Contents Of The Dead Man's Pockets Analysis

Suspense is a state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertanty about what may occur. Suspence is certainly the dominant feeling that overtakes the readers of Jack Finney 's "Contents of the Dead Man 's Pockets." This is a story of a man who risks his life to retrieve an important piece of a project that could make his career dreams come true. During his quest Tom stands face to face with death as he overcomes various challenges that arise between him and his goal. In "Contents of the Dead Man 's Pockets," Jack Finney uses setting, flash-forwards, and conflict to build suspense and create a feeling of tension in the reader. Jack Finney utilizes the setting of his story as a form of suspense to set a certain mood which draws the readers into …show more content…
The conflicts Tom faces throughout the story provide multiple decisions and paths he can take within the plot leaving the reader guessing how and in which direction the story will go. Near the beginning of "Contents of the Dead Man 's Pockets," Tom opens his apartment window causing an important peice of paper to be blown out the window by a gust of wind. During this time Tom needs to reach a dicision, "For many seconds he was going to abandon the yellow sheet, that there was nothing else do...but just the same, and he couldn 't escape the thought..." (Finney 3). The paper flying out Tom 's window leads to an internal confict as Tom has to decide whether or not to go and retrieve the paper from the ledge. This conflict suspends the reader in thought as the reader tries to follow Tom 's thought process. Later in the story Tom is stuck outside his closed window which is notorious for it 's trouble opening. Tom considers punching though the window, but is uneasy about his choice, "It might; he could picture it happening, he could feel it in the nervers of his arm. And it might not; he could feel that too--feel his fist stiking the glass and being instantaneously flung back..." (Finney 10). Tom desperately clings to the ledge as his life is on the line considering a life or death decision, eating at the reader; will he live? Will he die? The conflict proposed in this situation causes the reader to be immersed in suspense as Tom thinks of the different outcomes of one life changing decision. Conflict is a major factor in "Contents of the Dead Man 's Pockets" due to the way it creates suspense as Tom is placed in a situation where his life is at stake and any move he makes can decide his