Saul Bellow – Seize the Day [ Study Guide ]

Saul Bellow – Seize the Day

Study Guide


1. Saul Bellow [ 1915 – 2005 ] : Biography

2. Seize the Day – Context

3. Seize the Day – Plot Overview

4. Seize the Day – Characters’ List

5. Seize the Day – Characters’ Analysis

6. Seize the Day – Themes, Motifs and Symbols

7. Seize the Day – Chapters’ Summaries and Analyses

A. Summary and Analysis of Chapter 1.

B. Summary and Analysis of Chapter 2.

C. Summary and Analysis of Chapter 3.

D. Summary and Analysis of Chapter 4.

E. Summary and Analysis of Chapter 5.

F. Summary and Analysis of Chapter 6.

G. Summary and Analysis of Chapter 7.


8. Seize the Day – Conclusion

9. Seize the Day – Key Facts

10. Seize the Day – Study Questions and Suggested Essay Topics

11. Seize the Day – Quiz

12. Seize the Day – Quiz Answers


I. Saul Bellow (1915-2005) - Biography

Saul (Solomon) Bellow was born on June 10, 1915, to Russian immigrant parents. He was raised in an impoverished suburb of Montreal, Quebec, where his father, Abraham, was a bootlegger and a businessman. Abraham pushed his children to take full advantage of every opportunity they were afforded, and Liza, his wife, hoped to see her sons grow up to become Talmudic scholars. As a child, Bellow spoke French, English, Yiddish, and Hebrew, and was encouraged to pursue diverse academic interests. Bellow's parents thus instilled in him both an intense desire to succeed and a sincere thirst for knowledge.
Bellow's family moved to Chicago in 1924, and as Bellow grew older he became increasingly interested in writing. In 1933, he enrolled in the University of Chicago, where he studied literature. After two years, Bellow transferred to Northwestern University, where he graduated with honors in anthropology and sociology. Bellow then pursued a master's degree in anthropology at the University of Wisconsin. After finishing his studies, he returned to Chicago and married a sociologist named Anita Goshkin.
In Chicago, Bellow became involved with the Works Progress Administration Writers' Project (WPA), an organization with ties to the Communist Party that was dedicated to providing support to young intellectuals and writers. Bellow composed short biographies of Midwestern writers and taught classes for the Pestalozzi-Froebel Teachers' College in Chicago. His first story, "Two Morning Monologues", appeared in Partisan Review in 1941, and shortly thereafter his son Gregory was born.
In 1944, Bellow finished his first novel, Dangling Man, and went on to assume a wide variety of teaching posts. In 1947, he won a Guggenheim Fellowship for his second novel, The Victim, and moved to Paris. During the two years he spent abroad, Bellow abandoned two nearly-completed manuscripts in order to complete an extensive novel that would become The Adventures of Augie March. Augie March, published in 1953, exhibited Bellow's considerable skill, and marked a profound stylistic break from his previous two works. The novel went on to win the National Book Award.
When Bellow returned to the United States, he settled in New York for ten years, and quickly became an integral member of the Partisan Review set, a circle of Jewish intellectuals. Bellow published Seize the Day in 1956, and, shortly after, married Alexandra Tachacbasov. They had a son, Adam, but after only four years of marriage the union dissolved. Soon after, Bellow published Henderson and the Rain King, and in 1959 he married yet again - this time to a teacher named Susan Alexandra Glassman. Glassman bore him another son, Daniel, and the family moved to Chicago, where Bellow assumed a professorship in Letters and Literature at the University of Chicago. He was also named a fellow of the University's Committee on Social Thought, a small, prestigious program of interdisciplinary graduate study. In 1964, Bellow published Herzog, which won him a second National Book Award. In the wake of the deaths of both Hemingway and Faulkner, Bellow was widely hailed as the new "major" American writer.
Shortly after the dissolution of his marriage to Glassman, Bellow published Mosby's Memoirs (1969) and Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970). Humboldt's Gift was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1975, and Bellow married yet again: Alexandra Ionescu Tulcea, a Romanian-born professor of theoretical mathematics at Northwestern.
In 1976, Bellow won the Nobel Prize in Literature. The committee commended him for his outstanding portrayal of "a man who keeps on trying to find a foothold during his wanderings in a tottering world, one who can never relinquish his faith that the value of life depends on dignity, not its success, and that truth must triumph at last." A host of other works followed, including plays, journalistic accounts, short stories, critical essays, and social and political commentary: To Jerusalem and Back (1976), The Dean's December (1982), More Die of Heartbreak (1987), A Theft (1989), The Bellarosa Connection (1989), Something To Remember Me By (1991), It All Adds Up (1994), The Actual (1997), and Ravelstein (2000). Today, Bellow is considered a quintessential post-war American writer. His Russian-Jewish heritage and Canadian upbringing, as well as his exuberant and candid voice, are all essential aspects of his unique portrayals of the American spirit and the raw energy of Chicago.
Bellow wrote several plays, the most important of which is probably The Last Analysis. First performed in 1964, it tells the story of a comedian who has fallen from grace, and thus resembles, in its narrative trajectory and vision of flawed humanity, much of Bellow's other work. Bellow likewise tried his hand at literary criticism, publishing pieces in The New Republic, The New York Times Book Review, The New Leader, and other journals. In a notable break from fiction-writing, he served as a war correspondent during the 1967 Six-Day War, employed by Newsday.
Towards the end of his life, Bellow frequently commented on the decline of culture in the West and the urban environment's failure to meet the demands of the soul. In 1987, Bellow composed the foreword to the controversial book The Closing of the American Mind, written by the University of Chicago's conservative social philosopher Alan Bloom. Bellow's final novel, Ravelstein, is an homage to the man and their friendship.
In 1989, Bellow married Janis Freedman. The couple moved to Boston, where their daughter, Naomi, was born in 1999. Bellow died in his home on April 5, 2005.

II. Saul Bellow – Seize the Day: Context

Saul Bellow was born Solomon Bellows in Lachine, Quebec on June 10, 1915. Nina Steers, a journalist who once interviewed Bellow, said that his birth date was the only piece of information she could be sure of and that everything else was in doubt. The reason for Steer's statement is that Bellow is known for refuting interviewers and has always kept his personal life very private.
Bellow was born of poor, Russian-Jewish parents in Canada. He grew up immersed in the Old Testament and learned Hebrew and Yiddish because his mother desired that her children be Talmudic scholars. Bellow's father, on the other hand, was a business man, a bootlegger, and an importer, who wanted his children to grow up and take advantage of the new world of economic opportunities before them. He wanted his children to either have a profession or to have money. This is significant given that the main character in Seize the Day, Tommy Wilhelm, battles against his own father's idea of success, which, not coincidently, is very much like Bellow's father's idea of success. Money and success becomes a recurring theme within the novella.
Bellow did not remain in suburban Canada, and he moved in 1924 to the Chicago. It is at this time that the urban landscape began to infiltrate his life and would later reveal itself in his writing. Chicago is where Bellow "grew-up," went to high school, and began his college career. Having attended the University of Chicago for two years, he transferred to Northwestern University where he majored in anthropology. He decided after college to continue graduate studies within the field of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin from which he dropped out of and got married. It was then that he decided to write. He procured a job under the WPA writer's project writing short biographies of mid-western writers, and he later achieved an editorial position for The Encyclopedia Britannica. His first success as writer, however, came in 1941, with the publication of his short story "Two Morning Monologues," in the Partisan Review.
During the course of his life, Bellow would be married three times, have children, teach at numerous universities, including the University of Minnesota, New York University, Princeton, Bard, the University of Puerto Rico, and the University of Chicago, and he would be given a number of highly prestigious awards. Saul Bellow has been the recipient of various National Book Awards, two Guggenheim Fellowships, the Prix Litteraire International, the Jewish Heritage Award, the Pulitzer Prize in 1975, and, most importantly, the Nobel Prize in Literature, which he received in 1976.
Bellow was born in 1915, thus he came of age during the depression. He lived through World War II, and was even in the Merchant Marines, he saw the wartime economic boom of the forties and fifties, and experienced the Cold War first hand. Given that the protagonist of his novella, Seize the Day, has reached the age of forty-four in the 1950s, all of the above becomes applicable not only to Bellow, but to the protagonist of his novella and to its context. Tommy Wilhelm lives in the America of the 1950's, which means that the backdrop of his life consists of a newly made, strong American economy, and of a country at "war" with the Soviet Union that uses the tools of science and technology as weapons. Psychology and science appear over and over in the novella, as does the new urban experience—the big city at its economic height. With all of this in mind, Bellow has decided to place the protagonist of his novel at odds with the world around him. Tommy's "inner" world, his feelings and his human needs, are in constant battle with the external world of money and business.

