Bellow, Saul. Seize the Day. Penguin Classics, 1956, 2001.
The Author:
Saul Bellow was born in Canada but brought to Chicago at the age of nine and educated there. He attended the Universities of Chicago, Northwestern and Wisconsin as well as fitting in a wartime stint (限制) in the Merchant Marine (艦隊). His first novel--Dangling Man--was published when he was in his twenties. Later novels, The Victim, The Adventures of Augie March, Seize the Day, Henderson the Rain King, Herzog, Mr Sammler’s Planet, Humboldt’s Gift, The Dean’s December and Him With His Foot In His Mouth And Other Stories have brought him innumerable literary grants, awards, prizes, scholarships, fellowships and honors not only in his own country but internationally as well. He is probably the only man to have received an Honorary Degree from both Harvard and Yale in the same year. He has also written plays, short stories, articles for learned journals, been a war correspondent in Israel and held positions in a number of universities in the United States and elsewhere. He speaks four or five languages and has travelled extensively. In 1976, Saul Bellow was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. In 1984 President Mitterand made him a commander of the Legion of Honor.
Summary
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 (不自在) 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 Tommy Wilhelm: his “day of reckoning (清算).”
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 (預感) 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 (欺詐的) 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, whom 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 his words. Tommy is refused financial assistance and also refused any kind of support, emotionally, from his father. In his flashback, Tommy meets the duplicitous (雙面的) Maurice Venice, the talent scout (偵察員) who shows initial interest in a young Tommy and his good looks. Tommy, however, is later rejected by Venice 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 later chapters focus on Tommy’s encounters and conversations with Tamkin, a seemingly fraudulent and questionable “psychologist,” who gives Tommy endless advice and thus provides the assistance he had looked for from his father. Tamkin is quite charming and appeals to Tommy. Tamkin claims to be a poet, a healer, a member of the Detroit Purple Gang, as well as a number of other positions and titles. Despite his lies, 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 Tamkin traveling back and forth from the stock market, meeting several characters along the way. Finally, Tommy is terrible loss in the commodities market. Tommy has lost all of his savings but still has the monetary (貨幣) demands of his family to meet. Furthermore, Tamkin has disappeared.
After an attempt to look for Tamkin in his room at the hotel, 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. Afterward, Tommy has a loud and almost raving (狂言) fight with his wife on the telephone in which he claims to be “suffocating” (窒息) and unable to “breathe.” Full of rage, he exits out onto Broadway where he believes to see 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 (教堂) where the funeral is taking place. Tommy finds himself before the body of a dead stranger. He begins to cry and weep. He releases pools of emotion and “crie[s] with all his heart.” 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 (遺忘) of tears.” The book ends with Tommy’s plea to God. He apologizes for the life he has led, for wasted time, and he asks for help for a better life.
The Predicament of Modern Man
Seize the day is a reflection of the times in which it was written in 1956. The novel was written in a post-war world. WWII created several factors that serve as a backdrop to Tommy’s isolation in the novel.
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. Thus, the entire novel takes place within Tommy’s head. We experience the back and forth of uncertainty, the wavering of watery thoughts, the sadness and frustration. This isolation and inner struggle are the predicament of modernity. 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 Tommy a jolt (顛簸) of life. Bellow has chosen a positive ending for this novel. He allows Tommy to have connections with the modern world. He complicates the predicament of modernity by adding positive elements. The predicament of modern man goes far beyond the typical pessimism, cynicism, and isolation because it has the potential of reaching understanding and love. Bellow is not afraid to have Tommy talking about his feelings and emotions. The internal world becomes clear and clean. The internal life of Tommy is a world of wavering emotions. Being inside, Tommy gains an understanding of his problems: what makes him angry, frustrated, sad, and lonely. Therefore, throughout the book, the reader has accompanied Tommy in his frustrations and in his burdened feelings. The reader is also released and reborn in such the same way as Tommy. This is the literary catharsis (感情淨化) because the reader has been following Tommy, and has no other choice but to join him.
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