In order to portray the characters, to render the general mood and atmosphere of the story vividly and convincingly the author of the analysed story resorts to the following devices:

v Lexical:

The similes “lying white and still as fallen statue”, ““…and go sailing down, down, just like one of those poor, tired leaves” are used to create image one of the main characters, Johnsy, who is suffering from pneumonia. These similes help to  depict her physical and emotional state while she is ill.  Other simile such as “…and who regarded himself as especial mastiff-in-waiting to protect the two young artists in the studio above” helps to reveal actions of Mr. Behrman, namely how he regards himself.

The usage of such metaphor as “The lonesomest thing in all the world is a soul when it is making ready to go on its mysterious, far journey” creates Johny’s image. It helps to understand the girl’s emotional state. We realise that she is frustrated, she falls into despair and can’t do anything to stay alive. So, she is ready (her soul) to go on its mysterious journey.

The choice of such epithets as “cold, unseen stranger”, “icy fingers”, “chivalric old gentleman”, “red-fisted, short-breathed old duffer” employed by the author to describe the terrible illness (pneumonia), which is  personified in this story. Through such epithets the author creates the possible appearance of this disease. And as we can see, this appearance is unpleasant and horrific. So, if this cold stranger touches you with his icy fingers it can lead to death. Other epithets “silly ivy leaves”, “poor, tired leaves” help to create image of two friends. They show us how these girls differ from each other. Sue doesn’t realise how leaves can have such a great impact on Johnsy, how life can depend on these “silly ivy leaves”. In contrast, Johnsy believes that her life is like the life of these leaves. She is poor and tired as the leaves are.

The hyperbole “… and had a Michael Angelo's Moses beard curling down from the head of a satyr along with the body of an imp” is used to produce a humorous effect of the Mr. Behrman appearance. From this we can understand that he his is an old ageing man, who doesn’t want to carry about himself.

The other resorts to the personifications, which are used to personify Pneumonia, to portray it as a living being, which possesses all human qualities. The author shows that a disease as a life creature can play with human’s health and can wreck their lives. For example: “In November a cold, unseen stranger, whom the doctors called Pneumonia, stalked about the colony, touching one here and there with his icy fingers. Over on the east side this ravager strode boldly, smiting hs victims by scores, but this feet trod slowly through the maze of the narrow and moss-grown “places”;;“ But Johnsy he smote; and she lay, scarcely moving, on her painted iron bedstead, looking through the small Dutch window-panes at the blank side of the next brick house.”

The zeugma is used in this story to create humorous effect: “So, to quaint old Greenwich Village the art people soon came prowling, hunting for north windows and eighteenth-century gables and Dutch attics and low rents”; “ They had met at the table d'hte of an Eighth Street "Delmonico's”, and found their tastes in art, chicory salad and bishop sleeves so congenial that the joint studio resulted.”

In the sentences like these “Then they imported some pewter mugs and a chafing dish or two from Sixth Avenue, and became a "colony”, “Young artists must pave their way to Art by drawing pictures for magazine stories that young authors write to pave their way to Literature” the author employs to irony which shows a positive attitude of a speaker to the objects, but at the same time expresses a negative evaluation of them.

Also there is a case of euphemism in the story: “I must go”. This expression is used instead “I must die”. Johnsy says in such a way, because she doesn’t treat death as something frightening.  When death comes, she will be ready to meat it.

v Syntactical:

To draw our attention to the main things the repetitions used in the story: “She was looking out the window and counting - counting backward”; “An old, old ivy”; “… and go sailing down, down, just like one of those poor, tired leaves”; . "I'm tired of, I'm tired of..."  All these repetitions are ordinary. They depict strong feelings and emotions of the characters.

To strengthen the expressiveness of the utterance the author the rhetorical questions are used here: “Vy do you allow dot silly pusiness to come in der brain of her?”; “W:hat have old ivy leaves to do with your getting well?”

In this story some cases of gradation are used. "Twelve," she said, and little later "eleven"; and then "ten," and "nine"; and then "eight" and "seven", almost together”; "Six," said Johnsy, in almost a whisper. "They're falling faster now. Three days ago there were almost a hundred. It made my head ache to count them. But now it's easy. There goes another one. There are only five left now." Every following word is emotionally stronger and logically more important. It intensifies the moment in such a matter that we think how much leaves are left. In this case, leave are a symbol of time. So, how much time is left Johnsy to live.

To create the text-rhythm and to attract the reader's attention to these constructions the author used polysyndeton: "Twelve," she said, and little later "eleven"; and then "ten," and "nine"; and then "eight" and "seven", almost together.”

Also there are lots of cases of ellipsis “Leaves. On the ivy vine. When the last one falls I must go, too”; “Paint? - bosh!”, inversion “Still dark green near its stem, with its serrated edges tinted with the yellow of dissolution and decay, it hung bravely from the branch some twenty feet above the ground”, “Behrman, his name is”, detachment “some kind of an artist, I believe” and emphatic constructions “It was a sin to want to die”, ““there yet stood out against the brick wall one ivy leaf”. They help to express additional information, which makes the utterance more full and detailed. Also they add logical stress and emotional colouring to the meaning and denote colloquial speech.

v Graphic:

    The words “Pneumonia”, “Art”, “Literature”, “Mistress’s robe” are

capitalized. The author used it to emphasize its importance.

The author resorts to the graphons, which we can see in the following passage: "Vass!" he cried. "Is dere people in de world mit der foolishness to die because leafs dey drop off from a confounded vine? I haf not heard of such a thing. No, I will not bose as a model for your fool hermit-dunderhead. Vy do you allow dot silly pusiness to come in der brain of her? Ach, dot poor leetle Miss Yohnsy." These graphons help us to indicate the origin of Mr. Behrman. We can say that he is a German, because all these words have Germanic origin.

And finally O.Henry uses graphic means: "mastiff-in-waiting to protect" (shows Behrman's nature), "one chance in - let us say", "is a man worth - but…" (through that we can see Sue's astonishment that the doctor could think that a man can be somehow the reason of her fancy),"counting-counting", “to-morrow”, “to-day”  etc.