people he met in his daily life are those lower class in society ---- clerks, policemen, and waitresses. All his stories putting together constitute a true panorama of American life, or as someone said, "The encyclopedia of American life". （Barry, 1996:61）

O. Henry's trademark is the surprising ending that each of his stories contains. He sets a story moving in one direction, and just when the reader is convinced of the general direction of the narrative, the story will be completely reversed. And if we look back to the total story, the ending seems logical and plausible. As a “plot-maker”, 4

and designer of incident, he is an amazing genius. (Leacock 1916: 37)No one can do better than him to holds the reader in “suspense”. More than that, the reader scarcely knows that he is suspended until the very close of the story. Just as “turns on the lights and the whole tale is revealed in its entirety”. (Leacock 1928:40) He uses this device of dramatic and humorous effect in the short story collection The Four Million which including The Ransom of Red Chief, The Gift of the Magi, and The Cop and the Anthem, The Service of Love, The last Leaf. At the same time he uses irony and satire to disclose the essence of American society: the weak are the prey of the strong, which is regarded as the law of the jungle universally. In addition, right and wrong are confused, good and evil are disordered.

This paper is mainly analyzes O.Henry’s typical writing skill---“blank” technique. It demonstrates from three aspects. At first it gives an instruction of the main content and theme of The Last Leaf. Then it analyzes the short story’s compact structure and the plot and through the discussion of the influence of plot and twist ending, it will give us a comprehensive knowledge of the role of the “blank” technique and know more about this technique.

2. Brief Account of the Novel

2.1 Main Content of The Last Leaf

O Henry’s best-loved story The Last Leaf is a significant embodiment of the author’s super skill of using “blank” techniques to make surprising but logical ending, which was called “tearful smile”.( Leacock,1916:4)

It is a story of some ordinary people. In “colony” Washington where some poor artists lived, pneumonia was epidemic. The young artist, Johnsy, “a mite of a little woman with blood thinned by Californian zephyrs” was smote by epidemic. “She lay, scarcely moving”, looking at the blank side of the next brick house, and counting the leaves on the ivy vine outside the window which were stricken by the cold breath of autumn. She thought herself just like a weary leaf and said “when the last leaf falls, I must go, too” . Life was tough, and Johnsy was pessimistic, indulging in the abyss of despair, even her most significant dream of painting the Bay of Naples some day couldn’t arouse her desire for survival. The doctor, consequently, thought she had one chance in ten to get well, “and that chance is for her to want to live”.

Johnsy’s bosom friend—Sue, getting to know her friend’s weakness, “cried a Japanese napkin to a pulp”. But to conceal her sadness, “she swaggered into Johnsy’s room with her drawing-board, whistling ragtime”. Thinking Johnsy was asleep, “Sue stopped whistling”. When she found that Johnsy wanted to die, she had to make a 5

white lie that Johnsy’s chances for getting well were “ten to one”. However, Johnsy was untouched to Sue’s painstaking efforts. She had made up her mind to go away with the last leaf of the ivy vine.

Old Behrman, an old artist, who lived on the ground floor beneath them, knew what Johnsy thought. “With his red eyes plainly streaming”, he shouted his contempt and derision for Johnsy’s “idiotic imaginings”. He, though was “a failure in art”, had been always about to paint a masterpiece, and promised to help Johnsy move out of such a terrible place.

“A persistent, cold rain was falling, mingled with snow” . The leaves on the ivy vine went more and more. Would the last leaf fall? What would happen to the poor mite? O. Henry continued the story.

“But, lo! After the beating rain and fierce gusts of wind that had endured through the livelong night, there stood out against the brick wall one ivy leaf. It was the last on the vine”.

It was really an unbelievable miracle! But Johnsy believed that it would fall, and she would die at the same time. When reading the story here, readers will have the same thought like Johnsy’s. But “the day wore away, and even through the twilight they could see the lone ivy leaf clinging to its stem against the wall”.

