Contents Of A Dead Man's Pocket Summary

“Contents of a Dead Man’s Pocket” by Jack Finney is a story about a man who is torn between two loves. Tom Benecke, the protagonist, is faced with a choice: work or family. In order to realize that he needs to prioritize his work and family life, he is put through many hardships. The story “Contents of a Dead Man’s Pocket” shows readers that if one does not prioritize, then they could lose everything.
As the story unfolds, readers encounter the basic situation, as the protagonist encounters his first few conflicts. Tom has an internal conflict of wanting to go with his wife to the movies but also wanting to work to be successful. As described in the story, “He kissed her then and, for an instant, holding her close, smelling the perfume she had used, he was tempted to go with her; it was not actually true that he had to work tonight, though he very much wanted to” (112). He chooses work but encounters an external conflict when his paper, which has all he needs for work, flies out the window. Tom observes:
Turning, he saw a sheet of white paper drifting to the floor in a series of arcs, and another sheet, yellow, moving toward the window, caught in a dying current flowing through the narrow opening. As he watched, the paper struck the bottom edges of the window and hung there for an instant, plastered against the glass and …show more content…
Gripping the bottom of the window frame very tightly and carefully, he slowly ducked his head under it, feeling on his face the sudden change from the warm air of the room to the chill outside. With infinite care he brought out his other leg, his mind concentrating on what he was doing. Then he slowly stood erect. Most of the putty, dried out and brittle, had dropped off the bottom edging of the window frame, he found, and the flat wooden edging provided a good gripping surface, a half-inch or more deep, for the tips of his fingers