Argumentative Essay On Jimmy Valentine

Argumentative Essay on “A Retrieved Reformation”

Jimmy Valentine could disagree with Yoda when he says love will turn you to the darkside. Jimmy Valentine is a thief and a safe cracker. He even ended up in prison until he was pardoned by the governor. But then he goes to Elmore, where he meets Miss Annabel Adams. There he falls in love and tries to turn his his life around. Jimmy Valentine was trying to live a moral life because he showed responsibility, respect and compassion. One piece of evidence that Jimmy was trying to live a moral life was that he showed compassion. When May shut Agatha in the vault, Jimmy knew what he had to do. “He set his suitcase on the table and opened it out flat. ...” When he finished cracking the vault, “he

After he saved Agatha, Jimmy went outside to talk to Ben Price, the detective who had come to arrest him. “‘Hello, Ben!’ said Jimmy, still with his strange smile. ‘Got around at last, have you? Well, let's go. I don't know that it makes much difference, now.’”(O. Henry 6) Jimmy respected Ben Price’s job and responsibilities, even though it meant he would go to jail. A man who wasn’t living morally, would not have respected Ben in that way. Earlier in the story, the Adamses went into the bank to see a new vault they put in. “All went inside the high, carved oak railings into the banking room - Jimmy included, for Mr. Adams's future son-in-law was welcome anywhere.”(O. Henry 5)Mr. Adams trusted jimmy in his bank. In order to have gained that kind of trust, Jimmy had to have shown Mr. Adams a lot of respect. If he wasn’t trying to live a moral life, Jimmy wouldn’t have respected him. Finally, “he had won the respect of the community,... and he and Annabel were engaged to be married in two weeks” (O. Henry 3) after only a year of living in Elmore. In order to gain the respect of someone in authority of you, you have to respect them first. Also, if Jimmy hadn’t respected Annabel, She wouldn’t have agreed to marry him. Because he showed respect, Jimmy valentine showed he was trying to live a moral

One reason for this is because A week after the release of Valentine, 9762, there was a neat job of safe-burglary done in Richmond, Indiana… ‘That's Dandy Jim Valentine's autograph. He's resumed business.’”(O.Henry) Even though Jimmy started safecracking again, he changed into a moral man who earned an honest living. Another example is, when, “A guard came to the prison shoe store, where Jimmy Valentine was assiduously stitching uppers, and escorted him to the front office.” (O. Henry 1) Jimmy was in prison and that's not a good thing. But soon in the story he turns his life around and does try to be moral and respectful, unlike the beginning. Finally, after Annabel asks him to save Agatha, Jimmy agrees and “with that act Ralph D. Spencer passed away and Jimmy Valentine took his place.” (O. Henry 5) O. Henry puts it this way because Ralph D. Spencer wouldn’t and couldn’t crack a safe while Jimmy Valentine would. Also, he only cracked the safe to save Agatha. Not for money. Even though some people says otherwise, Jimmy Valentine tried to live a moral