The whole night passed with wind and rain. Can’t the last leaf fall? Readers hold a firm belief that in the next morning the leaf must fall, and the girl must die. However, when it was light enough, when the shade was raised, Johnsy found “the ivy leaf was still there”.

Johnsy was touched by the last leaf; she became convinced that “it is a sin to want to die”. (O.Henry 2004:59) The doctor came and said Johnsy had “even chances” to recover. However, he continued: “now I must see another case I have downstairs. Behrman…Pneumonia, too. He is an old, weak man, and the attack is acute. There is no hope for him…”

Henry didn’t describe how old Behrman drew the last leaf on the wall on such a dreadful night, he use the “blank” technique to leads the end directly, but readers can imagine it through the limited description of the last leaf.

2.2. Major Theme of The Last Leaf

The Last Leaf, moving along around the core—the last leaf—the masterpiece, sings the praise of the sincere friendship and the noble spirit---selfless sacrifice of ordinary people. The story about the three artists is not an occasional incident, but the life of the improvised, unpublished, would-be great artists. They are at the lower class of the society and strive for success, strive to accomplish a great masterpiece. They give support to each other, even without hesitation to sacrifice their own life. Their life will not be less splendid than that of the upper class because of poverty. On the contrary, they are great because of their fraternal love and the priceless friendship as the evergreen ivy leaf, which constitute their noble spirit.

Although the poor show unselfishness and sacrifice to each other, they are too 6

weak to avoid various tragedies happening from time to time in these rooms. We smile for Johnsy’s rebirth, cry for Behrman’s death but moved by his death at the same time. We are pleased for Johnsy’s rebirth with the sadness of losing Behrman. We smile with tears.

3. Role of the “Blank” Technique

3.1 Enchanting the Plot

In American fiction, the cultivation of the short story runs throughout the 19th century, not as an orderly consecutive evolution, but as a process of incessantly elaborating the various possibilities of the genre. It goes from Washington Irving, to Edgar Allan Poe, to Nathaniel Hawthorn; after them comes Bret Harte, Henry James and later, Mark Twain, Jack London and finally O. Henry. The short story is the one fundamental and self-contained genre in American prose fiction and the stories of O. Henry certainly makes their appearances in consequence of the prolonged and incessant cultivation of the genre. As a “plot maker” and designer of incident he is an amazing genius. No one can better him in holding the reader in “suspense”. More than that, the reader scarcely knows that he is suspended, until at the very close of the story. O. Henry deliberately designs the little tricks with words, for “he is a master of language and not its slave.”(Adcock, 1917:13)

3.1.1 Making the Plot More Suspenseful

The typical feature of O. Henry’s stories is twisting of plot, which turns on an ironic or coincidental circumstance. His ultimate achievement is to create the twist ending by the plot making and compact structure. He arranges a story moving in one direction, and just when the reader is going to be convinced of the general direction of the narrative, which he takes for granted, the story is completely reversed.

In O. Henry’s works, the events of some short stories are arranged in the specific order of occurrence by distorting the chronicle order in which they occurred, which exceed reader’s normal expectation to the arrangement of those events in his works, make the ending unpredictable and strange.

Although the plot far exceeds expectations, readers appreciate the cleverness of plot situation and ending a great deal while enjoying the delight of reading.

The suspense in the story is usually employed in the plot. It is the seemingly insignificant characters that finally become the notable figures that rouse readers ponder. In The Last Leaf, Mr. Behrman who is only mentioned in only a short paragraph in the middle of the story to show who he is, and two paragraph tell the reader his rage about Sue ’s fully thought. The main theme of the story is that Sue takes the last fallen ivy leaf as the end of her life. Before they know the end, readers will no doubt ask some questions. How does Sue’s illness? Why does the leaf stick against the wall? Does the leaf fall down? Does Sue die? Why does the author mention Mr. Behrman? The last paragraph reveals. Hidden all the key information and left no time to the reader, then all suspense dissolves. The leaf is painted by Behrman, while Sue lives. But the old painter died in hopeless pain by Pneumonia, or rather, to rescue Sue. He has to withstand tough wind and heavy shower and the life-long 7

