In “The Last Leaf,” hope is an incredibly power force. A person needs hope to live; hope is integral to human life. Though its power is not necessarily evident, hope also has surprising resilience even in the face of the harshest experiences that life has to offer. In turn, the capacity to create hope is the mark of someone truly masterful.

The clearest manifestation of this theme is perhaps with Johnsy and her struggle to rekindle her hope. Notably, Johnsy never fully loses hope. Even at her worst, a subtle spark remains; that is, Johnsy lingers with the specific aim of seeing the last leaf fall. There is overlap in what she views as inevitable and what she claims to want; in other words, she claims that she would not fight this outcome even if she could. She “must go” with the last leaf, but she is also tired enough to view this seemingly obligatory death as a release: “I have done enough waiting. I have done enough thinking. I want to go sailing down, down, like one of those leaves” (15). Nonetheless, as the doctor observes, even on his first visit, “[s]he has a very small chance” (13).