The Last Leaf

“[T]he streets have gone wild. They turn in different directions […] One street goes across itself one or two times.”

The streets of Greenwich Village twist and turn much like this ironic story’s plot. Greenwich Village is not a conventional neighborhood set on a neat grid. Rather, it is a perfect representation of the non-traditional artists who live there. The streets also hint at winding branches or vines, harkening to the tree outside Johnsy’s window.

“Here they [struggling artists] found rooms they like, with good light and at low cost.”

This quote serves as a validation of the fact that Greenwich Village is more of a crowded “colony” of like-minded artists, free thinkers who are struggling in urban poverty. At the time, urban poverty was a new form of poverty. Here, Henry somewhat romanticizes those living with this kind of poverty, casting them as noble artistic souls just as concerned with good light as with cost.

“Toward winter, a cold stranger entered Greenwich Village. He walked around touching one person here and another there with his icy fingers. He was a bad sickness.” 

Henry personifies pneumonia as Mr. Pneumonia, who is portrayed as a predator with “icy fingers” who is not a “nice old gentleman.” Due to the cold weather and poverty of the artists in Greenwich Village, this disease becomes a natural antagonistic force in the plot.