Contents Of A Dead Man's Pocket And Marigolds Analysis

Would you rather almost die and yet come out alive as a changed person with a hopeful beginning, or go through a short trip to maturity with no hope? These two situations display themselves in the two stories titled “€œContents of a Dead Man 's Pocket,” written by Jack Finney, and “€œMarigolds,” written by Eugenia W. Collier. The former tells of Tom Benecke, a salesperson, who risks his life by climbing out of his eleventh-floor apartment to retrieve a sheet of paper important to his desire to become famous at his work. Things go wrong however, and he finds himself hanging on the edge of death and a revelation comes upon him of all the wasted time away from his wife and with his work. “Marigolds” tells of a fourteen year-old African American …show more content…
Both Tom and Lizabeth understand that life is something much different than they thought, and begin a new life in a way, because of what they have learned. In “€œContents of a Dead Man 's Pocket,” Tom Benecke, when he hangs on the apartment wall, quite sure of his imminent death, realizes how much time he had spent away from his wife because of his work. “€œHe thought of all the evenings he had spent away from her, working; and he regretted them. He thought wonderingly of his fierce ambition and of the direction his life had taken; he thought of the hours he 'd spent by himself, filling the yellow sheet that had brought him out here (Finney).” Tom understood that he had let his work and his striving for glory become his priority, rather his family. Lizabeth in “Marigolds,”€ also grows up to realize that the world does not work as she always thought. “€œThe world had lost its boundary lines. My mother, who was small and soft, was now the strength of the family; my father, who was the rock on which the family had been built, was sobbing like the tiniest child (Collier).” Lizabeth matures to understand that her family has fallen in shards and what grasped as the truth turns out as a lie. Namely, normal roles in the family which she thought as right turn out much different in her own family because of their poverty and …show more content…
Both themes share a resemblance in that they both give way for a changed life for the protagonist. Tom realizes his priorities, while Lizabeth understands the world does not function as simply as she thought. However, the writers present the stories in different points of view, to give the readers a smoother reading experience. Another way the stories differ to convey either hope or hopelessness is through mood. In his story, Finney uses tense words and descriptions, and then a simple and complete ending to give a feeling of hope and a changed life. Collier, on the other hand, runs her entire story with a morose tone to help the reader understand the hopelessness of living as an African-American during the Great Depression. Out of the two, I would choose to switch shoes with Tom Benecke. While his experience overflows with tension and a chance to die, he comes out with a new worldview and the knowledge of a new hopeful