III. Saul Bellow – Seize the Day: Plot Overview

Tommy Wilhelm is a man in his mid-forties, temporarily living in the Hotel Gloriana on the Upper West Side of New York City, the same hotel in which his father has taken residence for a number of years. He is out of place from the beginning, living in a hotel filled with elderly retirees and continuing throughout the novel to be a figure of isolation amidst crowds. The novella traverses one very important day in the life of this self-same Tommy Wilhelm: his "day of reckoning," so to speak.
As the novella opens, Tommy is descending in the hotel elevator, on his way to meet his father for breakfast, as he does every morning. However, this morning feels different to Tommy, he feels a certain degree of fear and of foreboding for something that lies in the hours ahead of him and has been building for quite some time.
The reader begins to discover through Tommy's thoughts and through a series of flashbacks that Tommy has just recently been fired from his job as a salesman, he is a college drop-out, a man with two children, recently separated from his wife, and he is a man on the brink of financial disaster. Tommy has just given over the last of his savings to the fraudulent Dr. Tamkin, who has promised to knowingly invest it in the commodities market. Amid all of this, he has, apparently, fallen in love with a woman named Olive, who he cannot marry because his wife will not grant him a divorce. Tommy is unhappy and in need of assistance both emotionally and financially.
In the first three chapters the reader follows Tommy as he talks with his father, Dr. Adler, who sees his son as a failure in every sense of the word. Tommy is refused financial assistance and also refused any kind of support, emotionally or otherwise, from his father. It is also within these beginning chapters that the flashbacks begin. The flashbacks highlight, among other things, Tommy's meeting with the duplicitous Maurice Venice, the talent scout who shows initial interest in a young Tommy and his good looks. Wilhelm, however, is later rejected by the same scout after a failed screen test but nevertheless attempts a career in Hollywood as an actor. He discontinues his college education and moves to California, against his parent's will and warnings.
The chapters that follow focus on Tommy's encounters and conversations with Dr. Tamkin, a seemingly fraudulent and questionable "psychologist," who gives Tommy endless advice and thus provides the assistance he had looked for from his father. Whether Tamkin is fraudulent and questionable as a psychologist, and whether he is a liar and a charlatan is a question that is constantly being posed to us. Regardless, Tamkin is quite charming and appeals to Tommy. Dr. Tamkin claims to be a poet, a healer, a member of the Detroit Purple Gang, as well as claiming a number of other positions and titles. Despite his lies, he gives Tommy kernels of truth that become significant in the novella and for Tommy. Moreover, Tommy entrusts Tamkin with the last of his savings to invest in the commodities market, since Tamkin claims a certain stock market expertise.
The rest of the novella consists of Tommy and Dr. Tamkin traveling back and forth to and from the stock market, meeting several characters along the way. The novel finally illustrates Tommy's terrible loss in the commodities in which Tamkin has invested Tommy's money. Tommy has lost all of his savings but still has the monetary demands of his family to meet. Furthermore, Tamkin has disappeared. After an attempt to look for Tamkin in his room at the hotel, the novella comes to a close with three climaxes—two minor and one large, final climax.
First, there is the final confrontation with his father in the massage room of the hotel in which Tommy is denied any assistance one last time, as he stands before his naked father. Afterward, Tommy has a loud and almost raving fight with his wife on the telephone in which he claims to be "suffocating" and unable to "breathe." Full of rage, he exits out onto Broadway where he believes to see Dr. Tamkin at a funeral, nearby. He calls out to Tamkin but receives no reply. Suddenly he is swept in by a rush of people and finds himself carried into a crowd within the chapel where the funeral is taking place. It is here that the final climax comes because Tommy finds himself before the body of a dead stranger, unable to break away and he begins to cry and weep. He releases pools of emotion and "crie[s] with all his heart." It is here that the book ends. Other people at the funeral are confused as to who he is, wondering how close he had been to the deceased. The deceased is a stranger but Tommy, however, is left in this "happy oblivion of tears."

IV. Saul Bellow – Seize the Day: Character List

1. Tommy Wilhelm -

The novel's protagonist. Tommy Wilhelm is a forty-four-year-old man who is living temporarily in New York City. He has left the country, which he likes, and has moved to a hotel in New York's Upper West Side to ask for his father's assistance. He is a man who has had many an odd job after a stint in acting but ended up with a steady job in sales. However, he has been laid off from his sales job, he has a strained relationship with his father, he has been separated from his wife, he is in love with a woman he cannot marry, and he has invested the last of his money in a joint investment venture that is bound to failure. It is amid all of this that Tommy finds himself on his "day of reckoning."

2. Dr. Adler -

Tommy's father. Dr. Adler is a difficult man who abides by the rules of a previous generation. He is a Jewish-American, who has worked hard during his life to achieve his position in life as a well-established, successful, and admired doctor and/or "professor." He refuses to "carry" his children on his back because he believes they should come to their own achievements, as he is a believer in the American "protestant work ethic." He is rational and straight- laced; he is stern and often harsh; and, most importantly, he does not truly understand his son.

3. Dr. Tamkin -

Also resident of the Hotel Gloriana and a "friend" of Tommy's, Dr. Tamkin is a fraudulent and questionable character. He claims to be many things and is constantly giving Tommy psychoanalytical advice. He says he is a psychologist and a poet, and he claims to be a member of the Detroit Purple Gang, the head of a medical clinic in Toledo, the co-inventor of an unsinkable ship, a technical consultant in television, and a widow. His statements are brought into question and although most people seem to distrust him, Tommy is attracted to him. It is with Tamkin that Tommy enters into a joint stock market venture, entrusting the old, East-European, Jewish doctor with the last of his money.

4. Margaret -

The wife of Tommy Wilhelm. Margaret is separated from her husband. The only view we receive of her is through Tommy. We are told that she is cold, harsh, and unsympathetic. As the mother of Tommy's two boys, she is demanding of Wilhelm, constantly asking, for instance, for monetary support. She refuses to grant Tommy a divorce and has made settlements difficult. She claims that she will not make it "easy" for Tommy to leave. She is a character that we never read in the flesh, for the only encounters we have with her is through Tommy's memory, through Dr. Adler's talks of her, and through the phone conversations she has with her husband.

