The Last Leaf By Zora Neale Hurston Essay

Having courage is having the ability to face your fear, pain, or a difficult obstacle. You can stand up for what you believe is right. With the ability of courage, you can face anything. Courage is being heroic/brave for you or for someone else. Courage can also make you fearless! Having courage or being heroic is being able to show bravery or strength when faced with an uneasy situation. Also, you can help another in various ways. Sometimes you don’t always have to show firmness being afraid but still be a hero through your actions. In Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” and O. Henry’s “The Last Leaf”, Delia Jones becomes courageous defending herself getting strength through her own life difficulties with abuse, and Behrman is heroic by sacrificing

She embodies the meaning of courage. As you can see Sykes beats her in many ways, physically, mentally, and verbally. For instance, Delia returned from church and began her work as a laundry woman sorting out the clothes. Then, she begins gasping in terror, she has a fear of snakes which her husband uses against her slipping through her shoulders but, she realizes that it was just a bull whip her husband used. He did it on purpose to take Delia by shock and fright. For me it was certainly rude and insensitive. We then get to see a slight sudden turn in her character. “She seized the iron skillet from the stove and struck a defensive pose, which act surprised him greatly, coming from her. It cowed him and he did not strike her as he usually did” (Hurston 603). Dropping her meek posture of the subservient wife, she picks up a frying pan as her weapon, and threatens Sykes with retaliation. He is surprised and awed by Delia 's

He becomes a protector to Sue 's and Johnsy 's. “For the rest he was a fierce little old man, who scoffed terribly at the softness in any one, and who regarded himself as especial mastiff-in-waiting to protect the two young artists in the studio above” (Henry 3). Sue comes to tell Behrman about Johnsy condition a deathly illness of pneumonia. Adding that Johnsy has given up declaring she will die when the last leaf falls from the vine outside the window. Behrman claims that Johnsy 's sentiments are completely nonsense. For me Behrman didn’t paint the leaf to achieve the fortune and fame, but because he wanted to save Johnsy’s life. Showing that he sacrifices his own life to achieve a goal. It makes clear that he performed a selfless deed out of love. Going in the icy cold rain, Behrman spends the night painting his masterpiece. He paints one last leaf on the vine. “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 the last leaf fell” (5). Now, looking outside Johnsy wouldn’t give up so easily and die. Sadly, he catches pneumonia from painting in the rain. He dies, but not before he painted his masterpiece. Realizing that someone was sending her a message to get out of her