Hi Everyone!! This article will share A Retrieved Reformation Questions & Answers.
In my previous posts, I have shared the questions and answers of One Summer Night, All The World Her Stage and Somebody’s Mother so, you can check these posts as well.
A Retrieved Reformation Questions & Answers
Question 1: Read and answer the questions:
‘With that act, Ralph D. Spencer passed away and Jimmy Valentine took his place.’
(a) What does ‘that act’ refer to?
Answer: ‘That act’ refers to Jimmy Valentine’s throwing off his coat and pulling up his shirt-sleeves to resume his previous occupation of breaking the vaults.
(b) What led to ‘that act’?
Answer: When Annabel turned to Ralph D. Spencer in anguish to save her little niece, Agatha and told him to do something or at least try. This led to ‘that act’.
(c) In what sense did Ralph D. Spencer ‘pass away’?
Answer: Ralph D. Spencer passed away as when Jimmy settled down in his true identity to open the safe to save Agatha’s life.
Question 2: Read and answer the questions:
“I don’t know that it makes much difference, now.”
(a) Who said this and to whom?
Answer: Ralph D. Spencer who is actually Jimmy Valentine spoke these words to detective Ben Price.
(b) What does ‘it’ refer to?
Answer: ‘It’ refers to Annabel and her family discovering that Ralph is in fact Jimmy Valentine, a skilled safe cracker.
(c) Why did he say this?
Answer: Jimmy uses his criminal skills to save a life, despite the fact that in doing so he will reveal his true identity and he will loose Annabel’s love forever. It is at this moment he is truly redeemed (saved from going back to person) off his all-previous crimes.
Question 3: How did Ben Price guess that the burglaries were done by Jimmy Valentine?
Answer: Ben Price guessed that the burglaries were done by Jimmy Valentine because there were neat jobs of safe burglaries with no clue to the thief. Also, only Jimmy had the skills and the tools to do such a clean job.
Question 4: How did Jimmy get information about Annabel and the town?
Answer: Jimmy called a boy who was loafing on the steps of the bank and asked him questions about Annabel and the town and kept feeding him coins at intervals. This is how Jimmy got information about Annabel and the town.
Question 5: What happened to Agatha at the bank?
Answer: Agatha got accidentally locked in the new vault at Elmore Bank while playing with her elder sister May.
Question 6: Ben Price never handled petty criminals. How do you know this?
Answer: Ben Price never handled petty criminals. We know this from this line:
“The losses mounted and we’re now high enough to bring the matter up into Ben Price’s class of work.”
Question 7: Why did Spencer show ‘a courteous but not too intelligent interest in the safe’?
Answer: Spencer showed ‘a courteous but not too intelligent interest in the safe’ because he himself was a skilled safe cracker and knew everything about it. So, he showed a little interest to please Mr. Adam, Annabel’s father.
Question 8: Why do you think Ben Price pretended not to recognize him.
Answer: Ben Price pretended not to recognize Jimmy because he had witnessed his reformation. So, he wanted to give Jimmy a chance to enjoy his life and live freely.
Question 9: ‘Sorry, we couldn’t make it sooner – ‘who is the ‘we’ the speaker could be referring to?
Answer: In my opinion, the speaker is referring to Mike Dolan and the lawyer of Jimmy as ‘we’ in the statement.
Question 10: The safe had to be broken to save a life. Was it an easy decision for Jimmy Valentine to make? Why?
Answer: No, it was not an easy decision to make Jimmy Valentine because in order to save the girl’s life, he had to break the safe which could reveal his true identity and risk his own life in presence of Annabel and detective Ben Price.
Question 11: Do you think Ben Price did the right thing by saying, ‘I don’t believe I know you’? What does this show about Ben’s sense of justice?
Answer: Yes, Ben Price did the right thing by not recognizing Jimmy. Jimmy had put his love and life at risk for saving a little girl. So, he deserved a chance to live his reformed life freely. He was a reformed person who had left his criminal ways behind and wanted to start a new life. Ben Price gave that chance to Jimmy.
So, these were A Retrieved Reformation Questions & Answers.