Retrieved Reformation by O'Henry Short Story Analysis

“It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”- Alfred Lord Tennyson. In the short story Retrieved Reformation by O'Henry, about a man named Jimmy Valentine who used to be a safe cracker, falls in love with a woman named Anabel Adams. He changes his entire life, changes his name, changes his look, and changes his profession. All to get Anabel. Around the end of the story Jimmy is faced with a hard decision, whether to save Anabel’s niece or to keep his life with Anabel. The theme of  don’t hide who you truly are. 

From the very beginning of the story , the theme of don't hide who you really are appears. Jimmy Valentine is a very good safecracker and he loves doing it. The warden at the prison where he is knows that and also knows that he can do better. Jimmy thinks being a safecracker is all that he can do, and is denying that he might be able to do more. While Jimmy might realize that he is not the greatest person he might not have any reason to change. If Jimmy ever wants to change he needs to have a reason to.“Brace up, and make a man of yourself. You're not a bad fellow at heart. Stop cracking safes, and live straight.” “Me?" said Jimmy, in surprise. “Why, I never cracked a safe in my life” (O’Henry 1). This shows that while Jimmy might be able to do good and do more, but instead he decides not to try and be good and continue cracking safes. Jimmy gets a reason to change when he sees Anabel for the first time. He instantly falls in love with her and wants her to like him. He has that happen by changing his name to Ralph D. Spencer and changing his profession all to get her to like him. Another detail that shows how Jimmy should be himself is one that happens later in the story. Jimmy is faced with a hard decision, between the devil and the deep blue sea. He has to choose between weather to save Anabel’s niece Agatha, losing Anabel in the process. Or to not save Agatha and keep Anabel. For Jimmy who has just worked so hard to get Anabel to like him he should not want to lose her. “ With that act Ralph D. Spencer passed away and Jimmy Valentine took his place. “Get away from the door, all of you,” he commanded, shortly” (3). In the end Jimmy chooses to save Agatha, losing Anabel. Instead of leaving Agatha there, he really didn’t want a guilty conscience. In doing this Jimmy declares to the world that he is willing to give Anabel up to do the right thing.Jimmy really shows who he truly is in saving Agatha. That he cares for more than other people besides himself.

Another way, the theme don’t hide who you truly are shows in the story, is when JImmy is robbing banks immediately after being released.”Then an old-fashioned bank-safe in Jefferson City became active and threw out of its crater an eruption of bank-notes amounting to five thousand dollars”. This shows what Jimmy thinks about getting out of prison. How he has no real reason to reform himself which shows that maybe who Jimmy truly is a safecracker. Maybe he feels that is all that he has to do to succeed in life. The theme don’t hide who you truly are shows in another place in the story, when Ben Price let Jimmy go even though he has committed many crimes. "Don't believe I recognize you. Your buggy's waiting for you, ain't it?" And Ben Price turned and strolled down the street.” This shows that if you might be your true self then you might get some rewards. Although Ben Price made an incorrect decision he might have felt that Jimmy should have been free after what he did. As was shown with Ben Price and Jimmy Valentine.

In addition to using the actions of Jimmy Valentine  to support the theme of don’t hide your true self. O’Henry uses many other author’s craft techniques to also make the story better. One author craft O’Henry used is a literary allusion . In this scene Jimmy is transforming himself into another person to gain the love of Anabel. “Mr. Ralph Spencer, the phoenix that arose from Jimmy Valentine's ashes -- ashes left by the flame of a sudden and altering attack of love -- remained in Elmore, and prospered.” The allusion here is the one referring to the phoenix. Which was a symbol of rebirth and renewal. The theme of not hiding your true self is here because Jimmy doesn't hide his true self, showing what he would do for love. He changes into a completely different person just for Anabel. Another way O’henry pulls the reader in is by showing all about Jimmy’s safecracking skills and how fondly he loves his job. “He opened this and gazed fondly at the finest set of burglar's tools in the East. It was a complete set, made of specially tempered steel, the latest designs in drills, punches, braces and bits, jimmies, clamps, and augers, with two or three novelties, invented by Jimmy himself, in which he took pride.” This shows all the care and effort that Jimmy puts into his safe cracking tools. This imagery shown here is the way that O’Henry describes the tools, from Jimmy’s point of view, not from the reader’s or his own. This shows how JImmy treats his tools, how it shows who he truly is, a safecracker.  

O’Henry created a story that shows how you should be your true self no matter what you think people will think, because it will all be good in the end. Jimmy is stuck between a zone of thinking that his true self is a safecracker, or being a hero. In the end Jimmy chooses to do the right thing. Jimmy acts in ways that make him look like a bad guy, at the same time he also acts in ways that make him look like a sympathetic guy. Jimmy knows what to do at the end, he chooses the right thing even when faced with a difficult decision.“Anger may in time change to gladness; vexation may be succeeded by content. But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being; nor can the dead ever be brought back to life.” - Sun Tzu The art of war.