5. Maurice Venice -

The fraudulent talent scout from Tommy's past. Maurice Venice showed initial interest in Tommy as an actor. However, we later find out that he is the "failure" of a powerful family in the industry. He initially is attracted to Tommy because of his good looks, but later refuses to work with him because of a failed screen test—Tommy's faults, such as stuttering, are magnified on the screen. Later, the reader finds out that Venice had really been a "pimp" and had been running a prostitution ring, using his position as a "talent scout" as a cover.

6. Olive -

The woman with whom Tommy Wilhelm is in love. We never meet Olive, she is only alluded to. She is a Christian but is willing to marry Tommy outside the church after he divorces his wife, however, Margaret will not grant him a divorce. She is described as small, pretty, and dark; a woman who had worked with him at the Rojax Corporation from which Tommy was fired. His office relationship with her may have had something to do with his release from employment. Apparently, Tommy is taken by her and probably truly in love with her. It is mentioned many times that Margaret has ruined things for the couple; but Wilhelm constantly thinks of her and says, toward the end of the book, that he will have to go to Olive, on his knees, and ask her to "stand by [him] a while…Olive loves me."

7. Catherine -

Tommy's sister and Dr. Adler's daughter. Catherine, like Tommy, also changed her name, in her case to Philippa. She is a married woman with a degree, a Bachelors of Science, from Bryn Mawr. Nevertheless, she has aspirations as a painter. Her father will not assist her financially so she can rent a gallery space for an exhibition. Dr. Adler does not have faith in her talent; in fact, he does not believe she has any. Tommy does not seem to have particular faith in her either and he does not seem to care much for the paintings although he attempts to defend her, weakly, in front of his father. Tommy's reaction to his sister, however, may have to do with the fact that he is speaking to his father when she comes up in conversation. She is another character that the reader never meets in the flesh.

8. Mr. Rappaport -

The blind, old man at the stock exchange who cannot see his numbers and is constantly asking for assistance. Mr. Rappaport appears in several chapters as a symbolic figure of "blindness." He asks Tommy for assistance on his venture to the cigar store and Tommy accompanies him. Nevertheless, he tells a story of once being yelled at by Teddy Roosevelt during war that allows Tommy a "moment," one of those fleeting moments in which he feels at one with the world.

9. Mr. Perls -

A breakfast companion of Dr. Adler. Perls is a salesman and a man resented by Tommy for taking the role of what Tommy believes to be that of a "buffer." Tommy resents him because he takes on many of the opinions of his father and because Tommy believes his father has invited him to breakfast so as not to spend time with his son alone.

V. Saul Bellow – Seize the Day: Character Analysis

1. Tommy Wilhelm

Tommy Wilhelm, the protagonist of Seize the Day, is a character in turmoil. He is burdened by the loss of his job, financial instability, the separation of his wife, and his relationship with his father, among other things. He is a man in search of self who the reader is allowed to watch and follow through the course of a single, significant day in his life, a day that is called his "day of reckoning."
It maybe simply that perhaps Adler does not want to have his son remain a "child" forever. Even Tommy claims that he is often times a "kid," when dealing with his father. Perhaps Adler simply thinks that it is time for him to solve his own problems. Adler had provided, as is evidenced in the novel, assistance in the past, while Margaret, Tommy's wife, was in college. It may be that the villainy of Adler is simply caused by a clash of character between him and his son. Adler believes in the protestant work ethic, whereas his son grew up and lives in a different America than that which was once so familiar to Adler. It is a post-war, post-depression, cold war, technological world. Adler believes in power and "success" and in rationalism. He is the "self-made man." In fact, Bellow has given Adler the name of a psychiatrist whose teachings were based on ideas of "power." Tommy, on the other hand, is, deep down, is a naturalist and an idealist.
This is not to say that Adler is not, at times, cruel, it is simply to say that his villainy and seeming tyrannical behavior is to be brought into question considering point of view.

2. Dr. Tamkin

We must question our picture of Dr. Tamkin, like many of the characters of the novel. He claims to be many things, but what is true is difficult to surmise. He claims that he is a psychiatrist, a healer, a poet, a stock market specialist, that he has tended to the Egyptian royal family and that he is, among other things, a master inventor. He is also an advocator of Reichian philosophy: he believes in juxtaposition. However, there are many truths within his lies. Perhaps also, one might come to understand his "lies" as simply stories or parables. For a man who believes in the power of juxtaposition and the force of opposites working together, a man who believes in flux and in alternative ways of looking at the world, it makes perfect sense for the reader to find truth within his lies. The paradox, itself, is a work of juxtaposition.
In many ways then, one might say that Dr. Tamkin is much like Bellow himself. That is to say that he is an "inventor," a teller of tales and truths, and, therefore, an authorial figure. Significantly, he also takes on the role of a surrogate father for Wilhelm, giving him advice and leading him to an eventual recognition of self.
Dr. Tamkin, whether a liar or not, is an attractive figure. This is not to say that he, along with the psychology and Romanticism he preaches, is not often the subject of Bellow's parodying force. However, it is important to disregard Tamkin, for he always practices what he preaches even if his methods are seemingly "unsound."

VI. Saul Bellow – Seize the Day: Themes, Motifs, and Symbols

6.1. Themes

6.1.1. The Predicament of Modern Man

Seize the day is a reflection of the times in which it was written. The novel was written in a post-war world. WWII created several factors that serve as a backdrop to Wilhelm's isolation in the novel, an isolation that represents the feeling of many during the time period.
First and foremost, war creates dissolution and in many cases dislocation because of forced immigration. During the war many people, Jews especially, were escaping the Germans and, thus, fleeing, when they could. Also, American troop and other members of the alliance were disillusioned to see that such horrors could exist. Finally, and in opposition to the above, the war had a positive effect of creating an economic boom. There was also a surge in technological interest in America. The reasons for this serge are two-fold: America was rich and America was involved in a post-WWII cold war with the Soviet Union, since the countries competed technologically. It is in this world that a man like Tommy Wilhelm is lost.
Tommy is an idealist surrounded by the pressures of the outside world. He is isolated and, thus, is forced to turn inward. The urban landscape is the symbol that furthers his isolation, for he is always "alone in a crowd." Bellow wants the reader to understand this isolation and thus has almost the entire novel take place within Wilhelm's head. We experience the back and forth of uncertainty, the wavering of watery thoughts, the sadness and frustration of being that person that is "alone in the crowd."
This isolation and inner struggle is the predicament of modernity. Bellow would not be the only modern master to touch up the subject. For instance, T.S. Eliot had written The Wasteland in which he discusses many of the same subjects as Bellow, albeit in a very different fashion and style. Eliot discusses the "unreal city" which can be compared to the city that Wilhelm feels so uncomfortable within. Eliot also claims that there are many "dead" within the crowds. This symbolic death points to the fact that the modern man seems only to be going through the motions of things. Wilhelm, for instance, at the beginning of the novel, is like a character seemingly dead, both in appearance and in the way he claims he will simply go about the actions of his day. Other similarities between The Wasteland and Seize the Day include the images of "drowning" and "water." Both writers used these images to illustrate a person drowning in life.
Seize the Day is not a regular day in the life of the modern man because it is a "day of reckoning," a day in which someone that is truly dead will give the protagonist a jolt of life. Unlike many modern masterpieces, Bellow has chosen a positive ending for his novel. He has also allowed his protagonist connections with the modern world. In Times Square, for example, Wilhelm had felt connected to the "larger body" of humanity. Furthermore, Bellow complicates the predicament of modernity by adding a very human and positive element. Bellow seems to be saying that the predicament of modern man goes far beyond the typical pessimism, cynicism, and isolation because it has the potential of reaching understanding and love.

