What is the message of the author in the short story "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket"?

The main message of Jack Finney's "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket" is that the most important things in life are not things.

Finney's story illustrates the absurdity of basing one's existence upon monetary sources. Originally published in 1956, a period after World War II when materialism grew because the United States enjoyed great prosperity, this story has as its theme the importance of the non-material values such as love, family, and one's health.

These...

The main message of Jack Finney's "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket" is that the most important things in life are not things.

Finney's story illustrates the absurdity of basing one's existence upon monetary sources. Originally published in 1956, a period after World War II when materialism grew because the United States enjoyed great prosperity, this story has as its theme the importance of the non-material values such as love, family, and one's health.

These values are what Tom Benecke has put aside while he pursues his career in the grocery business. Instead of going to the movies with his pretty wife, Tom remains home to continue working on his marketing project, a project on which he has already spent four long Saturday afternoons, lunch hours, and even evenings. And, because he has spent so much of his own time already, the ambitious, materialistic Tom cannot let this project go out the window of his eleventh floor apartment and not try to retrieve it, no matter how great the risk. However, once he gets out on the ledge and nearly falls to his death and the window through which he has gone slams shut, Tom becomes all too aware of the folly of his having placed his values on the wrong things.

He cries out his wife's name in his last desperate attempt to make it back into his apartment. Once inside, he hurries to catch up to his loving wife at the movies, now aware that love supersedes any grocery project.