Elective English - II DENG105 Edited by Dr. Gowher Ahmad Naik ELECTIVE ENGLISH - II Edited By: Dr. Gowher Ahmad Naik Printed by LAXMI PUBLICATIONS (P) LTD. 113, Golden House, Daryaganj, New Delhi-110002 for Lovely Professional University Phagwara SYLLABUS Elective English - II Objectives: To develop analytical skills of students. To enhance writing skills of students. To improve understanding of literature among students. S. No. Topics 1. The Last Leaf by O. Henry 2. The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant 3. Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail 4. My Vision for India by APJ Abdul Kalam 5. The Thought Fox by Ted Hughes 6. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost 7. A Flight of Pigeons by Ruskin Bond 8. The Shroud by Munshi Prem Chand 9. The Right to Arms by Edward Abbey 10. Of Revenge by Francis Bacon 11. Indian Weavers by Sarojini Naidu 12. Ode to the West Wind by P B Shelley CONTENT Unit 1: The Last Leaf by O. Henry 1 Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Unit 2: The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant 15 Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 3: Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail 33 Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Unit 4: My Vision for India by APJ Abdul Kalam 47 Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 5: The Thought Fox by Ted Hughes 55 Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 6: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost 74 Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Unit 7: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert 81 Frost—Detailed Study Analysis Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 8: A Flight of Pigeons by Ruskin Bond—Detailed Study 93 Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Unit 9: The Shroud by Munshi Premchand 105 Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 10: The Right to Arms by Edward Abbey 122 Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Unit 11: Of Revenge by Francis Bacon 131 Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Unit 12: Indian Weavers by Sarojini Naidu 147 Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 13: Ode to the West Wind by PB Shelly: Introduction 163 Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 14: Ode to the West Wind by PB Shelly: Detailed Study 170 Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Unit 1: The Last Leaf by O. Henry Unit 1: The Last Leaf by O. Henry Notes CONTENTS Objectives Introduction 1.1 Introduction to the Author 1.2 The Last Leaf 1.3 Plot and Themes 1.4 Analysis of the Story 1.5 Summary 1.6 Keywords 1.7 Review Questions 1.8 Further Readings Objectives After reading this unit, you will be able to: • Know about O. Henry; • Weigh and consider the story The Last Leaf; • Discuss the themes and plot of The Last Leaf; • Make analysis of the story The Last Leaf. Introduction The Last Leaf is a short story by O. Henry which is set in Greenwich Village. It depicts the characters and themes typical of O. Henry’s works. To be perfect short story neatness, brevity and a significant incident or an aspect of character or an experience of some psychological moment is essential. Within its short framework, it must have a beginning, middle and an end. There must be completeness in its structure. All the elements, i.e. plot, character, dialogue, descriptions and background must be organically connected with each other. Generally a good story has a surprising end which bears a sense of endlessness. All these characteristics of a good short story are fulfilled in O. Henry’s The Last Leaf. It has an ironical twist at the end that is surprising and at the same time striking to the readers. Old Behrman’s bold self sacrifice for the young Johnsy comes unexpectedly to the readers, but nonetheless convincing and admirable. The story is farther a parable of a Christian story of resurrection and sacrifice. The story begins in a leisurely manner with the sketchy background. The old Greenwich village in which painters come to set up their art studio has curious maze streets criss-crossing one another. A traveller loses the directions of the streets. This description of the streets has relevance to the story in which a strong and strange psychological morbidity is focused. The main theme is then introduced. It has two characters – Sue and Johnsy. They meet each other suddenly at a hotel and find themselves sharing taste in chicory salad, bishop sleeves and in LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 1 Elective English–II Notes painting. They become intimate friends and set up a common studio in a cheap rented house. The humorous beginning arrests the attention of the readers and relieves the tension that awaits them. After a serio-comic introduction comes the central situation. One day Johnsy is attacked with pneumonia. She becomes gradually weak in body and mind. She is possessed with death wish. There is an ivy vine on the yard near Johnsy’s window. She looks at the window and counts the leaves backward that were falling and associates her longevity with the fall of leaves. She has an uncanny feeling that her life will end with the fall of the last leaf of the ivy creeper. The doctor tells Johnsy that her life depends on her wish to live. If a patient loses her will power to live, no disease can be resisted. Johnsy does not like eating and drinking. She only looks vacantly at the window counting the number of leaves falling. Her friend Sue tries to divert her mind from the window. She sits by Johnsy so that the latter will be inspired to live for painting. She offers her broth, wine, milk and tries to take her mind from death wish but she cannot succeed. The strange fancy that takes hold of her mind cannot be removed. Sue tells this strange fancy of Johnsy to the old painter Behrman who lives downstairs. As a painter he is a failure. But he has the ambition to paint a masterpiece. Behrman loves these two young painters and protects them as guardians. He dismisses this fancy as foolish. He comes upstairs with Sue to pose for as her model for the old hermit miner. A persistent cold rain is falling mingled with snow. Next morning Johnsy asks Sue to draw up the green skin of the window. To their surprise they find the last leaf standing out against the brick wall in spite of the beating rain and fierce gusts of wind throughout the night. The last leaf survives the rain and wind. Johnsy’s wish to live revives. Throughout the day and the next night the leaf clings to its stem against the wall. Johnsy considers herself a bad girl to think of death. The last leaf continues to live and so she will live. She calls for foods and assures herself that one day she will paint her masterpiece – the Bay of Naples. She is declared out of danger by the doctor after two days. Then there is the characteristic twist. The mystery is clear. On the dreadful night Old Behrman paints the green leaf on the stem. That is why it neither moves nor flutters. The painted leaf has given the illusion of living leaf and Johnsy has got back her urge to live. Johnsy is out of danger but Behrman dies of pneumonia. Painting is made in sufferings and saves the life of morbid Johnsy. Art triumphs over death. Life is immortalised by the touch of art. This ironical twist to the plot makes the story so interesting. It comes so unexpectedly yet convincing with a delightful tragic-comic note. 1.1 Introduction to the Author William Sydney Porter, known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American writer. O. Henry’s short stories are known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterisation and clever twist endings. William Sydney Porter was born on September 11, 1862, in Greensboro, North Carolina. His middle name at birth was Sidney; he changed the spelling to Sydney in 1898. His parents were Dr. Algernon Sidney Porter (1825–1888), a physician, and Mary Jane Virginia Swaim Porter (1833–1865). They were married on April 20, 1858. When Porter was three, his mother died of tuberculosis, and he and his father moved into the house of his maternal grandmother. As a child, Porter was always reading, everything from classics to dim novels; his favourite works were Lane’s translation of One Thousand and One Nights, and Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy. Porter graduated from his aunt Evelina Maria Porter’s elementary school in 1876. He then enrolled at the Lindsey Street High School. His aunt continued to tutor him until he was 2 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY Unit 1: The Last Leaf by O. Henry fifteen. In 1879, he started working in his uncle’s drug store and in 1881, at the age of nineteen, Notes he was licensed as a pharmacist. At the drug store, he also showed off his natural artistic talents by sketching the townsfolk. Porter led an active social life in Austin, including membership in singing and drama groups. He was a good singer and musician. He played both guitar and mandolin. He became a member of the “Hill City Quartet,” a group of young men who sang at gatherings and serenaded young women of the town. Porter met Athol Estes, then seventeen years old and from a wealthy family and began courting with her. Her mother objected to the match because Athol was ill, suffering from tuberculosis.