Summary Of Contents Of The Dead Man's Pocket

How do you create a suspenseful story? Jack Finney can answer that. His story, Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket, leaves readers on the edge of their seats with all that happens. Jack Finney creates a suspenseful story through the use of internal conflict, external conflict, and cause and effect. By the use of internal conflict, Jack Finney creates a thrilling story. One example of an internal conflict Tom faces is when he was out on the ledge and he looked down. This created fear inside of Tom. Tom keeps thinking he is going to fall and die. “In the fractional moment before horror paralyzed him, as he stared between his legs at that terrible length of street far beneath him, a fragment of his mind raised his body in a spasmodic jerk to an upright position again, but so violently that his head scraped hard against the wall, bouncing off it, and his body swayed outward to the knife edge of balance, and he very nearly plunged backward and fell.” Another …show more content…
An example of cause and effect is when the paper flew out the window. Because the paper flew out, Tom went out to retrieve it. “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 the dying current flowing through the narrow opening.” This is the cause. “And he knew he was going out there in the darkness, after the yellow sheet fifteen feet beyond his reach.” This is the effect. One other cause and effect example is when he couldn’t get inside the house. The cause is he couldn’t get inside the house because the window was shut. “He couldn't open the window.” The effect was he had to smash a hole in the class with his fist to get in the house. “Then with full power, with every last scrap of strength he could bring to bear, he shot his arm forward toward the glass.” Cause and effect is one way Jack Finney keeps readers