6.1.2.The Internal Life of a Human Being

The critic Julius R. Raper, in an essay entitled "Running Contrary Ways," wrote that Saul Bellow's writing marked the end of a tradition of "close-mouthed straight-forwardness," a substituted it with "a confessional literature that feels no shame in being introspective and self indulgent." Bellow is not afraid to have his character talk about feeling and emotions. The way in which he achieves this shift from the sparse Hemingway style that had prevailed to his own is that he takes the reader "inside" the head and emotions of the characters. This shift in style was often called a shift from the "Gentile" literature that dominated to a more hyphenated American style. However, it is important to remember that although Bellow does address the subject of the Jewish-American, he had considered himself "American" writer, not a "Jewish" writer or a "Jewish-American" writer, perhaps because the immigrant experience is so much a part of America itself.
Moreover, the fact that Bellows moves the action inward helps achieve a stylistic feat. However, style is not its only achievement. This internal world becomes complicated and points to the complicated state of the human being. The device helps to outline the role of psychology in the novel, for instance and also helps to pose characters in concordance or dissonance with each other. For example, Wilhelm does not understand the inner life of his father and his thoughts, but he is attracted to the way in which the eccentric Dr. Tamkin thinks.
In short, the internal life of the protagonist allows Bellow to illustrate a world of wavering emotion that would not have been possible otherwise. Being inside the protagonist places the reader in the same position. It gives the reader an understanding of the problems Wilhelm faces, what makes him angry, what makes him frustrated, sad, and lonely. Therefore, throughout the book, the reader has accompanied Wilhelm in his frustrations and in his burdened feelings. In the end, we are also released and reborn in much the same way as Tommy. The reason is both because of literary catharsis and also because the reader has been following Tommy and has no other choice but to join him.

6.2. Motifs

6.2.1. Psychology

Throughout the entire novel, the idea of psychology is present as both an illuminating force and one that is to be mocked. Bellow presents this motif through both the characters' names, because they are all the names of famous psychologists, and through the character of Dr. Tamkin, the self-professed psychologist. Furthermore, one of the biggest struggles in the novel is a Freudian one: the Oedipal hatred Tommy holds for his father. However, the character that personifies Bellow's commentary on psychology is Dr. Tamkin.
Dr. Tamkin is both a character that, like the motif of psychology itself, serves as the perfect subject of parody and capable of illumination and truth. He talks about the conflict between the true soul and the pretender soul that is burdened by the forces and demands of the outside world. Bellow does seriously address the issues of the internal world of the human being. However, because Bellow makes fun of Tamkin constantly, it is important to remember that the field of psychology is a part of that problematic "external" world.

6.2.2. Naturalism (the animal)

Almost every chapter in the novel has an animalistic reference. Tommy calls both himself and his father an ass, a bear, and other names. Tommy was also once called "Velvel," by his grandfather (Velvel means wolf). This motif serves many purposes. It may serve to illustrate man's animalist natural tendencies and the internal instincts of a person. It may serve also to show the struggle between naturalism and the mechanical world, a topic that is satirized in Tamkin's poem. And, it may be taken one reference at a time. For example, the fact that Tommy had been called "wolf" can point to his loneliness and his need to "howl."

6.3.3.The City ( The Urban Landscape )

The city serves to create the background of crowds and technology in Tommy's world. It serves to illustrate his disjunction with the outside/external world, the world that surrounds him. The city is mentioned at many points throughout the novel: Tommy is constantly claiming his hatred toward it. He would much rather live in the country, as he is unaccustomed to it. However, there are moments when he finds himself at one with the crowds of the city. Thus, this urban landscape can both serve as the dark backdrop of Tommy's life, the very symbol of what he is trying to escape, or it can be a force that allows him to feel solidarity with his fellow man.

6.3. Symbols

6.3.1. Water

Water is one of the most important symbols in the book. It is present in every chapter and serves different purposes at different points in the novel. Water because it can be both an unstable element as well as a dangerous one, is used by Bellow to show that his protagonist is seemingly drowning. Water is also unstable and, thus, all of the water imagery points to the fact that nothing is certain and that Wilhelm lives in this world of uncertainty. The "water" is present from the beginning when Tommy seems to be descending into an underwater world that suffocates him. However, in the end, the water turns into a beautiful symbol of rebirth. The tears Tommy cries are tears that, ironically, bring him out of his drowning state.

6.3.2. Clothing

Clothes are pointed to throughout the novel in the descriptions of characters. It appears as a symbol from the beginning when Tommy is discussing clothing with Rubin, the newspaperman at the hotel, they talk about the clothes they are wearing. This is important because it points to the significance of appearances in the novel. Tommy is constantly putting on "layers," trying out roles and is constantly trying to conceal his true self.

6.3.4. Olive

Olive is the woman that Tommy loves. She is the woman he wants to marry but cannot because his wife will not grant him a divorce. His thoughts are constantly drifting toward he and his need for her is shown to the reader by the end of the novel. She signifies love, therefore. The importance of her name is what makes her a "symbol." The name Olive can refer to the symbolic Olive tree that signifies peace. Moreover, this would mean that it is "love," in the end is what brings "peace."

VII. Saul Bellow – Seize the Day: Chapters’ Summaries and Analyses

7.1. Chapter I

Summary

Tommy Wilhelm, the book's protagonist, is descending in an elevator of the Hotel Gloriana, about to meet his father for breakfast. Dr. Adler, a retired doctor and Tommy's father, lives in the hotel. From the novella's opening there is a sense that there is something different about this day. For instance, Tommy and his father usually meet in the elevator, however, on this day, his father is already downstairs when Tommy descends. Also, Tommy claims, "he was aware that his routine was about to break up and he sensed that a huge trouble long presaged but till now formless was due."
This very fist chapter illustrates many important points about the novella itself and about its characters. First of all, the novel's point of view is of great significance because it affects the novels tone, mood, and character studies. The point of view is primarily a third person omniscient narrator. However, when the narration travels into the mind and thoughts of Tommy Wilhelm, it often fluctuates in point of view and often takes on the first person. As a third person, omniscient narrative voice, the narrative also journeys into the minds of other characters but, mostly, everything is seen through Tommy's perspective. This makes it difficult to surmise what is Tommy's imagination and interpretation and what is reality. Moreover, the tone of the novel often verges on an ironic mimesis of Tommy's voice, that is, there are points in which the narrator makes fun of Tommy. This complicates the novel but it is important to keep all of this in mind while reading.
Also in this chapter the symbolism of water and the drowning motif are touched upon, both are devices that will be used throughout the novel. For instance, at the beginning, Tommy is descending in an elevator into what seems to be the billowy ocean depth of the lobby. For instance, the elevator is described as sinking and the carpet of the lobby is described as "billow[ing] toward Wilhelm's feet." The French drapes of the lobby are like sails in the sun. All of this water imagery points to the fact that throughout the novel Tommy will be seen as a drowning man, a man under strain and duress.
Significantly, the conversation that Rubin and Tommy have begins with talking about clothing. This points to the fact that appearances are important in the novel. Clothes point to surface and in a novel that begins with an attempt on Tommy's behalf to "conceal," this conversation, thus, proves symbolic.
Many characteristics of Wilhelm (Tommy) are illustrated early on. One of particular significance is that he cares deeply what his father thinks of him, that he is still a "boy" in this sense. He is very much need of his father's approval and, at this point in his life, of his support. As illustrated above, Tommy is a man who is under a lot of stress. Nevertheless, the reader learns that he tends to "victimize" himself. For instance, when the failing stock venture between Tommy and Dr. Tamkin is mentioned, Tommy becomes stressed that the stock is falling and then says that it was Dr. Tamkin had got him into this." The most important part about this statement is that one realizes immediately that Tommy is quick to play a blame game. He often places his own choices on the shoulders of others. Still, it is important not to simplify this character and say that he is a martyr. For, it is at the end of this self-same chapter that Tommy admits to having made mistakes in his live, in other words, he takes credit for his own failings. "For all the time I have wasted I am very sorry," he says.
The character of Maurice Venice also plays an important role in this opening chapter. It is through him that we see that Tommy was once quite handsome and charming. More importantly, however, one should see Maurice Venice as a double for Tommy, as a picture of the man Tommy has the dangerous potential of becoming. First of all, Venice is described as the "obscure failure of an aggressive and powerful clan." Tommy, just like Venice, is the "failure" of a family in which everyone is educated but him and in which he is the "failed" son of a "successful," money-making father. Also, Venice is a liar. Venice is truly a "pimp," who fronts as a talent scout. Tommy, too, can be a liar. He lies to his parents and tells them that Venice claims that he has undeniable talent. Moreover, and perhaps more subtle, Venice is, just like Tommy, a drowning man. His name, Venice, conjures up canals and water, therefore making them deeper doubles.

