The Last Leaf Literary Elements

Realistic fiction; short story

The story is set in Greenwich Village, New York City during a pneumonia epidemic in the early 1900s.

The story is narrated from a third-person perspective; the point of view stays closest to Sue.

The story's tone is one of ironic detachment; the mood is largely pessimistic, though it ends on a heartwarming note.

The protagonists are Johnsy and Sue, who are simultaneously each other's antagonists, as Sue wishes for Johnsy to live while Johnsy wishes Sue would leave her to die.

The story's major conflict is that Johnsy has superstitiously tied her fate to the fate of the last ivy leaf on the vine, which is certain to fall.

The story reaches its climax when Johnsy learns that the last leaf was in fact painted on by Behrman, who therefore sacrificed his life to save hers.

When Behrman proclaims to Sue that he will paint a masterpiece one day, his statement foreshadows his brave and selfless act of painting the last leaf.

In the phrase “the streets have gone wild,” "streets" is a metonymical substitution for people.

The narrator personifies an illness by referring to pneumonia as "Mr. Pneumonia" and attributing to the personified illness a lack of chivalry.