Reflections on The Last Leaf

After the verb “to love”, ”to help” is the most beautiful verb in the world.

----------by Bertha Von Suttner

After reading the whole story of The Last Leaf, I was more than a little moved by this tearful story involved with love and hope for life.

In this short novel composed by O.Henry, there are three main characters : Johnsy, Old Behrman, and Sue. Johnsy got an acute illness called Pneumonia. She seemed to lose the will to hang on to life, although her considerate roommate Sue took good care of her. She hopelessly compared her life to the last one ivy leaf. When it fell, she would also go away without any mercy. However, their loyal guardian, the old artist who achieved nothing, considered Johnsy’s idea as foolish fancy and such nonsense. Finally, astonished, old

Behrman painted an ivy leaf fell in a stormy terrible night. Therefore, Johnsy’s hope for life didn’t go out and her health picked up gradually.

In order to help Johnsy get survived and not lose hope, old Behrman sacrificed his life. Maybe he wasn’t a successful artist, with no masterpiece produced. But the last moment of his life, he made a true masterpiece-------a great work that saved a silly girl’s life with selfless sacrifice of a whole life.

So, if you’re a keen pursuer of happiness, don’t forget that there are many other ways to make a masterpiece, to become a great man because sometimes your kind heart leads you to the way of beautiful paradise.

Meanwhile, if you’re a person easy to surrender, never seek any excuse for your giving up. Losing courage and hope may be because of your softness in heart. As the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining. “It is a sin to want to die.” So we should hold on our hope and enjoy every minute.

There are all my reflections on The Last Leaf. Thanks for your reading,

第二篇：阅读课 The Last Leaf

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