In "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket," how is Tom's apartment a symbol that impacts the theme of the story?

In the story, Tom's apartment is a symbol of poverty. Tom, the husband, works tirelessly in his bid to get ahead, while his wife, Clare, thinks that he works too hard and too much.

Tom even foregoes the pleasure of going to the movies with Clare in order to finish an ambitious project. By putting all his energy into the project, Tom hopes to garner the attention and admiration of his boss. In fact, he has spent countless hours studying customers and their reactions to specific grocery-store displays. Tom thinks that he may have come up with some unique ideas for a display method that can possibly captivate the attention of shoppers. He has noted all his calculations, figures, and facts on a yellow piece of paper. Sadly, for Tom, it is this piece of paper that floats out onto the ledge just beyond his reach.

The text tells us that Tom desperately tries to reach for the yellow paper. To do this, he pushes the window upwards with all his might to get it open. This is the same window that gives Tom problems at the beginning of the story. We get the idea that Tom and Clare's apartment is not the highest quality apartment on Lexington Avenue. The text provides further clues for this: the author tells us that Tom and Clare pay less rent than their neighbors, to the tune of seven and a half dollars less. For this privilege, the couple gets to live in an apartment with a window that is difficult to open, a door that seems equally problematic, and a living room that is considerably smaller than any of their neighbors'. The apartment is also quite possibly cramped, as Tom's desk is situated right next to the living room window.

Basically, Tom's apartment is a symbol of his poverty. This symbol of his apartment impacts the theme of the story by underlining the desperate lives many people lived in the dawning new age of materialism after World War Two. With two world wars concluded, many Americans were ready to move forward with their lives and to participate in a burgeoning economy. Industrialization gave rise to better technology and more mechanization, making mass production of goods possible. Yet, all this progress came with a price. Young couples like Tom and Clare struggled to find their place among this progress.

Ironically, in striving for better lives (through material success), men like Tom lost intimate connections with their loved ones. This is the central theme of the story. The drive to succeed and to erase the suffering brought about by the Great Depression and two agonizing world wars put infinite pressure on men. So, Tom's apartment is also a symbol of struggle and working class angst. Tom works hard because he believes that he can make a better life for himself and Clare. We see this in their conversation:

He smiled. "You won't mind though, will you, when the money comes rolling in and I'm known as the Boy Wizard of Wholesale Groceries?"

"I guess not."

However, all this working and striving has come at a cost for Tom and Clare. Tom wants to go to the movies with Clare but can't let himself go. He thinks he has too much work to do. By the end of the story, Tom comes to understand that the most important things in life can't always be figured in monetary terms.

So, Tom's apartment is an important symbol in the story; it impacts the story by highlighting the main reason why Tom is unusually focused on climbing the ladder at work.