2. Chapter II

Summary

Tommy continues to think of his father, Dr. Adler, before going to meet him. He thinks of how his father disapproves of his separation with Margaret, his wife. Tommy thinks his father believes that he should be home with his wife and children and not in the hotel with him.
Tommy also thinks that his father does not care about the death of his mother, for he cannot remember the date his own wife died. He becomes angry with this and claims that it was "the beginning of the end" when his mother died. When he tells he recalls telling his father about this, his father does not understand what he means by the "beginning of the end." Tommy thinks also that his father thinks him dirty and untidy. Tommy is not all together neat and he keeps cigarette ends in his pockets, after he has finished smoking them. He thinks all of this and then he chides himself for being a "kid" when dealing with is father.
After much thinking and narrative description on the way to breakfast, Tommy finally meets with his father in the dining hall. However, there is someone at the table, joining them this morning, Mr. Perls. Tommy becomes upset and begins to think that his father has invited Mr. Perls, a hosiery wholesaler who also lives in the hotel, to have breakfast with them because his father does not want to be alone with his son. However, Tommy does not say any of this, he only thinks it.
At breakfast, Dr. Adler tells his son that he takes too many pills. Wilhelm is a pill-popper. He also makes a comment about the fact that Tommy left his wife and, according to the narrator, thinks that his son has disgusting habits. Also, they have a discussion, in front of Mr. Perls about the loss of his job. In this section, moreover, the characters are further revealed to the reader. One finds out that Wilhelm had many an odd job before he became a salesman. For instance, he worked for the WPA and had a hotel job in Cuba. As for Dr. Adler, one comes to the understanding that money, as has been implied until now, does seem to be of great importance to him. For example, at some point in the conversation, Dr. Adler tells Mr. Perls that his son's income had been " up in the five figures."
The chapter ends with a discussion of Dr. Tamkin. Both Dr. Adler and Mr. Perls distrust him and think that he is strange. Tommy, however, defends Dr. Tamkin, given that he likes him, in many ways, and also given that he has entrusted the man with his money.

Analysis

This chapter illustrates the strain in the relationship between Wilhelm and his father, Dr. Adler. It seems to that Dr. Adler is constantly criticizing his son for his misjudgments, for his mistakes, and his decisions he has made in his life. He reprimands him for not his separation from his wife and he tells him that his idea to work for the competitor of the company that fired him would only lead to embarrassment. He also warns him about Dr. Tamkin. However cruel Adler seems must be balanced out with by the fact that all the information is being filtered through the perspective of Tommy. It is difficult to tell when the narrator is genuinely taking on Dr. Alder's perspective, when he is mocking Tommy's martyr instinct, when he is seeing the events through Tommy's eyes, or when he is being genuinely "true" to life. It is important that we constantly question our view of Dr. Adler. Tommy is a deeply confused man and, thus, there are no real answers or absolute, objective truths. He is drowning in the modern world, in his surroundings, in what he thinks are his failures, and in the eyes of his father.

3. Chapter III

Summary

Mr. Perls leaves and father and son are left alone to finish breakfast together. Tommy is described as mountainous in this scene and is described eating a great deal, gorging, actually. His father is disgusted by him, by his unseemliness, by his manners, by his "idealistic" look.
Dr. Adler suggests to his son that he should go to the baths, since water cures ailments. He suggests water and exercise. The two then become involved in a discussion about Margaret, Tommy's wife who is asking him for money and is burdening him. Tommy vilifies her and talks about the divorce she refuses to grant him, about the attempted settlement in which he was willing to give her everything if he could just have the dog, Scissors. She refused him the dog. Dr. Adler responds by telling his son that he should not be giving her so much money, that he should not be allow himself to give in to her in the way that he does. He even suggests that his son is acting "effeminately." Dr. Adler confesses to not understanding his son's problems.
There is a scene in which Tommy tries to illustrate to his father that he is suffering and "suffocating" and begins to choke himself, to show his father what his wife is doing to him. His father becomes angry. Tommy tells his father that he could not possibly understand because he cannot compare his deceased wife, Tommy's mother, to Margaret and he cannot compare his success to Tommy's failures. Dr. Adler responds to his son that the reason why he was successful was because he worked hard for what he has and implies that his son has not. They continue to discuss and argue to no avail or understanding about Tommy's problems with his wife and his recent discharge from work.
Also mentioned in this chapter is the fact that Tommy had fallen in love with another woman, whose name will be revealed to be Olive. Margaret had found out and had not granted him a divorce. Moreover, Tommy has been unable to marry the woman he loves.
In the end, Tommy tells his father that he needs his help, that he "expects" his help. The father, however, refuses to give Tommy any money. He tells his son that he will not "carry" him on his back. He follows by telling his son to follow the same advice.

Analysis

This chapter serves to further illustrate that father and son do not understand each other. This is the most important factor in their relationship. First and foremost, Dr. Adler suggests that his son go to the baths and that he treat himself to water and exercise. However, as has been illustrated in the previous chapters, the last thing a drowning man needs is more water. Moreover, the doctor's advice to his son is ineffective. Furthermore, Dr. Adler admits, straight out, to not understanding his son. "I come from a different world," claims his father. Although, Wilhelm rejects this generation gap as the reason for their differences it is not all together untrue. For, war created another America, and thus, father and son were raised in different worlds and have different belief systems.

