Melach McCabe
English 9
Mrs. Henderson
October 4, 2017
The
Changed man
In
O’Henry’s short story “A Retrieved Reformation”, Jimmy Valentine deserves to be
free despite his acts of crime because he gave up everything to save a life of
a child. Firstly, Mr Valentine reforms
himself into an honest citizen. “At the
end of a year a situation of Mr. Ralph D. Spencer was this: he had won the
respect of the community, his shoe store was flourishing, and he and Annabel
were engaged to be married in two weeks” (O’Heny 192). Valentine is not pursuing a life of crime. While he used to rob safes, he now runs a
successful, legitimate business. Now
that Valentine is a respectful gentleman in town, and he is engaged to the
banker’s daughter. Next, Valentine
promises to throw away the only life he knew as a thief to keep his lover. “She believes in me, and I would not do
another crooked thing for the whole world.
Be sure to be at Sully’s, for I must see you. I will bring along the tools with me”
(O’Henry 193). Valentine is reborn into
a new man. He is giving away his tools
which will render him unable to rob again.
Finally, Valentine, or Spencer, broke his cover to do a heroic
thing. “With that act Ralph D. Spencer
passed away, and Jimmy Valentine took his place…. He set his suitcase on the table and opened it
out flat. In a deep silence and
immovable, others watched him as if under a spell” (O’Henry 195). Spencer sprang into action turning back into
Valentine with his tools when his fiancé’s niece is trapped in a bank safe. He Knows he will lose the one he loves but he
opened the safe anyway. In “A Retrieved
Reformation” by O’Henry, Jimmy Valentine deserves to be set free because he sacrificed
his entire future to save a child.
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