A Retrieved Reformation

In literature, irony subverts readers’ expectations about what should happen. Situational irony refers to situations in which events take a turn that’s completely different from the expected outcome, while verbal irony occurs when words take on a meaning that’s the opposite of what’s expected. “A Retrieved Reformation” includes both types.

Jimmy’s dialogue is full of verbal irony. When the warden tells Jimmy to go straight, Jimmy feigns innocence: “‘Me?’ said Jimmy, in surprise. ‘Why, I never cracked a safe in my life’” (1). Likewise, when Mike Dolan asks about Jimmy’s plans, Jimmy again feigns innocent ignorance: “‘Me?’ said Jimmy, in a puzzled tone. ‘I don’t understand. I’m representing the New York Amalgamated Short Snap Biscuit Cracker and Frazzled Wheat Company’” (2).

Even Jimmy’s name might be considered a form of verbal irony. Valentine suggests love and tenderness, not the toughness of a hardened criminal—and it also suggests the role love will play in transforming him into the upstanding Mr. Ralph Spencer.

Situational irony prevails in the story’s ending. Jimmy is preparing a trip to get rid of his beloved safecracking tools, but he can’t do so until he visits the bank with Annabel’s family. Because he still has the tools, he can use them to free Agatha from the vault.

Using his tools to free Agatha exposes Jimmy’s real identity, but Ben Price chooses not to arrest him, even though Jimmy (and readers) expect that he will. In the final scene, Jimmy is reconciled to giving up his new life as Ralph Spencer and returning to prison, but Price pretends he doesn’t recognize him and simply walks away, leaving Jimmy free to resume that life. Ironically, it is already too late because Jimmy has cast away his future in Elmore by saving Agatha.

A metaphor is a figure of speech in which the qualities of one thing are applied to another completely dissimilar thing for the purposes of crafting a descriptive, indirect comparison. When Jimmy easily cracks a safe full of money, it’s likened to an erupting volcano: “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” (2). This dramatic imagery underscores Jimmy’s effect as a master bank robber.

Jimmy’s distinctive style of safecracking is described as “Dandy Jim Valentine’s autograph” (2). This metaphor quickly and vividly conveys Jimmy’s status as a skilled bank thief and implies that he takes considerable pride in his work. He doesn’t change his modus operandi to avoid the notice of law enforcement.

Jimmy’s transformation is metaphorically visualized in “Mr. Ralph Spencer, the phoenix that arose from Jimmy Valentine’s ashes” (3). The mythical phoenix is a bird that perished in flames but rose from the ashes, whole and ready to fly again. This metaphor denotes the death of “Jimmy Valentine” and the birth of his new identity as Ralph D. Spencer, which Jimmy believes is the only identity that will live on. However, at the story’s end, Jimmy rises from Spencer’s ashes to save Agatha.