4. Chapter IV

Summary

After the meeting with his father is over, Tommy chides himself and his father internally. He is glad to be out of his father's sight, glad that their confrontation is over but he is raging, blaming both himself and his father. While he is still churning internally, Dr. Tamkin greets him. It is in this chapter that Dr. Tamkin comes to life.
There is a flashback of the day in which Tommy signed over his money to Tamkin. Tamkin had told Tommy that although the partnership is an equal one, he could not put all of his money into the venture at the moment for the simple reason that it is tied up in one of his inventions. Tommy goes ahead, nevertheless, and puts forth his part of the money, his last one thousand dollars, and signs the right of attorney over to Tamkin, to invest the money has he wills.
Wilhelm, throughout, fluctuates on his thoughts about Tamkin. He believes Tamkin's stories and then he thinks to himself that Tamkin is a liar—he is at once attracted to him and then repelled by him. Throughout this chapter Tamkin is giving constant advice, however. Although Tommy wants to talk about the investment in lard, the commodity they have invested in, Tamkin decides to talk about other things like psychology and poetry. Tamkin, among the many observations he makes, says that the struggle between Tommy and his father is an age-old struggle: that of parent and child. He is very much against those who love money and claims that the aristocracy "knows less about life." He talks also about the double-ness of the human being: the duplicity of the soul. In other words, he explains that each person has a true soul and a pretender soul. He discusses the human being's lack of "freedom," because of social constrictions and the actions of the pretender soul. He claims also that one should live in the "here-and-now."
Furthermore, Tamkin gives Tommy a poem he has written about him entitled "Mechanism vs. Functionalism/Ism vs. Hism." The poem is about seeing the potential of ones true self and being able to overcome and fulfill ones destiny. The poem is about "seizing the day" and internal power. Tommy is caught up in the discussion about the poem and the chapter ends with Tommy thinking once again about money, about his obligations, about the investment venture. The last sentence of the chapter is as follows: "The waters of the earth are going to roll over me."

Analysis

This chapter is packed with kernels to be analyzed, re-read, and mentally churned. First and foremost, the motif of psychology is at its height of representation in its chapter. Many critics have claimed that Bellow imbued the book with a kind of psychology called Reichianism. This psychology arises out of the belief system of one Wilhelm Reich. The critic who has discussed this idea the most has been Eusebio Rodrigues, a Bellow scholar. The fact that the psychiatrist's first name (Wilhelm) and that of the novel's protagonist are the same is evidence that this Reichianism is intentional. However, it becomes obvious that Bellow is not only presenting the psychology through the character of Dr. Tamkin, but he is also playing satirist. He pokes fun of the psychology while, at the same time, employing some of its symbolism throughout.
For instance, Reich claimed that neurosis and imbalance arouse out of the tensions of the inner self (the natural) and the external world (that of monetary, and business pressures). This is exemplified in many ways throughout the chapter and the novel. Tamkin talks of the real soul and the pretender soul, for instance. This is much like the struggle between the inner and external world. Also, the title of the poem he gives to Tommy is entitled, "Mechanism vs. Functionalism/Ism vs. Hism." This is an almost direct translation of Reichian philosophy (naturalism vs. the external world). It is important, however, that the reader not take all of this too seriously because this kind of psychology is part of that "external," modern world that Bellows criticizes. This is paradoxical. The point is, however, that one must not miss the satire involved. The poem that Tamkin writes is parodical—it is making fun of Romantic poetry, the very kind of Romantic poetry that Tommy has been alluding to throughout the book.
To add to the "naturalism," it is important to mention that there is significance in the fact that Tommy's grandfather used to call him "Velvel." Velvel is Hebrew for wolf. This is significant for several reasons. First of all, it points to Tommy's lonely howling. The nickname also brings forth the animal motif that has been present throughout. Tommy is constantly referring to himself and others in animalistic terms. The name also revisits Reichian philosophy because it points to human kind's animalistic tendencies.
Still further, it is important to illustrate that although Bellow puts the character of Tamkin in question, he also shows Tamkin to be a truth-teller. There is a certain method to his madness—lucidity through the jargon. For example, Tamkin tells Tommy: "You can't march in a straight line to the victory…You fluctuate toward it. From Euclid to Newton there was straight lines. The modern age analyzes the wavers." This is important because it points to the fact that Tommy is, ironically, in his "watery" state, on the right track to clarity. Water fluctuates. Tamkin will point him in the write direction in the sense that Tamkin is explaining to Tommy that he must embrace the water that he is seemingly drowning in order to succeed in some kind of rebirth. This statement also points to the fact that Tamkin has a better understanding of the predicament of modern man than Dr. Adler does. Dr. Adler is very much an advocate of the "straight and narrow," the "straight line to victory," an outdated mode that does not exist any longer in modernity. Interestingly, there was also a philosophy or mode of psychology called Adlerism in which Adler claimed that people are power driven. Thus it is not coincidental that the character of Dr. Adler is named after such a philosophy, since he is the symbol of "success" in the book.
Also, to illustrate that Dr. Tamkin practices what he preaches, Bellow makes sure to point out the books that Tamkin keeps in his room. These books illustrate a juxtaposition that is illustrative of the fluctuating path to victory. For instance, he mentions books that exist in opposition or that discuss opposing philosophies. Freud, for example, is paired with W.H. Sheldon, a staunch anti-Freudian.
Throughout this chapter, Tamkin provides Tommy with lies and with truths, yet another paradox. These "truths" will eventually allow him to break free from his "drowning state." However, at the present he has not quite accomplished such a feat. For, the chapter ends with the image of drowning, once again. Tommy is brought back to the external world of money by thinking of his seemingly failing investments.

5. Chapter V

Summary

The chapter opens with a description of a carnival-like Broadway street scene that then jumps to the stock-market floor in flux. Tamkin and Tommy are in the market, observing the commodities they have invested in. Lard had gone down a great deal, which worried Tommy. However, Tommy is relieved by the fact that Tamkin had, without telling Tommy, invested in Rye also, which was on the rise. There are other men in the market that day, among them a blind, old man named Mr. Rappaport, who is constantly asking for help seeing the numbers before him.
There are two specific memories that are important in this chapter: the memory of his feeling in Times Square and the memory of Margaret nursing him to health during an illness. In the Times Square memory Tommy describes feeling connected to the people around him and to the "larger body" of humanity. He begins to feel an internal connection to the external world and, thus, the two halves of the soul begin to merge and unite (internal/external; real/pretender; natural/material). In short, he begins to become connected to the world that he has been isolated within. The memory is juxtaposed with a previous thought about Isolation. Tommy claims that people speak so many "languages" it is difficult to communicate. Still this thought is juxtaposed against the feeling of solidarity with the world in Times Square and capped off in the end with the following statement: "today, his day of reckoning, he consulted memory again and thought, I must go back to that [the feeling in Times Square]. That's the right clue and may do me the most good. Something very big. Truth, like." Truth, therefore lies in an understanding of self that comes with an understanding of the "larger body," that the self exists in.
The second memory is the memory of Margaret. In this memory Margaret nurses him back to health and reads to him. Importantly, she is reading to him, "somewhat unwillingly," a poem about love. This leaves the reader with both uneasiness and silent joy at Tommy's remembrance of love. The love is obvious because it lies within the lines of the poem and within the action of nursing. However, the uneasiness lies in Margaret's unwillingness. Also, the poem is about love but it is about someone who thought to leave someone else until they grew in love. In short there are many things about this memory that are not completely resolved. Much like the fact that after the Times Square memory, Tommy says that he did not feel that solidarity later in the day. Moreover, this chapter is not a chapter about Tommy having learned to swim but one in which he is in the process; it is a chapter not of full understanding but about the path to understanding.

