From Criminal to Champion O. Henry’s coming of age story, “A Retrieved Reformation,” is the story of a man’s journey to change. Jimmy Valentine is a criminal who has just been released from jail for robbery. He visits a small town in Arkansas called Elmore on a quest to rob a bank, but when he’s there, he sees a beautiful woman and instantly falls in love. Jimmy decides to stay in Elmore after seeing this woman, and changes himself into a wealthy and polite man named Ralph Spencer. One lesson the story suggests is that people with a troubled past still have the potential to change. From the very beginning of the story, Jimmy Valentine had the potential to change. Right after Jimmy was bailed out of jail, the warden told him, “you’ll go out …show more content…
Henry writes, “Mr. Ralph Spencer, the phoenix that arose from Jimmy Valentine’s ashes--ashes left by the flame of a sudden and alterative attack of love--remained in Elmore, and prospered. He opened a shoe store and secured a good run of trade.” Henry uses a metaphor in this scene to illustrate how Jimmy really did change. This makes one realize that Jimmy really did change into a new man for this woman, and he changed into a new man for the better. He can now leave his past behind him and start a new life in Elmore as Ralph …show more content…
Ralph Spencer, “had won the respect of the community, his shoe store was flourishing, and he and Annabel were engaged to be married in two weeks.” This quote shows that Jimmy Valentine has definitely been replaced by his new and improved self, Ralph Spencer, and is a utterly different man. Jimmy changed because he was in love, and because of this change he was able to get her. On the other hand, Jimmy not only changed for love, but for himself. I believe that Jimmy knew that he could become a better man, so he did. In the end of the story, it is made obvious that Jimmy had changed. When Agatha, a little girl, is locked in a bank vault, “in a minute Jimmy’s pet drill was biting smoothly into the steel door. In ten minutes--breaking his own burglarious record-- he the back the bolts and opened the door.” This illustrates Jimmy’s true change. If he was still a criminal, and was using his tools for robbery, Jimmy might not have considered using them for a good reason like so. Jimmy’s change into Ralph Spencer really did him, and the people around him
After his younger brother Allie passed away and Holden was exposed to the harsh realities of the real world, he constantly tries to pretend like nothing ever happened and attempts to run away from his new life as an adult. During Holden’s visit to the park while he is trying to find Phoebe, he begins to reminisce about the museum that he used to visit with his class and says, “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was” (121). The museum is a very special place to Holden because it offers him an escape from the tedious responsibilities, as well as the tragedies of the adult world, because unlike reality, nothing in the museum ever changes and nothing bad can ever happen. Later on in the day, while Holden watched Phoebe ride the carrousel, he thought to himself, “I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around” (213). Similar to the museum, Holden appreciates how the carrousel will ne...
This story gives the readers the feeling of ambitions. There might be some misguided individuals out there that have an similar lifestyle to McCall and reading this book would potentially help them seek desire for success. Growing up McCall had intentions of being different. For instance, while he was in prison he recalled back to the time he study so hard for Mr. Brown test. Even his parents knew he was different because out of everyone around his neighborhood he was the only one who attended a white school. Then when he attended a black school he wanted to learned, but got caught in society. Prison was a good place for him because to occupy his time he start reading and learning. Additionally, prison help him develop a sense of inner discipline and self worth. Gail Jardine stated that “ Makes Me Wanna Holler is a journey not just from degradation to accomplishment, but also from absence to self-determined”. This shows that the book gives the readers more than excitement and the urge to want to keep reading, but also try to find your place in
In the book, “Manchild in the Promised Land,” Claude Brown makes an incredible transformation from a drug-dealing ringleader in one of the most impoverished places in America during the 1940’s and 1950’s to become a successful, educated young man entering law school. This transformation made him one of the very few in his family and in Harlem to get out of the street life. It is difficult to pin point the change in Claude Brown’s life that separated him from the others. No single event changed Brown’s life and made him choose a new path. It was a combination of influences such as environment, intelligence, family or lack of, and the influence of people and their actions. It is difficult to contrast him with other characters from the book because we only have the mental dialoged of Brown.
Nobody told me how” (Blurb, Anderson). At this point he pursues the bad boy image, and he does not even know it. When a hero lives in a set life, it usually wakes up, gets a job, and sleeps again. There is a set rules that maybe are not set laws but it is the most chivalry thing to do.... ...
“Why is it sports is the only thing white people see us being successful at? I do not want to play football,’ he said, ‘I want to be a lawyer” (Kidd 120-121). Zach Taylor represents the social conflict of limiting a race and stereotypes, specifically towards African Americans. Sue Monk Kidd responded to these discriminations by creating his aspirations be to become a lawyer, which was extremely difficult in that time period since African American lawyer were unheard of and on top of that, they were still facing prejudice. “Changes were coming, even to South Carolina - you could practically smell them in the air - and Zach would bring them. He would be one of those drum majors for freedom that Martin Luther Jr. talked about” (Kidd 231). In this novel Zach Taylor is the monument for change and civil rights in this novel his character shows racism and prejudice shown towards African Americans. Sue Monk Kidd represented this social issue perfectly by creating Zach’s driven and determined mindset, which in the future would help change occur in South Carolina and because of that specific social issue the author made Zach’s character to overcome those challenges. As an African American man, Zach Taylor still has to go through many hardships to accomplish what he wants in life, but his character’s mentality helps him beat the odds and the discrimination and stereotypes associated with his skin
In order to fully examine the narrator’s transformation journey, there are many factors that have to be looked at in the themes that are discussed in the book. They include the Grandfather’s message in chapter one, Tod Clifton’s death, when the narrator is kicked out of college and the events in the factory and the factory hospital are some of the examples (Ellison 11). All these events contributed enormously towards the narrator finding his true identity.
