On the Edge

Sean Adams once said, "Work is a part of life, not the point of it" (Work 2). Adams advises that work cannot to be the top priority in life for anyone. The main concern for someone should be their family. Family should have supportiveness, love and always stand by each other, unlike work. Some people think that if they work harder, they are supporting their family and providing everything they need. But in reality they are just becoming a work-a-holic and not spending much time with their families that miss them so much. Therefore, Adams implies that working is necessary to provide for a family, but not to over do the work. In Jack Finney "Contents of the Dead Man's pocket," Tom Benecke finds out that a person's life can change in just a few seconds. Because Tom cannot stop working and becomes intrigued in his work, he makes three choices that night that would have a bad effect on him. Tom's three choices were to stay at home, open a window, and to go out and retrieve his paper. Because of these choices, Tom puts his life in danger and second guesses himself if this was the right decision to do (Finney 110-115).

Tom's weakness for work causes him to stay at home and work on a very important paper that he thinks will enable him to get a promotion. Unfortunately, this prevents him to go to the movies with his wife. He thinks that if he would wait to finish this project, it will be too late and it would just be a waste of time. But if he works on it diligently, Tom would be able to give it to his boss, who has the weekend to think it over (Finney 111). Since he is determined to stay at home and work, he finally lets his wife leave for the movie. Tom's first choice seems like he is thinking of his wife and how he wants to make sure he can support them. But in reality, he tends to be a little selfish, for he could work on it during the weekend or at a different time. Instead he chooses it is more important to finish the project (Finney111).

Before he can even start on his work, Tom becomes very hot, because of the guiltiness he has for not attending the movie. Tom's second choice is to open the window beside his desk and cool him down (Finney 111). Unfortunately, when Tom opens the door for his wife, there is a cross breeze which causes his yellow paper to fly out through the window. Tom, hoping it was not too late to save the paper, darts across the room to the window and watches his paper glide into the darkness of the night (Finney 112). If only Tom would have gone with his wife, he would not have felt guilty and have opened the window.

Seeing his paper fly away from him, he thought he had lost everything. Fortunately, the paper got caught on the ledge just beside the next apartment. Tom's third choice was to go out onto the ledge and recover it. Tom, thinking of how easy it would be and what a great story it would be to tell, decides to do it (Finney 114). Once Tom finds