write a short note on the character of jimmy the safedeposite of waltcracker?
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Answer:
Jimmy had to make a difficult choice between two painful alternatives. On the one hand, he could have gone on his way and let Silky Bob escape from the law. In that case, Jimmy would have felt guilty for failing to do his sworn duty as a police officer. On the other hand, he could arrest Bob or cause him to be arrested. In that case he would have felt guilty for betraying his old friend.
Jimmy is not the viewpoint character of the story, but O. Henry is such a good writer that he makes us realize that Jimmy was experiencing many mixed feelings about Bob and about himself. Bob is the viewpoint character and does a lot of talking about himself. We understand that he is in a sentimental mood. He wants to see his old friend and talk about old times. He is a stranger in New York, but this city used to be his home. Jimmy's feelings are hidden, just as he himself is practically invisible throughout the story. Bob fails to recognize him because it is a fact that a uniform tends to obscure the wearer's identity. We see a cop and not the individual. This is probably the reason for uniforms, including military uniforms.
Jimmy is especially invisible in this story because the New York cops must have worn navy-blue uniforms and it was nighttime on an unlighted street. Jimmy would have blended into the darkness. Then Jimmy does not reveal himself or make the arrest personally; he passes that job on to another man. Jimmy seems like a sensitive man, judging from the note he has the other man hand to Bob. No doubt Jimmy was sorry for doing what he did, but he knew he would be equally sorry, if not sorrier, if he didn't do it. He was in a lose-lose situation. All of us have to make such choices in our lifetimes.
Jimmy had to make a decision, and he was guided by the training he had received at the police academy. He had been taught that as a police officer he could not be guided by personal feelings but that he had to uphold the law as he had sworn to do. He was taught this rule of conduct because his teachers knew that sooner or later he would need to remember it.
O. Henry rarely seemed terribly sympathetic to cops, but in this story he shows that his famous compassion for humanity includes cops along with the rest of humanity.
Explanation:
follow. me.