In the stories “Gwilan’s Harp” by Ursula K. LeGuin, “The Washwoman” by Isaac Singer, and “The Last Leaf” by O. Henry, several characters undergo considerable loss. Gwilan lost her priceless harp at the beginning of “Gwillan's Harp.” Near the end she lost her health and her husband. The old lady in “The Washwoman” lost her son, although he did not die, her health, and her life. Johnsy, in “The Last Leaf,” lost her will to live. She did not find it again without the death of one of her closest friends. Each loss in these stories cultivated growth in the characters who experienced it.
In Gwillan's Harp by O Henry Gwilan undergoes several tragic experiences. Gwillan inherited a harp from her mother and played it professionally until a wagon accident destroyed not only the irreplaceable harp, but also her livelihood. She married the man who drove the wagon, starting a new life as a farmer's wife which was never easy, for “What began in pain, in tears, was never free from the fear of pain.” As the years flew by, Gwillan had two sons before losing her health and her husband. Her life was burdensome, but she never gave up.
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A Gentile family in Poland has hired an old Jewish lady as their clothes washer, which was not an easy task, “Only God knows all the old woman had to endure each time she did a wash”. The mother had a lot in common with the old woman. Both had at least one child; the old lady's son, the first person who was lost in this story, had abandoned his mother, leaving her poor and oppressed. All this worried the younger mother, who fretted her children would abandon her in her old age, yet does everything in her power to do what is best for them. In the end the washwoman becomes sick and barely delivers the last load of laundry before