Seize the Day

Tamkin becomes a more and more hateful character as you reach end of the novel and the author does an excellent job in expressing Wilhelm’s distress. I found that Bellow used literary devices when he described Tamkin, “His eyes were brown as beaver fur…” I found was a very interesting and unexpected way to describe someone eyes. But why a beaver? Many animals have brown fur, maybe it’s because beavers build and destroy things as a way of survival which is a good description and an even better comparison of Dr. Tamkin’s nature. “Sensational, but oddly enough, dull, too. Now how do you figure that out? It blends with the background. Funny but unfunny. True but False. Casual but laborious, Tamkin was.” This quote is full of paradoxes showing Tamkins contradictory nature very clearly. These statements are all very true of his personality and I find them so appropriate that it is no surprise that it is necessary for the author to use literary devices to describe such a complicated character. This is a very good way to create a sense or image of what the character is like.

I read that Tamkin was trying to calm a distressed Wilhelm by telling him to “Seize the day” and was mentally preparing him by reminding him of the “here-and-now” but even though the statement seems profound it is just another one of Tamkin’s mental tricks. Though the literal meaning, telling Wilhelm to seize the day, the exact moment, think it over and make the best decision could have been useful, no one ever showed Tommy this side of “Seize the day”. This advice could have saved him from many past regrets but without a dependable person to tell him other wise he wasn’t sharp enough to make the correct connection. I think that the title is very relevant to the theme but isn’t apparent in the characters development and growth, this makes his such a naïve and helpless man, he doesn’t know any better and everyone has turned their back to him. Though Tommy lacked common sense an honest helping hand would have gone an long way in restoring order in his life.

I found that some big ideas or motifs in this novel were money and happiness. Wilhelm seemed obsessed with the idea that only money could buy happiness and since he didn’t have any he was in a rut. This negative attitude was a factor in keeping him from enjoying life and money in a way blinded him. He suffered greatly because of his financial issues and was hateful and even wrathful towards those economically stable including his father. Money and bliss were very linked in “Seize the Day” because of Wilhelm’s obsessive money mentality and thus, creating conflicts between all of the characters. Margaret needed money from Wilhelm, Wilhelm needed money from his father, Tamkin was handling his money, his father looked down on him because of his lack of money… the book was strung together by people and their financial issues. I think it is really sad how much the issue of wealth controlled and dominated his life but I felt that he really wasn’t doing much about it which seemed very ironic. He always complained about what a rut he was in but all he did was watch the value of his lard and rye rise or fall, he could have been a lot more productive and this waste of time made me less sympathetic towards him.

The money obsession doesn’t literally have to represent money but instead human greed and over indulgence and focus on material, unimportant things. I think Saul Bellow was trying to tell his readers that not only do you have to work to succeed and be satisfied but that you shouldn’t be completely absorbed with the material things and focus on needs rather than wants. I think this is a very good and relevant message since finance is such an enormous issue in modern society that it relates to many people. This book is easily relatable because anyone could be in Wilhelm’s position and Bellow is trying to show his readers a way out of such a dangerous lifestyle by shocking them with cold hard facts. I also liked how he was able to write an entire novel using one day as a time frame. This is very unusual in books and made it more memorable for me. It definitely helped the reader to understand and sympathize with Wilhelm when we got into his mind but this also made the book drag on exaggeratedly at times. It was a new and interesting approach on writing and made title relevant since it was in the course of a day.

I didn’t like the ending because it didn’t give a sense of closure but I guess that could be expected since things couldn’t change dramatically in one day. I was expecting Wilhelm, after so much grief and suffering to pick himself up and try to change his situation but still, he didn’t try to change. His crying was emotionally relieving but it wouldn’t make a difference, it wouldn’t make his father give him money or get his wife back or his money back so I was dissatisfied and disappointed. Overall it was an interesting book with a different theme and structure that could easily relate to the reader but did have its share of small action. I think the moral is, in a few words, don’t end up like Wilhelm!