54 pages • 1 hour read
Contents 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.
Answer Key
Reading Check
1. The movies (Paragraph 4)
2. Marketing (Paragraph 16)
3. New York City on Lexington Avenue (Paragraph 2)
4. His notes (Paragraph 12)
5. “Clare” (Paragraph 68)
Short Answer
1. The story gets its title from Tom’s realization that if he falls, people won’t be able to identify him because the only contents of his pockets are the notes from his work. (Paragraph 62)
2. Tom has been studying consumer habits, trade publications, and data related to marketing in his free time. (Paragraph 16)
3. Tom views this project as the thing that will “mark him out from the score of other young men in his company” and help him climb the corporate ladder. (Paragraph 18)
4. He yells, burns papers to try to signal someone, and drops coins. (Various paragraphs)
5. He realizes that he has been wasting his life by focusing on his career instead of his wife and marriage. (Paragraph 62)
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