Contents Of The Dead Man's Pocket By Jack Finney

The Night His Life Flashed Before His Eyes Have you ever had your life flash before your eyes? That is how it feels when you read the story, “ Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket” by Jack Finney. In this story the protagonist Tom is in a situation where he realizes his life is flashing before his eyes and how he hadn’t enjoyed it because of his job. Through the use of the Literary elements such as foreshadowing, manipulation of time, and setting we can note that the author uses suspense and tension in the story “Contents of the Dead Man”. To begin with, The literary element foreshadowing is used in this story on multiple occasions.

“He simply did not permit himself to look down, through the compulsion to do so never left him; nor did he allow himself actually to think.” This proves to us that he made the mental goals in order to pursue his large goal as to get the paper and see his wife. Tom progresses throughout the story and goes step by step with his mental goals. Although, some may see it

In the short story “Contents of the Dead Man’s Pockets”, author Jack Finney uses the actions of the main character, Tom Bennecke to show that when man becomes overly ambitious, their priorities are out of order, which will cause regret and eventually cause him

She told him to go in the living room and play. So he went along with the plan of breaking his watch. First he tried to break it with his shoe, but it didn’t work. So he combined his and his father’s shoes to make more of an impact and hit the watch as hard as he could until he could see a crack. He went go show his mom very proud of the work that he had done.

With time, Tom finds the means through which to cope with his afflictions. It is important to note that Tom suffers a momentary setback when making a present for Daniel however it does not deter him from his goals like it used to. He acknowledges that “once, probably not that long ago, I’m not sure I could’ve [come] back at all” demonstrating his heightened self-awareness. His voice parallels his transition; initially nervous to face his adversities his voice is shaky and nervous, however his eventual emotional maturation allows him to face his future with hope and confidence. Through his heightened self-awareness, he was able to see past his own suffering and contributes significantly in helping others overcome their adversities.

He then asks the speaker to close his eyes and draw it, and the speaker has an epiphany, saying that he felt placeless, and was feeling like he never did before. I believe that this was him realizing the importance of understanding and empathy. However, in Car Crash While Hitchhiking, the speaker does not change throughout the story. He was on a lot of drugs in the story, and at the end the author depicts him being in some sort pf psych ward. He is hearing voices and is being handed vitamins by a nurse.

Certain events in life can affect people in many different ways, such as causing them to change their priorities. In Contents of a Dead Man’s pocket, written by Jack Finney, Tom’s priorities are set on work first and family later, but those soon begin to shift after a dramatic event takes place in his life. People’s priorities can be focused on something as simple as work like in Tom’s case, and sometimes they need a close to death situation to give them a wake up call. When people’s priorities are misaligned they tend to know but not accept the fact, they may even have a hot guilty conscience just like Tom. One 's life events can transform their priorities, it can cause them to look differently at the life they’re living.

He believes that if he has dreams that were pleasant, that would be dangerous because such dreams would soften him from making the tough choices he needs to in order to survive and keep his son alive. The relationship with his wife is of importance to the man. Although she abandons him during a time of dire circumstance, he holds no resentments toward her, instead, he deeply misses her.

All throughout the story Tom and his wife seem to argue very much. Tom never wanted to please his wife and would never try or do anything to please her. Also, both Tom and his wife were so miserable in their marriage they cheated on eachother. “... with the loss of his wife, for he was a man of fortitude. He even felt something like gratitude towards the black woodsman, who, he considered had done him a kindness.”

In the next few lines the speaker says he did not hit the friend, he simply pretended as if he didn’t hear him. That says a lot about the speaker, it shows he is wise and does not let words affect him.

Then he realizes that he was not going to stay with his money when he die. At the end, he helped his employee with a monetary situation. Further, he went to his nephew’s Christmas dinner. Significantly, this novel helps people retrain the meaning of being humble and kind with others. Something that is very important about this novel is that it teaches a lesson of helping others, because you are not going to stay with your money when you die.

I read The Paper Cowboy by Kristin Levine. The main character is Tommy, a twelve year old growing up in the era after WWII. The main characters are Tommy, Tommy’s mom, Little Skinny, Mr. Mckenzie, Eddy, and Mrs. Glazov. All his life Tommy has wanted to be a cowboy, but he doesn't always act like one. He bullies many people at school while his family is cruel to him at home.

Tom thinks about how if he dies, the only thing in his pocket will be a sheet of paper with calculations and observations about a grocery story. He thinks about how to the people that find him, it will mean nothing. He thinks to himself, “Contents of the dead man’s pockets, he thought with a sudden fierce anger, a wasted life.” (p 123) He realizes that he has wasted his life focusing on things that are not important.

Have you ever seen a kitten sale on the street?? Well, Socks of one of them. In this story Socks by Beverly Cleary, a sister and a brother are selling kittens to make money for the mom cat to be spayed. Socks was sold to one couple. At first, Socks was well treated and cutey and lovely cat in the family.

Even though Tom does separate from the family, he is helping out the whole society by sharing the values of community and the significance of togetherness (Bharttarai, 41). He is helping everyone realize that it is better to be a unit then compete against one