A Retrieved Reformation

Jimmy’s safecracking tools are custom made. These expensive tools create the instantly recognizable “autograph” of his work. Jimmy’s tools are symbolic of his pride and support the theme of Professionalism and Work Ethic. He admires his tools and regards them as the hallmark of his identity:

He […] gazed fondly at the finest set of burglar’s tools in the East. It was a complete set, made of specially tempered steel, the latest designs in drills, […] with two or three novelties, invented by Jimmy himself, in which he took pride. Over nine hundred dollars they had cost him to have made (1).

Jimmy’s tools reflect his sense of professionalism and pride in his chosen occupation, and he works hard to keep them in top condition. Before his marriage to Annabel, he makes the decision to give them up for good—a concrete commitment to his new, legitimate life. As he writes in a letter to his old friend, Billy, “I want to make you a present of my kit of tools. I know you’ll be glad to get them—you couldn’t duplicate the lot for a thousand dollars” (3). In relinquishing his most prized possession, Jimmy embraces his life in Elmore.

While these tools represent his criminal identity, they also provide the path to Jimmy’s ultimate redemption when he uses them to free Agatha from the bank vault:

He set his suit-case on the table, and opened it out flat. From that time on he seemed to be unconscious of the presence of anyone else. He laid out the shining, queer implements swiftly and orderly, whistling softly to himself as he always did when at work (4).

In reclaiming his safecracking tools, he reclaims his old identity, regardless of the consequences.

The motif of love develops the theme of Identity and Transformation. Love is the catalyst for Jimmy’s transformation into an upstanding member of the Elmore community—a man who writes that he’d never touch another man’s money for a million dollars. When he first sees Annabel, he “[becomes] another man” and his new persona, Mr. Ralph Spencer, is “the phoenix that arose from Jimmy Valentine’s ashes” (3), suggesting that Jimmy has relinquished his criminal identity forever. For Annabel’s love, he determines to give up his safecracking tools and even confides to an old friend that he wants to move West to keep his past from catching up to him.

Love also drives Jimmy’s decision to use his old skills to save Agatha, knowing that it may cost him a future with Annabel. He takes the rose from her dress and puts it in his pocket, an acknowledgment that he expects to lose her and their life together once he breaks out his safecracking tools and becomes Jimmy Valentine again. Jimmy believes that the rose will be the only reminder of her that he will have as he faces the consequences of exposing his real identity.

The rose on Annabel’s dress in the story’s final scene appears only once, but it serves as an important symbol of love, redemption, and the potential of a happy future—one that is jeopardized by Jimmy’s transition back to his former criminal self.

When Jimmy decides to expose his identity to save Agatha, he asks Annabel for the rose:

‘Annabel’ he said, ‘give me that rose you are wearing, will you?’ Hardly believing that she heard him aright, she unpinned the bud from the bosom of her dress, and placed it in his hand. Jimmy stuffed it into his vest-pocket, threw off his coat and pulled up his shirtsleeves. With that act Ralph D. Spencer passed away and Jimmy Valentine took his place (4).

Jimmy realizes that by breaking out his tools and revealing himself as Jimmy Valentine, he may be losing his hope for a life with Annabel forever. The rose is a token that represents that hope. And as he walks away from her, hearing her voice as if from a far distant time and place, the rose will be the only thing he will have to remember her by.