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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Tom Benecke feel on his face when he ducks his head under the window and looks outside?

2. In what location is Clare when she replies to Tom Benecke's query about going out alone?

3. What action does Tom Benecke take just after raising the window?

4. How far below the bottom of Tom Benecke's living room window is the ledge located?

5. In what room of the apartment is Tom Benecke's desk located?

Short Essay Questions

1. What, if any, direct benefit does Tom Benecke believe he will receive in exchange for his idea for a new method of display?

2. In what way does the outside contrast with the inside throughout the story and for what purpose?

3. What article of clothing does Tom Benecke don before climbing out of his living room window?

4. Describe the miscalculations Tom Benecke makes when he is preparing to go outside.

5. How is irony present within Tom Benecke's feeling about the idea of abandoning the yellow sheet of paper?

6. Describe the character of Tom Benecke.

7. What types of information are written upon the yellow sheet of paper?

8. Tom Benecke realizes at the beginning of the story that the feeling he is experiencing is not heat. What is it instead?

9. What is the setting of the story "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket," and how is the setting used to amplify suspense?

10. Discuss the way in which Finney uses the hypothetical with a particular purpose in mind in Paragraph 20.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explicate the theme of blind ambition within "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket." What is Finney's message regarding ambition that comes at any cost and how do you know?

Essay Topic 2

William Faulkner once famously claimed that the most important literature deals with the subject of the human heart in conflict with itself. Explain how the theme of Human versus Self is demonstrated within Jack Finney's story "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket." Create a decisive, arguable claim and prove it with quotes from the story.

Essay Topic 3

Analyze the focus on the theme of determinism in "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket." What message is Finney sending about fate and determinism?

(see the answer keys)

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