Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket

Sometimes it takes a near death experience to realize what is important in life and what is not. A person is amid choosing whether to help out a family member in trouble or to complete a certain task of his own. The person selfishly goes to complete the task. One can refer that it was wrong to not help the family member. No matter what, family should be the number one priority and that is a prominent theme in “Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket” by Jack Finney and a similar theme may be seen in Double Daddy by Penny Parker and Diary of a Mad Blender by Sue Shellenbarger.

Primarily, the start of “Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket” indicates that Tom, the main character, is in a jam because he chooses to stay home to do work instead of going out with his wife. Tom began with guilt reasoning to the fact that he is not going with his wife. His decision is final although he is tempted to go due to “smelling the perfume she had used.” (pg.6) Tom wants to go with his wife and he knows that she is hurt because he is not going. However, he stays home and starts to work as one of his important papers flies out of the window and onto the ledge. He has a near death experience where “horror paralyzed him.” (pg.10) This is because he was on the ledge of about a 12 story building. If he just went with his wife and had a good time, none of this ledge business would have happened.

Moving on, fathers get to encompass certain roles as a “Double Daddy.” Men are complaining “I’m working my tail off to get ahead, for the most part for my family, but I’m not spending time with my family.” (pg.22) Fathers are working hard as a duty for

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their family and it is a shame how they cannot spend time with their loved ones. “Corporations have the expectation for me to put business over family.” (pg.22) Corporations should not have this expectation; it is beyond