masterpiece paid off by his life. When we find the plausibility of ending in the previous passage, when Mr. Pneumonia wais called in, the Johsey scarcely moves, only looking through the small Dutch windowpanes at the blank side of the next brick house, the “blank side” of brick later provides the location for Mr. Behrman’s masterpiece, the description of Mr. Behrman. He is past 60 and has a Michael Angelo’s Moses beard curling down from the head of a satyr along with the body of an imp. “Michael Angelo’s Moses” (Leacock, 1928:22) leaves readers an impression of artistic potential. Imp can explain why he was so weak to fight against disease.

The compact structure is O. Henry’s outstanding writing technique. Events in the story are closely connected as chains of rings, which make readers eagerly interested in the ending of the story. As soon as the high light of the reverse of plots, the story ends without any redundant explanations. In The Last Leaf, the description of Mr. Behrman, the true hero, only takes up 500 words in more than 5000 words.

However, the story dismisses a part, rousing us readers a great deal of imagination: How can old man, above 60 years old stand on the ladder, drawing a leaf on the wall in the dreadfully storming night, while his “shoes and clothing were wet through and icy cold”? (Zhao /Huang, 2003:3) And why would he decided to help the girl, what is his mental activity?

O.Henry didn’t say these, but just use the “blank” technique to lead the ending directly. So, readers don’t have enough time to think about all the suspense mentioned above. Therefore, it can create such an effect that is “listening the shocking thunderclap quietly” (Li, 2006:29), and let readers receive the baptism of the mind.

3.1.2 Making the Plot More Humorous

The most significant characteristic of O Henry’s language is his humor. We found Henry James Forman, of the editorial staff of the North American Review, declares that O.Henry is writes with the skill of Maupassant, and with a humor that Maupassant never dreamed of.

Humor is one of the traditions in American literature. Since Washington Irving, many authors had been skilled in writing those funny but meaningful stories. Washington Irving only used light satire to show his well-intentioned irony, while Mark Twain revealed the truth of life with lots of slang words, funny and witty remarks and inflated language. O Henry was a little different because of his own tortuous experiences and he influence from the authors of his age. “He often poked good-natured fun at human follies, but there was no malice in his humor”. (Zhao, 2007:22)

In The Last Leaf there is another way for O.Henry to show his unique humor, and that lies in the blank plot of his stories.

Enormously interested in people, O. Henry is capable of swift and compassionate insights into the average persons. He is a good reporter with a keen eye for significant details. Observing daily with his accurate eye and ear ,grasp people’s appearances and behaviors, and accumulating attentively his experience and observation, O. Henry is adept in capturing dramatic events and incidents from everyday life. The characters in his stories are from all trades and professions he 8

encountered, most of whom are those from low social class. O. Henry is a technical artist in plot structure. His stories always focus on two or three individuals and omitted some plots which have the key points for readers to understand, inventing imaginary situations and predicaments for them, working out ingeniously unexpected solutions for their problems. In The Last Leaf, writer pre-given us the idea that Jonhsy would die and Mr. Behrman is really a loser; however, because of the use of “blank” technique, the situation is just reversed, it has an unexpected solution. O.Henry’s suggestive description about the characters just from one fine view is capable of showing vividly their real features and awkward positions. Even when choosing plots to reflect the social background, O. Henry still inclines to pick those incidents or fragments from daily life of a few people, instead of directly describing the significant events in the social life.

O. Henry uses his unique skills presenting the story in such an ingenious way and creates the complicated plots foe the readers not to be clear at a glance; in somewhere it is blank deliberately. In The Last Leaf there arranges a series of conflicts that are unraveled at the end, such as the still swinging leaf after a rainy night and the old man’s dying, woven in with the main thread of the story to demonstrate great artistry and possess strong artistic charm and achieve a fascinating result.

3.2 Creating the Surprising Ending

3.2.1 The Ending: Twisting

As is known to the world, surprising ending is the most outstanding feature in O.Henry’s short stories. However, the essential factor behind the surprising ending is the setting of the blank plot. Blank plot can be found in most of his short stories and contribute to creating not only the suspense but also the surpring ending.

