Who is the protagonist of the story A Retrieved Reformation?

In "A Retrieved Reformation," Jimmy Valentine is the story's protagonist. Jimmy is a skilled safe-cracker, and at the beginning of the

Moreover, who are the main characters in the story A Retrieved Reformation?

Major characters include Jimmy Valentine; Mike Dolan, his partner in crime; detective Ben Price, Jimmy's nemesis; and Annabel Adams, the girl with whom Jimmy falls in love. Minor characters are the prison warden; Cronin, a prison guard; Mr.

Subsequently, question is, for whom did Jimmy give up his career in crime? Jimmy Valentine decided to give up his life of crime because he falls in love with a beautiful, small-town girl named Annabel Adams. He knows such a perfect girl will not return his love if she knows how he makes his living. As the story opens, Jimmy is serving time in prison for one of his latest safecracking jobs.

Secondly, what is the falling action of the story A Retrieved Reformation?

Falling Action

Ralph takes out his safe cracking tools, morphing back into Jimmy Valentine and focuses on cracking the safe open, everyone around him stunned. He opens the safe, freeing Agatha and begins to go outside and sees Ben Price.

What is the main idea of a Retrieved Reformation?

Answer and Explanation:

The theme of 'A Retrieved Reformation' is that love can reform anyone. At the beginning of the story, Jimmy Valentine is unrepentant about his crimes.

Related Question Answers

Who is Mr Ralph Spencer?

His love for Annabel changes Jimmy, and he adopts the identity of Ralph D. Spencer, an honest shoe salesman. As Ralph, Jimmy finally lives the straight life, wins the heart of Annabel, and gains the respect of her family and the entire town.

Who did Jimmy Valentine Fall in Love?

Annabel Adams

Why did Jimmy Valentine change his life and become Ralph Spencer?

Safecracker Jimmy Valentine (who is trying to disguise himself as Ralph Spencer, an honest shoe salesman) has to decide to reveal knowledge from his past lifestyle (cracking safes) in order to save his love's young niece. This would risk exposure, getting caught and going back to jail.

Why did Jimmy change his name to Mr Ralph Spencer?

He chooses to open a shoe store because he has had ten months experience working on shoes in prison. His choice of the name Ralph Spencer is purely arbitrary. It could have been any other alias. He sensed that he was getting too well known in his old territory in Indiana and that vicinity.

Who is Annabel Adams?

The fiancée of Ralph D. Spencer, the false identity of career safecracker, Jimmy Valentine, and the daughter of Mr. While he disguised as Ralph, Annabel too falls in love with Jimmy, and she is the very reason he begins to live the straight life as a shoe salesman.

What is the main conflict in a Retrieved Reformation?

Jimmy Valentine's major conflict is that he must be dishonest about his true identity as a criminal in order to enjoy life as an upright and honest citizen.

What does Ben Price do a year after Jimmy's disappearance?

What does Ben Price do a year after Jimmy's disappearance? He tracks Jimmy down to Elmore through his letter and arrests him. He gives up the detective business and retires to Elmore.

Why does Jimmy ask for the Rose Annabel was wearing?

When Jimmy fell in love with Annabel Adams at first sight, that was the beginning of his reformation. He assumed that Annabel could no longer love him once she had found him out. When he asked for the rose she was wearing, it was a sentimental request. He wanted something to remember her by.

Which character determines the resolution of a Retrieved Reformation?

Q. Which character determines the resolution of "A Retrieved Reformation"? The characters have more information about events than the readers.

What is the mood of a Retrieved Reformation?

In "A Retrieved Reformation," the tone is mildly amused and observational.

What is the resolution of a story?

Resolution. The resolution is the end of the story. It occurs after the CLIMAX. It is when you learn what happens to the characters after the CONFLICT is resolved.

Who is Ben Price in A Retrieved Reformation?

An “eminent” police detective and the antagonist of “A Retrieved Reformation.” Price is portrayed as the epitome of morality and hard work, and he serves as a foil to Jimmy Valentine's criminal lifestyle.

Why was Jimmy compared to a Phoenix?

