In “Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket”, written by Jack Finney, the author depicted the changes within Tom’s attitude towards life during different times in this short story. This essay will describe those changes and the causes of Tom’s attitude to change.
At the beginning of the story, Tom is ambitious and very serious towards his work. To his mind, work came before everything. Because of this, he became a very self-centered and selfish person. He didn’t care where his wife was doing. The only thing that he seemed to care is his project that could give him a promotion. He worked on this market research for over four Saturday afternoon when he could be with his wife. Even when the research paper flew out the window, the first thing he thought was it could be a good joke in the office, instead of all the worries he should have for his own life.
He eventually got out on the ledge where his research paper was on, leaning his body on the wall, gripping on the bricks, he was still fearless. But when he kneeled down and got the paper, he looked down from 11 floors up outside the building, where he was standing. The horror of death shocked and paralyzed him. His body was shaking and his mind stopped. The window of his apartment was shut and he couldn’t open it. He tried everything to get other people’s attention but no one came to rescue. Then he began to realize that if he fell, all other people would see was going to be the research paper in his pocket, leaving no clue why he had died. The images of all the night he spent with his wife he recalled reminded him that he was wasting his own life on his work.
He found out finally that he had to break the window with his elbow. He took this risky shot and successfully got back into his apartment. As he walked out trying to find his wife, he opened the door and the paper flew out again. But this time he let it go. He was finally aware that there are other things more important than work, such as life and love.
Tom’s attitude has changed greatly, from work is more important than life to life and other things should be treated the same as he would do to work. In my opinion, there are two main causes behind his change