6. Chapter VI

Summary

In the market Rye is ahead and Lard is at a fair enough level. Tamkin and Tommy go out to lunch. Tommy does not want to waste time at lunch and so he orders very little. He tells Tamkin that he does not want to waste time and wants to get back to the market as soon as possible. Tommy is worried about his money. Tamkin, however, takes his time all through lunch and continues to provide unsolicited advice. Tamkin tells Tommy that he worries too much about what his father thinks of him. He tells him also that he should not "marry suffering."
Another mirror is presented to Tommy in the guise of the old and blind Mr. Rappaport. Tommy does not realize that by not recognizing his own "blindness," such as failing to see the important things in life, he is, ironically, blind. Tommy claims that the old, blind man is obsessed with money but so has Tommy been throughout the chapter.
Toward the end of the chapter, Tommy's mask, the concealing mask he began with seems to be put on at full force. He tries to seem "cool" when his commodities drop so much so that he has lost all of his money, however, he is internally upset. The reader is reminded of Tommy's pills and the cigarette butts that live in his pockets. In short, he will have to take a step backward in order to go forward.
Tommy feels very angry with Tamkin at the end of this chapter. He both feels cheated and betrayed. He feels cheated because it seems as though Tamkin had lied about being not having money, given that he had apparently told someone about a future trip to Maine. He feels betrayed because he thought they had gone into the deal as "equal partners." The question arises as to whether Tamkin's cure does not include this loss at the stock market. The reader must ask him/herself whether or not Tamkin is truly a fraud and whether that will really matter in the end, given what Tommy has received or not received from him.

7. Chapter VII

Summary

The chapter begins with Tommy feeling burdened by the weight of Tamkin, his wife, and his problems. He leaves he market and goes in search of Wilhelm at his home in the Hotel Gloriana, dodging, on the way, the traffic of the New York streets.
When he arrives at the hotel someone recognizes him as "Dr. Adler's son," but Tommy is concerned mostly with finding Tamkin. He asks for him at the hotel and then goes up to Tamkin's room where he sees his books and his belongings, but not Dr. Tamkin himself. While he is in the room he looks over the doctor's pills while the maid, suspiciously, looks on. Instead of taking any of Tamkin's pills, he takes his own. Upon seeing that Tamkin is not in the room, he goes about trying to find his father, Dr. Adler.
Dr. Adler is not in his room either but in the massage room, where Tommy descends toward to speak with his father. As he enters the basement massage room he passes the naked bodies of older men and finally meets with his father. This is the final confrontation with his father. Tommy asks him, once again, for his help but his father refuses it. He tells his son that he has made mistakes and "acted unwisely," he also tells him that he will not, not ever, carry his son as his "cross." Tommy tells his father that he cannot breathe, that he is choking but his father does not comply with his pleas. Dr. Adler asks his son to leave.
After this confrontation Tommy goes in search of Dr. Adler once more but is instead confronted with another climactic argument. Someone relays an urgent message to him from his wife, worried that it might concern his children, he calls back immediately. She had called to reprimand him for sending a post-dated check. They proceed to get into a heated argument in which he tells her, just as he told his father, that he is suffocating and that she is choking him and that he cannot breathe. She does not seem to care and refuses to make it "easy for him" to leave her. She eventually hangs up on him and he is left a raving mess. He becomes violently angry, trying to rip out the phone from the wall.
However, when he goes out onto the street he has moment similar to that which he had in Times Square, in an earlier chapter. He finds "in every face the refinement of one particular motive or essence." But he is called out of this feeling by a whirlpool of memory, he remembers everything that is wrong in his life and then he believes to see Tamkin in the near distance, at a nearby funeral. Before he realizes it he is being carried by a crowed and ends up inside the chapel where the funeral of a stranger is taking place. It is here, at this funeral, that the book ends. Tommy finds himself before the body of a dead stranger and begins to cry and cry and cry. His tears swell and he "cries with all his heart." The book ends with strangers wondering who he is and how he knew the deceased and it ends with redeeming tears.

Analysis

It seems as though, in this very last chapter, Tommy is discovering who he is. The question is at least posed by the author. Bellow has him go through a process of elimination of sorts. For instance, the chapter begins with Tommy using the language of his father. He claims that he is "carrying" Tamkin on his back, as well as his wife and all of his problems. This is precisely the language his father used in giving his son advice: he told him to never "carry anyone on his back." It begins with this adoption of language but it is as though, by the middle of the chapter, Tommy has necessarily shed his father. Tommy needs to see himself as more than Tamkin's surrogate son, as more than his pupil, as more than his father's son. Therefore, Tamkin needs to abandon him and his father needs to reject him. It is for this reason that, in this chapter, as soon as Tommy enters the hotel, a person asks him if he is Dr. Adler's son. In short, Tommy will have to learn to be more than just someone's son if he is going to come to any kind of understanding.

VIII. Saul Bellow - Seize the Day: Conclusion

Seize the Day, first published in 1956, is considered (by, for example, prominent critic James Wood) one of the great works of 20th century literature. Seize the Day was Saul Bellow's fourth novel (or perhaps novella, given its short length). It was written in the 1950s, a formative period in the creation of the middle class in the United States.

Synopsis

The story centers around a day in the life of Wilhelm Adler (aka Tommy Wilhelm), a failed actor in his forties. Wilhelm is unemployed, impecunious, separated from his wife (who refuses to agree to a divorce), and estranged from his children and his father. He is also stuck with the same immaturity and lack of insight which has brought him to failure. In Seize the Day Wilhelm experiences a day of reckoning as he is forced to examine his life and to finally accept the "burden of self".

IX. Saul Bellow – Seize the Day: Key Facts

Full title · Seize the Day

Author · Saul Bellow (Solomon Bellows)

Type of work · Novel or Novella

Genre · Modern novel, American novel, Novella.
The novel has even been called a Jewish- American novel although, when asked, Bellow considered himself more "American" than "Jewish," or "Jewish-American."

Language · English

Time and place written · Written in 1956 when the Bellow was in New York

Date of fist publication · 1956

Publisher · Seize the Day as it first appeared, the title story of a collection including three short stories and a one-act play, was first published by The Viking Press, 1956. Later, it was published independently in Great Britain, in 1957, by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Narrator · An omniscient third person narrator that fluctuates in and out of the minds of all the characters in the novel, but takes on primarily the voice of the protagonist, Tommy Wilhelm.
point of view · The point of view is primarily that of the protagonist, Tommy Wilhelm. However, this is one of the great innovations of the novel. The point of view changes as does the tense. Most often, the narrator takes Tommy Wilhelm's point of view, but the point of view does also encompass the thoughts of other characters, such as Dr. Adler, Tommy's father. It is this shift in point of view that makes the narrator difficult to read, and it brings about the question of how to read parody, irony, paradox, and the narration's occasional ridicule of the main character.
tone · The authorial tone is dark and constantly in flux, just as is the character's. It is analytical, however, in it's constant changing. It illustrates the dark and solemn mood of the modern mad but finds redemption in its ultimate optimism.

Tense · The tense fluctuates between past and present. Most of the time the narrator follows Tommy Wilhelm through the actions of one day but the action is constantly interrupted by flashbacks into the past and dives into the mind of the characters.

Setting (time) · 1950's in America, within the time frame of one day in the life of Tommy Wilhelm. Flashbacks occur about times from 1930s to 1950s.

Setting (place) · New York (with the occasional change of backdrop in accordance with the flashbacks).