Why does the narrator compare Jimmy Valentine to a phoenix? The comparison to a phoenix is an allusion to a mythological bird that lives for centuries before being consumed in an inferno from which it emerges reborn, resurrected from death to live out its life cycle again and again.

Is A Retrieved Reformation a true story?

"A Retrieved Reformation" is a short story by American author O. Henry first published in The Cosmopolitan Magazine, April 1903. It describes the events which lead up to the reformation of an ex-convict. The story was adapted into a radio series, Alias Jimmy Valentine, that was broadcast from 1938 to 1939.

Why was Annabel's father worried about Agatha?

In "A Retrieved Reformation," Annabel's father is worried about Agatha because the little girl has just been locked inside a bank safe and might suffocate.

Who did pretend that he had not recognize Jimmy at the end of the story?

Ben Price

What did the warden advice Jimmy Valentine?

As Jimmy is released from prison, the warden advises him to “brace up” and “make a man of himself,” claiming that Jimmy is “not a bad fellow at heart.” His advice to Jimmy implies that the ticket to the straight life is an honest profession, and through this O.

How did Jimmy Valentine get his pardon?

Jimmy Valentine is pardoned because he has many important friends and connections on the outside. The last sentence of the first paragraph of the story indicates this important fact. When a man with as many friends on the outside as Jimmy Valentine had is received in the “stir” it is hardly worth while to cut his hair.

How did Jimmy saved the little girl's life?

There would be no chance of another reformation, or of finding another girl like Annabel Adams. Ironically, Jimmy risks everything by rescuing little Agatha from the bank vault, but because he risks everything by exposing his identity as a master safecracker, he is allowed to "retrieve" his reformation.

Why did Ben price go to Elmore?

Answer: Expert Answers info Jimmy went to Elmore because he was looking for a new location from where he could carry on with his safecracking business. Note that Jimmy has a habit of moving out of places where he has already committed a crime, perhaps so he can evade the police.

What is the irony in a Retrieved Reformation?

The look Jimmy shares with Annabel Adams the first time he sees her makes him forget his identity as a burglar. The fact that she is a banker's daughter is an example of situational irony, as it puts Jimmy in close proximity to a safe he could easily rob if his safecracking compulsion were ever to return.

What causes Jimmy to become another man?

Jimmy's change was triggered by his falling in love at first sight with the beautiful and highly respectable Annabel Adams.

What is the setting of the story A Retrieved Reformation?

Written in 1903, A Retrieved Reformation takes place in a time before cars, when people traveled by train and by ''livery buggy. '' Though we begin the story in prison with Jimmy, we quickly move into the outside world. Apart from a quick pit stop to his old apartment, most of the action happens in Elmore, Arkansas.

What role does love play in a Retrieved Reformation?

Love as a motivating factor plays a major role in O. Henry's "A Retrieved Reformation." When Jimmy Valentine receives a pardon from his prison sentence for robbery, the warden admonishes Jimmy to reform. "Now, Valentine," said the warden, "you'll go out in the morning.

What is the purpose of a text's theme?

The theme in a story is its underlying message, or 'big idea. ' In other words, what critical belief about life is the author trying to convey in the writing of a novel, play, short story or poem? This belief, or idea, transcends cultural barriers. It is usually universal in nature.

How does Jimmy Valentine change in A Retrieved Reformation?

Jimmy Valentine is a hardened criminal who immediately returns to safecracking when he is released from prison; however, after he unexpectedly falls in love, Jimmy changes his behavior and attitudes and becomes an honest businessman. Stop cracking safes, and live straight."

What is the theme of Jimmy Valentine?

Identity. The flexibility of Jimmy's identity exhibits the story's thematic preoccupation with not only what identity is but what it can be. To different people, Jimmy is known variously as Jimmy Valentine, Prisoner 9762, Mr. James Valentine, and Ralph D.

What is the theme of the reformation of Jimmy Valentine safecracker?

The theme of "A Retrieved Reformation" can probably be best expressed with the old adage "Honesty is the best policy." When Jimmy Valentine goes to Elmore, Arkansas, he is only planning to set up a business as a "front" from which he can travel to nearby towns and commit his safecracking jobs.