54 pages • 1 hour read
Jack FinneyContents of the Dead Man's Pocket
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1956A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Literary Devices
Imagery
Imagery is descriptive writing that appeals to the physical senses; it is often created through figurative devices like similes and metaphors. Imagery allows readers to experience a story as if they were present in the narrative. The imagery in “Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket” fully engages readers with Tom and his experience as he stands 11 stories above Lexington Avenue.
The story includes numerous visual, auditory, and tactile (touch) descriptions. Looking down at Lexington Avenue, Tom sees “miles of traffic signals, all green now” (25). The pedestrians he sees are metaphorically described as “moving black dots” (25). These visuals emphasize the great distance between Tom and the street below. The auditory imagery further entrenches the reader in the scene. Tom hears the “toned-down volume of the street traffic far beneath him,” which slows and then stops, “almost to silence” (25). Then, as the traffic light changes, he hears the “the subdued roar of the cars starting up again” (25).
Both auditory and visual imagery are present as Tom hears the “dry scrape” of the yellow paper moving along the ledge and sees it looking “like a leaf on the pavement” (22), this last description an example of simile. The “chill faint wind pressing the side of his face” (25) and “the rough cold brick” (23) beneath his fingertips are examples of tactile imagery. Altogether, these details imbue the New York City setting with life. The result is both verisimilitude (a sense of truth or authenticity) and a heightened sense of tension and contrast, as the city’s daily routines continue unabated despite Tom’s perilous predicament on a literal ledge between life and death.
Situational Irony
Situational irony is created when the outcome of a situation differs from what one would reasonably expect to happen; the greater the difference, the greater the irony. The conclusion of “Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket” is greatly ironic, considering Tom’s dilemma and its outcome. The sheet of yellow paper is of supreme importance to Tom, so much so that he risks his life and faces imminent death in retrieving it. While walking the ledge and then being trapped outside his window, he endures overwhelming terror and suffers physical and mental pain. When he is safely inside his apartment again, the yellow paper in hand, one would expect him to be very careful with it, considering what he endured to retrieve it. Instead, Tom carelessly lays it on the top of his desk and uses a pencil—a lightweight object—to secure it. He then watches the paper “sail out into the night and out of his life” (30). Ironically, Tom is neither angry nor distressed; he bursts into laughter.
Atmosphere
Atmosphere is the mood or feeling created by the description of a setting. Tom and Clare’s apartment, one of the settings in the story, is described as “warm, cheerful, incredibly spacious” (26). The living room is comfortably furnished with an upholstered sofa, pictures displayed on the walls, and a gray rug. Tom’s desk sits by the window, giving him a view of the city. At night, the living room glows with light. The description of the apartment creates a pleasant and inviting atmosphere.
In contrast, the setting outside the apartment, 11 stories above the street, is cold and very dark. An autumn breeze accentuates the chilly night air, and the ledge Tom stands on is narrower than the length of his foot. The window he crawls through to get outside has “dropped shudderingly in its frame till it closed” (26). These descriptions of the story’s external setting creates a grim and forbidding atmosphere. The contrast between the atmosphere in the apartment and the atmosphere beyond the window underscores the light versus darkness motif in the story, which represents safety in opposition to danger.
Suspense
When readers are engaged with a story’s characters and plot events, they wonder what will happen next and keep reading to find out. Suspense is created when readers feel uncertain or anxious about what may happen. “Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket” is filled with suspense, beginning with the title, which implies that someone dies. As the story unfolds, it seems increasingly likely that Tom will fall from the ledge and die. Each time he nearly falls, the suspense is heightened and maintained until he recovers to nearly fall again:
For a single moment he knelt [before the closed living room window], knee bones against stone on the very edge of the ledge, body swaying and touching nowhere else, fighting for balance. Then he lost it, his shoulders plunging backward, and he flung his arms forward, his hands smashing against the window casing on either side […]. For an instant he hung suspended between balance and falling, his fingertips pressed onto the quarter-inch wood strips […] (26).
Tom manages to regain his balance once again, but his struggle to survive isn’t over. After exhausting several attempts to summon help, he knows that breaking the window glass with his fist is his only chance to live; he also knows that if he fails, the rebound from the blow will send him off the ledge to his death. The suspense becomes most intense when Tom is about to strike the glass:
[He] felt the sick tenseness and terrible excitement building. It grew and swelled toward the moment of action, his nerves tautening […] then drew his arm back just a bit more, fist so tight his fingers pained him, and knowing he was about to do it. Then […] he shot his arm forward toward the glass (30).
The suspense that builds throughout the story resolves when Tom drives his fist through the glass and climbs into his living room. The story’s title, as it turns out, refers to a theme in the story, not to Tom’s death.
