Sacrifice

By: Ashhal Usmani

Sacrifice can be an amazing thing that leads to noble acts like saving someone’s life; or at least that’s what it means to some people. “A Retrieved Reformation” by O. Henry is a short story that follows Jimmy Valentine and how he makes sacrifices to do what’s right. “All Things are Born to Break” by Hafez is a poem that talks about how sacrifice breaks people and how everyone has hidden pain in their heart. Both “A Retrieved Reformation” and “All Things are Born to Break” are two texts that both focus on sacrifice, but in different ways.

O. Henry uses sacrifice twice in his story. The first time we see an example of sacrifice is when Jimmy Valentine quits his life as a bank-robber to settle down and marry a women named Annabel. He sacrifices his old life full of money  and action to be with Annabel. Some might argue that he didn’t sacrifice his old life, because it was a dangerous life and maybe he wanted to live a normal life now, they fail to acknowledge the fact that even if he does get caught, Jimmy has so many friends that he only spends a few months in jail before they bail him out. We can also see that he completely got rid of his old life for Annabel. We can get this from the text when it says, “Mr. Ralph D. Spencer, the phoenix that arose from Jimmy Valentine’s ashes-ashes from a sudden and alterative attack of love-“. O. Henry’s use of the word “ashes” help the reader understand that Jimmy Valentine is gone and that he’s sacrificed his old life. Later on we see Jimmy, once again, go through sacrifice. He sacrificed the life he built with Annabel to save Agatha from suffocating in the vault. When he saved her he sacrificed the life he built because he had to use his bank-robbing skills to save her, this meant that his past would’ve been revealed to everyone and they would’ve turned him in. In this scene O. Henry shows the reader that Jimmy’s sacrifice made him a hero and showed his kind-heart.

On the other hand, Hafez uses sacrifice in a different and more morbid way. He starts off his poem with “All things are born to break. In meek sacrifice, for another’s sake.” From the very beginning of his poem we can note that Hafez has a negative view of sacrifice. He says that sacrifice causes everyone to break. He also uses the word “meek”, which belittles the importance of sacrifice. This, with the point that says all things break because of sacrifice, make the reader think that all sacrifice does is cause pain for a dumb, trivial, and insignificant reason. He also says, “All man’s striving vain, lavished as the price of the hearts hid pain.” This implies that everything man, every sacrifice, is in vain and is just an attempt to heal the pain people have in their hearts.

We can see that the two authors use sacrifice in different ways. Hafez uses sacrifice in an completely opposite way of how O. Henry uses it throughout his story. O. Henry uses sacrifice to show heroism and what people will do for love, while Hafez implies that it is a wretched thing that causes us to break and that it invalidates everything we do. However, some might say that O. Henry uses sacrifice to show pain as well. While this is a valid point because we see that he almost loses Annabel in the end, they fail to remember that his sacrifice made him a hero and got him more respect. They also fail to acknowledge the fact that when he first comes to the small town where Annabel lives, he sacrifices his old life out of love and that it gives him a better life.

O. Henry and Hafez both use sacrifice in their writings, but in opposite ways. O. Henry shows it as something righteous and great, but Hafez uses it to show how it is like the downfall of man. Sacrifice can mean many things to different people. To some, its the greatest act you can do, but to others it’s the destruction of one’s self. Despite what someone’s opinion on sacrifice is, we all have to sacrifice something in our lives, one day. Even you yourself might’ve had to sacrifice something before, and even though it might bring pain, it can also help you improve yourself.