“A Retrieved Reformation” and “White Collar”

By: Reem Awad

Everyone has done bad actions in their life, does that necessarily mean that they are bad people? These days our society jumps to conclusions way to quickly, and individuals are always judged from just one action they have done in their lives. White Collar and “A Retrieved Reformation” are two amazing stories that show that criminals could always become heroes.

“A Retrieved Reformation” is a short fiction story written by O.Henry about a thief named Jimmy Valentine. At the beginning of the story, Jimmy was just released from prison after getting caught breaking into safes. He is outstanding at his job and never makes any mistakes.”In a minute Jimmy’s pet drill was biting smoothly into the steel door. In ten minutes – breaking his own burglarious record – he threw back the bolts and opened the door.” When the author describes him cracking the safe, it makes the readers almost visually see how remarkable and smooth he is. As he walks freely in his town and interacts with his neighbors the readers could clearly see how feared he was in his community. When people are known for doing bad things, they are usually not respected; but when individuals become almost professionals at it, it is surprising how they suddenly become feared. Later on, Jimmy meets a girl and settles down for  a little. He decides to stop committing crime and live a normal, happy life. Until one day when his niece got stuck in a bank vault, he decided that saving a life with his unwanted skill is better than letting someone die. In one year, a man went from being a criminal to a savior.

White Collar, a show series written by Jeff Eastin, is very similar. It is about a very smooth, intelligent man who has become so intrigued by art, that he learned how to forge famous paintings almost precisely. Just three months before he was going to get released from prison, Neal escaped which added four extra years to his prison sentence. With his charming abilities, he convinced his parole officer to allow him to assist the FBI with his knowledge about white collar crimes. After he joined , the police started arresting way more criminals. “Almost 9 million was recovered from Keller that day.(referring to money)”, said the officer on the case of a huge art theft that he stopped. Neal went from stealing millions of dollars worth of things to saving them.

Although both stories show that criminals could become heroes, there were still many differences between the two texts.  In “A Retrieved Reformation”, Jimmy changed himself for the better because he needed something to make him happier. Even though she never directly said anything, his fiancée was the reason he started doing things for good. But on the other hand, in White Collar, Neal started using his knowledge and skills to help stop crime because he wanted to be free. This shows that the phrase, “Fake it until you make it,”surprisingly is true. No matter what background people come from, they could always turn to good.

In conclusion, criminals should not always be labeled as bad people.White Collar and “A Retrieved Reformation” are two amazing stories that show this. Everyone has done bad things in their life, its just that some people get caught and the majority don’t.Criminals are usually people who are using their amazing skill for bad purposes, and we can’t think of them as uneducated or unwise just because they got publicized.