Contents of the Dean Man’s Pocket

In contents of the Dead Man’s Pockets by Jack Finney, Tom Benecke is in his small eleventh floor apartment in New York City working while his wife Clare gets ready to go out to the movies to see a show he had also been wanting to see. Clare left the apartment about 7:00 p.m. just in time to see the beginning of the first feature. From Jack Finney’s details I gather that the story took place in or around the 1950s. Tom Benecke wanted to be known as Boy Wizard of Wholesale Groceries so when the slip of paper that had his notes and scribbles on it flew out the window he went out after it risking his life nearly killing himself two times.

Jack Finney uses detail after detail in his short story. One type of detail he used is physical. Finney uses physical detail all over in his story. Two examples of the detail are: “Now he placed the heels of his hands against the top edge of the lower window frame and shoved upward.” This was located at the beginning of the story, as Clare was getting ready to leave when he was getting hot or should I say starting to fell guilty. This quote tells us that he tried to open the window and it tells us what he did step by step to get it open. The other quote is, “He kissed her then and, for an instant, holding her close; smelling the perfume she had used, he was tempted to go with her.” This quote tells us that as Clare was leaving Tom was starting to want to put work aside and do something with his wife.

Another type of detail that Finney uses is emotional. Finney tells us all throughout