Protagonist · Tommy Wilhelm. His original birth name was Wilhelm Adler. His father calls him Wilky. His grandfather called him Velvel.

Major conflict · The burdens of a modern man. Tommy Wilhelm finds himself jobless, a failure in the eyes of his father, separated from his wife, in love with a woman he cannot marry because his wife will not grant him a divorce, under financial duress, and amidst a failed investment venture.

Rising action · Tommy's confrontations with his father and his wife. His failed joint venture in the stock market and his relationship with Tamkin. The final rejections of his father and wife and, finally his encounter at the funeral of a dead stranger.

Climax · When he finds himself at the funeral of a dead stranger and is moved to tears.
falling action · The surging tears of redemption, "happy oblivion," and understanding that Tommy experiences at the funeral of a stranger at the very end of the novel.

Themes · The predicament of modern man, the internal life of a human being

Motifs · Psychology, naturalism (the animal), and the city (urban landscape)

Symbols · Water, clothing, and Olive

Foreshadowing · The fact that the elevator at the beginning is "descending" and "sinking" foreshadows danger ahead—a kind of symbolic foreshadowing for the purgatorial, even hellish, environment of the rest of the novel and Tommy's state of mind.

X. Saul Bellow – Seize the Day:

Study Questions and Suggested Essay Topics

10.1. Study Questions

1. What, in the end, frees Wilhelm?
2. What is Wilhelm's basic struggle?
3. What is Dr. Tamkin's role in the novel?

10.2. Suggested Essay Topics


1. What kind of hero is Wilhelm? Is he an anti-hero?

2. Are there "villains" and "victims" in the novel? If so who are they and why or why not?

3. Discuss the novel in terms of oppositions and doubles. How does Bellow structure his novel? How and why does he discuss opposing forces at work within Tommy and in the world around him?

4. What is the role of "the city" in the novel? What kind of character, in other words, is the urban landscape?

5. What is the role of psychology in the novel?


XI. Saul Bellow – Seize the Day: Quiz

1. Where is Tommy living when the book opens?

(A) In his father's apartment
(B) With Dr. Tamkin
(C) In the Hotel Gloriana
(D) With his wife, Margaret

2. How old is Tommy Wilhelm?

(A) Forty-Four
(B) The book does not disclose
(C) In his sixties, at the end of his life
(D) The book does not disclose exactly, claiming only that he is "middle-aged"

3. Who does Tommy entrust with the last of his money?

(A) His father
(B) Margaret
(C) Mr. Perls
(D) Dr. Tamkin

4. From where did Tommy graduate college?

(A) Penn State
(B) He did not graduate college
(C) University of Minnesota
(D) New York University

5. What does Dr. Adler call his son?

(A) "My son"
(B) Wilky
(C) Tommy
(D) Dr. Wilhelm

6. What does Tommy do with his cigarettes when he has finished smoking them?

(A) He takes them out and puts the butts in his pocket
(B) He always offers the last of each cigarette to his father
(C) He does not smoke
(D) He throws them into the water

7. What is Tommy's true name?

(A) Tommy Wilhelm
(B) Tommy Tamkin
(C) Wilhelm Tamkin
(D) Wilhelm Adler

8. What is Dr. Adler's response when Tommy asks his father the year of his mother's death?

(A) He says 1931
(B) He says 1932
(C) He gives the wrong answer
(D) All of the above

9. Why is Tommy in need of money?

(A) He has spent in all in Hollywood, trying to be an actor
(B) He has given it all to his father
(C) He has recently lost his job and has a wife and two children
(D) He has spent it all on his mistress, Olive

10. Why is Tommy unable to marry Olive?

(A) He is no longer in love with her
(B) His children do not want him to
(C) Olive never loved him and was only using him
(D) His wife will not grant him a divorce

11. How does Tommy Feel about New York?

(A) He loves it because he loves all big cities
(B) He is indifferent to it
(C) He has become unaccustomed to it and misses the country
(D) He feels at home

12. What does Tommy always drink in the morning?

(A) Orange juice, upon the advice of his father
(B) Coffee, against Dr. Adler's will
(C) Coca-cola
(D) Tea

13. What is Wilhelm's appearance like?

(A) He is a bit dirty and untidy
(B) He is fastidious about his appearance
(C) He always carries a dapper cane
(D) He is very clean

14. What does Wilhelm do after Mr. Perls leaves the table?

(A) He feels he should have given Mr. Perls more of a chance
(B) He feels sorry for Mr. Perls
(C) He leaves right after Mr. Perls leaves
(D) He eats and eats

15. What does Tommy's father suggest that Tommy do?

(A) Go to the baths
(B) Play the stock market
(C) Give him his bill for the hotel
(D) Apologize to Mr. Perls

16. Why does Philipa want to borrow money from Dr. Adler?

(A) She wants to rent a gallery for a painting exhibition
(B) She wants to invest in the commodities market
(C) She wants to help her brother
(D) She needs it to help her husband who has just lost his job

17. Who is Philipa?

(A) Catherine
(B) Wilhelm's sister
(C) Dr. Adler's daughter
(D) All of the above

18. Who is Scissors?

(A) Scissors is Tommy's nickname for Olive
(B) Scissors is Tommy's dog
(C) Scissors is Dr. Adler's dog
(D) Scissors is what Dr. Tamkin calls Tommy

19. What dramatic action does Wilhelm commit at breakfast that angers his father?

(A) He begins to choke himself
(B) Tommy tells his father that he hates him
(C) He notifies his father of his recent divorce
(D) He punches father across the table

20. What does Wilhelm do after he signs to power of attorney over to Dr. Tamkin?

(A) He begins to cry
(B) He returns to the office where the transaction was completed in order to make sure exactly what the "power of attorney" meant
(C) He explains to Dr. Tamkin how much trust he has in him and the two proceed to have one of the few lucid moments in the book
(D) He tells his father

21. What does Tommy think of Dr.Tamkin throughout the novel?

(A) He hates him
(B) He likes him very much
(C) He goes back and forth between trust and mistrust
(D) He thinks he is the greatest "healer" he has ever met

22. Who is the poem Dr. Tamkin wrote about?

(A) It is about Dr. Tamkin himself
(B) It is about Tommy
(C) It is about Dr. Adler
(D) It is about Margaret, Wilhelm's wife

23. What did Tommy's grandfather call him when he was younger?

(A) Wilky
(B) Hippopotamus
(C) Little Tommy
(D) Velvel

24. What happens to Tommy at the market?

(A) Nothing
(B) He buys carrots for his father
(C) He loses all of his money
(D) His money triples thanks to Dr. Tamkin's expertise


25. What does Wilhelm respond when Tamkin asks him if he loves his father?

(A) He says he does not love him
(B) He says that "of course" he loves him
(C) He says that he "loathes" him
(D) He says he loved his mother more

* Where does Tommy end up at the end of the novella?

(A) At his father's death bed
(B) Crying on Dr. Tamkin's shoulder
(C) At the funeral of a stranger




XII. Saul Bellow – Seize the Day: Quiz Answers


• 1–C;
• 2-A;
• 3-D;
• 4-B;
• 5-B;
• 6-A;
• 7-D;
• 8-D;
• 9-C;
• 10-D;
• 11-C;
• 12-C;
• 13-A;
• 14-D;
• 15-A;
• 16-A;
• 17-D;
• 18-B;
• 19-A;
• 20-B;
• 21-C;
• 22-B;
• 23-D;
• 24-C;
• 25-B.