...s can make a person do unbelievable things. Although he was still an outlaw of society at the end of the book, his status changed immensely. Throughout the novel, he experienced reeducation and rebirth. He became a new man who fought for social amelioration and a better way of life for his people and for all struggling people. Tom learned that a man cannot just look after himself; in the spirit of compassion, he is also obligated to help others.
He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career. ”(Fitzgerald 98). James Gatz’s dissatisfaction with his whole being leads him to strive for more and work hard and become Gatsby. He leaves his past behind when he takes on this new name because he was not happy then. He only thinks he will be happy as Gatsby.
“‘I was in the drug business and then I was in the oil business. But I’m not in either one now,’” said Jay Gatsby as he tries to avoid his past (50). Gatsby was a man of secrets and dishonesty; he believed that he need not tell anyone about his past or his present because he wanted to show everyone he knew how to live a luxurious life. To the few he did tell about his past, he withheld a respectable amount of information and twisted the truth. Gatsby was very good at keeping everything secret. He figured out a way to persuade people into making certain things occur. He seemed very content in having everything go his way and if it did not, he would try his best to see if he could change what had happened.
A character named Jefferson, an African American male, is wrongly accused when he is in the wrong place at the time during a shoot-out between two African American men and a storeowner. During the shoot-out the storeowner and both men were shot and killed, Jefferson in shock stays at the scene of the crime until authorities arrived and arrested and tried Jefferson for murder. Jefferson being found guilty and compared to a hog fills him with hate and anger. Jefferson has an aunt that reaches out to a creditable teacher at a local school named Grant; she gets Grant to help Jefferson find a purpose. Grant helps Jefferson find a sense of dignity, although it took some time he was successful. Grant later focuses his time and energy on the importance of Jefferson’s death and tries to explain it to him. Jefferson doesn’t really understand it until members of the community come to visit him; young children, old men, strangers, friends, all come to see Jefferson in his cell and speak to him. The onslaught of attention makes Jefferson begin to understand the enormity of his task. He now realizes that he has become much more than an ordinary man and that his death will represent much more than an ordinary death. Gaines emphasizes the worth and dignity of everyday heroes like Jefferson; just as Christ did during his
In the short story written by Alexie Sherman, “What You Pawn I Will Redeem”, we are introduced to an alcoholic and homeless First Nation’s man, Jackson. Through the story we are invited to watch Jackson’ quest to regain his grandmother’s long lost regalia that had been stolen years before. Jackson’s mishaps, always of his own design, show us the man Jackson really is. Alexie has written a round character with many different facets. Led through one day and one night we follow Jackson’s mission. Alexie shows Jackson to be a kind yet flawed man through symbols, setting and mood. Throughout the story we are shown Jackson’s inclination towards hope; however there is a deeper, darker message to the story, Jackson’s fight with alienation and alcoholism.
Within his journey he was able to learn a tremendous amount of information about himself as well as the society he lived in. Although in order for this to happen he had to exile from his former hometown. After graduating high school the narrator went off to college and had the honor of driving one of the schools founders. While driving Mr. Norton, one of the school founders, the narrator went on a tangent about different things that has happened on campus. He soon mentioned Trueblood and his actions with his daughter to Mr. Norton, Afterwards the narrator led Mr. Norton to the bar/asylum. This is when the real troubles begin. Mr. Bledsoe, the college’s president, found out about the narrators doings and expelled him. When he expelled the narrator, Mr. Bledsoe sent him to New York with seven letters to get a job. By the narrator being exiled he now has a chance to experience life on his own and use the knowledge from his experience to enrich his life and others. The narrator’s trial and tribulations will speak for the feelings and thoughts of many African Americans in the 1940s
fact Jimmy tends to get into a relationship to “fix” the other person, which is unhealthy for them both, an example of this is in this is when Jimmy narrates “[s]he (Jimmy’s mother) might even slap him, and then cry and hug him. It could be any combination of those things.” (Atwood 33) Jimmy thinks here of mother’s abusive actions. Jimmy would act out for attention and would receive “any combination of those things” (Atwood 33). Jimmy’s relationship with his father is not much better as shown when he comments: “[b]y OrganInc’s math-and-chem-and-applied-bio yardstick he must have seemed dull, normal: maybe that was why his father
As a school teacher and with limited income from teaching and a family to take care, the narrator is still stuck with housing project in Harlem, he cannot make a bail or hire the best lawyer to defend his brother. The distress from losing his baby daughter; the feeling of guilt, desperation and failure to care and protect his younger brother from the deadly touch of drugs weight down the narrator’s life. Damaged while getting out of Harlem’s trap, and like his descended father, the narrator sees the darkness in every corner of
O. Henry’s short story, “A Retrieved Reformation”, starts with a criminal being pardoned from jail. Jimmy Valentine used to go around cracking safes, and as soon as he is released, he starts up right again. But then Jimmy moves to a different city, changes his name, and on his first day there, he sees a girl -- the banker’s daughter -- falls in love, and decides to start a new life. One lesson this story indicates is how a change of scenery and meeting different people can change someone for the better.