“O. Henry-style ending” (Leacock, 1928:57) usually refers to the great masters of short stories, it is through the “blank” technique to achieve the purpose, often in the plot at the end of the article so that the psychological sudden unexpected changes occurring situations, or make sharp reversal of the fate of the hero, the unexpected results, but within reason, in line with real life, resulting in a unique artistic charm. The end of the art, in the O. Henry-style works is fully manifested.

O. Henry is a genius at contriving the surprising but logical ending, which is also called the twist ending. With the mental status or the fate of the character changed greatly, the whole passage is suddenly endowed with a great charm. “Because the sudden change has caused a long and deep consideration of the situation or problem the article has revealed, it not only gives the readers a sudden fall, but also let us thinks a lot.”(Zhang, 2001:128) In O. Henry’s short stories, the extraordinary compression of dialogues and descriptive details often trips the unwary readers into making wrong assumption. The conclusion is an enigma until one reads the last sentence of his stories. There are a few explanations. The surprise comes quickly, and the story is finished.

So in many people’s opinion, characters depicted by O. Henry are not fully 9

depicted, there are a lot of blank plot, most of the personalities of the characters are easily understood. It seems that O. Henry focus on a narrow range of plots. Meanwhile, the twist endings make O. Henry a writer who stresses on plot-making technique too much but neglects the meaning of the story itself.

But for my part, O. Henry does not even set out false tricks as is commonly done in mystery stories, but operate with the help of ambiguities, half-statement or barely noticeable details which turn out at the end to have been highly significant. Walter Pater speaks that O. Henry’s best stories are perfect illustration----of “that architectural conception of the work which perceives the end in the beginning and never lose sight of it, and in every part is conscious of all the rest, till the last sentence does but, with undiminished vigor, unfold and justify the first.”(Carcia, 1976:73)

3.2.2 The Ending: Misleading

In most of Henry’s short stories, he creates the complicated plots for the readers not to be clear at a glance. He first conceals some important facts on purpose, giving a hint foreshadowing later developments in a story, when the proper time comes, he discloses what he has already planned to make the readers suddenly realize what has happened and be lost in thought. He arranges a series of conflicts that are unraveled at the end to demonstrate great artistry and possess strong artistic charm and achieve a fascinating result.

In O.Henry’s short novel, The Last Leaf, the author misleads the readers at first and at the end of the story unveils the truth. The whole night passes with wind and rain. Will the last leaf fall? Readers hold a firm belief that in the next morning the leaf must fall, and the girl must die. However, when it is light enough, “the ivy leaf is still there”. (O.Henry, 2004:59) It is really surprising that why the leaf has such strong life? At the end of the story, what Johnsy’s girl friend told her makes a great impact on the readers. “Mr. Behrman died of pneumonia today in the hospital. He is ill only two days...look out of the window, dear, at the last ivy leaf on the wall. Didn’t you wonder why it never fluttered or moved when the wind blew? Ah, darling, it’s Behrman’s masterpiece, he painted it there the night that the last leaf fell”. (O.Henry,2004:61)In the first large part, the author attempts to draw the readers attention to what Johnsy’s end is and the continuing falling leaves, while the result is the exchanges of the true and the false, the life and the death. We couldn’t help admiring such effect of strong attack in the story’s ending. The ending is unexpected but the readers suddenly see the whole thing clearly. It’s great that Johnsy calls it “masterpiece” because this leaf is really saturated with blood and sweat, filled with love and true feelings. It is a leaf that can be green and vigorous forever.

