Contents Of The Dead Man's Pocket Essay

In Jack Finney’s “Contents of the Dead Man’s Pockets” Tom Benecke makes the right choice when he decides to chase after his wife after he manages to re-enter his apartment. Out in the cold New York air, Tom was beginning to lose hope. He had the paper, but encountered unexpected complications attempting to enter his apartment. Tom realized that, were he to fall, the community would have no way to judge him besides what he was carrying. Their thoughts, he imagined, would be “Contents of the dead man’s pockets… a wasted life” (Finney 14). Tom knew that if people found his body they would (correctly) assume he led a desolate life. He is blunt with himself in calling his life wasted, but this is the moment where he changes his mind about everything. Tom has an

After the ordeal Tom goes through to retrieve the yellow paper that nearly resulted in his demise, the paper gets blown away once more. This time, he allows the wind to sweep the yellow scrap out of his apartment window. Rather than endanger his life repeatedly, he decides that there are other, more important things to concern himself with. His experience changes him for the better. Living life in the moment shifts to be more important to him than any project for work. No longer is Tom an ambitious workaholic with no other purpose but to climb the corporate ladder. Spending time with his wife takes priority and he has a balanced approach to life. There are no traces of regret or hesitation in Tom’s reaction to the disappearing paper. The paper is gone, and with it went Tom’s previous life. Tom’s experiences greatly benefitted him by reminding him of the importance of living and enjoying life to the