The Last Leaf

The Surprise Ending
O. Henry's trademark was the surprise ending that each of his stories contained. He would set a story moving in one direction, and just when the reader was convinced of the general direction of the narrative, the story would be completely reversed.
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We know the old man has been waiting his whole life to paint his masterpiece. Not until • 我们都知道，那位老人终 the very ending do we realize 生都在等待创出一部经典画作， that the old artist has indeed 可我们觉得是白日做梦。直到 fulfilled his dream while at the same time, fatally injuring 小说结尾，我们才意识到，他 himself in a selfless act of 确确实实实现了梦想，同时却 kindness. O.Herry is a master 因为自己善良无私的行为身染 at 重病致死。在小说中，欧 leading the reader down ·one 亨利 path of expectation, and then 非常善于引导读者满怀期望地 shattering these expectations at 开始阅读，却在故事结尾用出 the surprising conclusion of 人意料的结局打碎这一切期望。 the story. However, just as in 然而，正如在最后一片叶子里 “the last leaf”, these endings are rarely random acts of cruel 一样，这些结尾大多并非命运 fate. Instead, they are 残酷无常造成的，而是这位大 carefully constructed by the 师级的作者精心构造出来的， masterful author to show the 旨在向读者揭示我们那脆弱、 reader the humanity of our 有时愚蠢却亦慷慨而善良的本 frail and sometimes foolish, but 性。 also generous and kind nature.
The Gift of the Magi
《麦琪的礼物》
His main works
The Last Leaf
《最后一片叶子》
The Cop and the Anthem
《警察与赞美诗》
The Four Million
《四百万》
The Furnished Room
《带家具出租的房间》
• Johnsy and Sue are artists who move into Greenwich Village in New York City. As Winter approaches and the weather gets colder, Johnsy becomes ill with pneumonia(肺炎）. She gets so sick that she believes that when the last leaf falls from the vine outside her window, she will die. An old artist, named Behrman, who lives in the same building as the girls, braves a storm one night to paint a leaf on the wall — a leaf that will never fall. Cold and wet from painting in the icy rain, he catches pnewenku.baidu.commonia and dies. This gives Johnsy the hope to survive her illness, and it also creates the masterpiece Behrman had always dreamed of painting.
Belief, friendship are strong pillar of our life.
信念、友谊是生命得以延续的坚强支柱。
• He, who has health, has hope. • And he, who has hope, • has everything. • Arab proverb
A brief introduction to the plot
2.Johnsy得了肺炎，很虚弱， 只能隔着小窗看着窗外那棵 几乎光秃秃的常青藤，并在 不停数着树上的叶子。
1.趣味相投的两个年轻画家 Sue和Johnsy成了好朋友， 拥有一间共同画室。
4.Sue把Johnsy的想法告诉了 也很关心她的老画家Behrman。
The Last Leaf
Material Collector: Zhang Xiaoyu PPT Maker: Yu Ying Reporter: Li Yanfang
The Author
O. Henry: pseudonym of William Sydney Porter（威廉· 西德尼· 波 特）, American writer of short stories, best known for his ironic plot twists and surprise endings. His style of storytelling later became a model not only for short fiction, but also for American motion pictures and television programs.
Summary
The last leaf symbolizes the spirit of love, care and self-sacrifice and reflects the glory of humanity and miracle of life-saving.
最后一片叶子是同情心和自我牺牲精神的象征， 它闪耀着人性的光辉，创造了挽救生命的奇迹。
O. Henry (1862 – 1910)
• He was born September 11, 1862 in North Carolina, where he spent his childhood. • An acclaimed master of short stories and tales. • Starting in 1895 he wrote a column for the Houston Daily Post（休斯敦邮报). • In early 1898 Porter was found guilty of embezzlement（挪用） charges and sentenced to five years in an Ohio（俄亥 俄州） prison. • Three years and about a dozen short stories later, he emerged from prison as "O. Henry" to help shield his true 3 identity.
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Although O. Henry certainly did the short story, he • not invent 尽管短篇小说这种文学形式并 mastered this form and perfected 非欧· 亨利首创，但他堪称这种文体 the technique of the surprise 的大师级人物，而且还将出人意料 ending. O. Henry became a master at的这种结局技巧发扬至完美。在故 doing this by laying the construction for these endings in 事展开的过程中，他就开始为结局 the story itself. He gives hints to 埋下伏笔，手法非常熟稔巧妙，通 his readers of the endings to come by briefly including details that 过那些初看似乎无关紧要的细节， seem unimportant at first 设置，他不断给读者以小小的暗示， memories. But become immensely 然而，直到故事真相大白的那一刻， important when the surprise ending is 读者才会意识到当初那些细枝末节 “revealed”. An example of this is in 是多么重要。最后一片叶子就是一 the story the last Leaf，where reader sees clues of what the old 个典型例子。在这篇小说里，读者 artist living downtowns has done to save the life of the girl upstairs. 其实可以发现很多蛛丝马迹，揭示 楼下的那位老画家是如何挽救那位 姑娘的生命的。
• O. Henry wrote with realistic detail based on his first-hand experiences both in Texas and in New York City. • In 1907, he published many of his Texas stories in The Heart of the West. • He moved to New York City, where over the next ten years before his death in 1910, he published over 300 stories and gained worldwide acclaim as America's favorite short story writer. • Porter died on June 5, 1910 in New York City at the age of forty seven. An alcoholic, he died virtually penniless. 4
3.Johnsy情绪很低落，跟 Sue说，树上最后一片树叶 落下的日子就是她离去的日 子，Sue很担心她。
6.原来Behrman冒着风雨在 墙上画了一片树叶,因感风寒， 他得了肺炎死了。老画家所 画的最后一片叶子，成了他 的毕生杰作。
5.一夜疾风暴雨后，Johnsy 看到树上仍留有一片树叶， 重新鼓起了活下去的勇气。