O. Henry is such a master of unexpected ending that one must admire his skills. Although these endings are unexpected, the author never makes any statements in the body of the story that can be held against him. On the contrary, all the blank plot have their special intentions, the body is a careful preparation for the surprising ending .Such as the author intentional use the “blank” technique to avoid talking 10

about Berhman, just to say that he is not a successful painter in others view, but this is a tremendous contrast with the below that in the ending the old man who had painted a very realistic leaf. The old man is really a loser? After reading the story, we will get the answer clearly. The ending reveals that Mr. Behrman, a kind old artist dies at previous night by pneumonia, painting the leave on an outdoor vine in the storming night ----in his effort to restore Johnsy’s will to live. This is the charm of the “blank” technique; it makes the ending more absorbing and surprising.

4. Conclusion

As one of the three greatest short-story masters in the world, O. Henry enjoys equal literary status with Chekhov in Russia and Maupassant in France. He has profoundly influenced the course of American short story. “He still emerges, by his huge

achievements and the immense popularity of his particular method, as an

astonishingly persistent influence on the short story of almost every decade since his day” (Kirkpatrick, 1987: 282). Focusing on incidents of everyday life and characters of various kinds, O. Henry provides the readers a vivid picture of his time. Critics have paid enough attention to his story theme of humanity, story structure filled with such O. Henry’s technique as vivid plots, frequent coincidences, surprising ending and his humorous language.

The British writer Percy Lubbock also said in The Craft of Fiction:“The most complex issues in the novel writing techniques is the use of the narrative point of view-the relation between the narrator and the story.” (Lubbock, 1937:82)O.Henry is obviously well versed in such skills, the master of storytelling treat the plot and ending skillfully, leave blank to give readers reverie. This also proved the Gestalt Psychology that is when the “blank” presented in front of the readers, it will arouse an impulse force to added or restored them to a “complete” status, this will greatly enhance the level of readers’ excitement and the explore sensitive. Smart use the “blank” technique, arranged a surprise ending, this is the fascinating place of O.Henry’s short stories.

This paper tries to appreciate literary work from writing technique perspective. After the study of the short story The Last Leaf, not only can we appreciate the author’s writing technique of the blank plot, but we are also provided with a motivation for reading and raising language awareness. Furthermore, we can use literature “as a way of increasing our knowledge of English as well as to enjoy literature in English in its own right.”(Adcock, 1990:78)

This thesis analyzes the “blank” technique in O.Henry’s The Last Leaf based on some predecessors’ studies, but “there is some limitations to analyze a text with one particular theory, for whether the chosen theory is proper or arguable”. (Zhang, 2004:248) If the paper can combined other theories like theories in speech acts, dialogue, etc, it may have a more thorough insight.

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Bibliography

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[2] 张贞梅. 从<爱的牺牲>和<麦琪的礼物> 评欧?亨利的艺术手法[J].山西：淮北煤师院学报, 2001

[3] 赵迪.错位认知下的艺术母体及生命之思——《最后一片叶子》的另一种解读

[J].江西科技师范学院学报,2007.

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[7] O. Henry. 欧?亨利短篇小说 [M]. 青海：青海出版社, 2004.

[8] Percy Lubbock. The Craft of Fiction [M], Paris：Seuil，1937

[9] Stephen Leacock. The Amazing Genius of O. Henry [M].America: Longman House, 1916

[10] Stephen Leacock. The Literary Structure of an O. Henry Short Stories [A]. America: Longman House, 1928

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Acknowledgements

Upon the completion of this thesis, I would like to express my gratitude to all the teachers from whose lectures, advice and support this work has benefited.

First of all, I am particularly grateful to my supervisor, Wang Yi Lin. Her knowledge of literature, her experience in literary fieldwork, and her constructive comments were extremely helpful during my writing of this thesis. Were it not for her effective guidance and careful revision throughout the writing, the thesis would not have turned out as it is. Her rigorous attitude toward academic research as well as her 13

kindness and generosity sets a good example for my future study and work.

I also would like to express my appreciation to the teachers who helped me with my study during the four years and their lectures aroused my interest in literature and inspired the initial idea for this thesis. They are Xu Lian Hong and other professors.

Thirdly, I would like to extend my thanks to my parents and friends who have been giving me full support during my whole process of writing.

I will not forget my fellow students who once gave me their friendly help and suggestion in the four years. Thanks for their help.

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