Seize The Day
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The ending of Seize the Day is ironic and revealing about the theme of the entire novella. When Tommy Wilhelm inadvertently attends a funeral for a stranger, he begins to sob uncontrollably at the sight of the unknown corpse. It is a painful reminder of his own mortality and a cathartic release of emotion he has been building up over the downward spiraling course of his life. However, it is ironic because Tommy is the only one at the funeral who is expressing such emotion and it makes others in attendance believe he must have been very close to the deceased to be so devastated. In other words, no one is crying for the dead man, not even Tommy, but Tommy is crying for himself. This is not only irony but serves to underscore the entire theme of the novel—laugh and the world laughs with you; cry and you cry alone. Instead of seizing the day and living in the here-and-now, Tommy is torn by anxiety over the future and regret over the past. Because of this, he believes he is in need of some kind of favor, or break, or sympathy. However, he comes to realize that, like the tears we often shed for ourselves, pity is often a personal exercise of self and seldom forthcoming from others. He recognizes this because he learns that from the perspective of others, he is the only one to blame for his repeated mistakes and his repeated failures. As he muses at one point when in need of sympathy, “And why, Wilhelm further asked, should he or
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ice. If he wants to be free and go with his instincts all the time, he is going to have to rid himself of his guilt as a failure in his father’s eyes and as a man who abandoned his wife and children for his personal dreams. Tommy has a chance of breaking free from his anxieties because he is willing to try and, despite his stress at this point, he has somehow managed to hold onto the will to life, to remain open, to love and to follow his instincts. If Tommy chooses to act on his feelings and desires in the present, then he must forget the failures of the past and the uncertainties of the future and his impending mortality. If he cannot, he will not be free of living in the immediate present which is all Nature understands according to Tamkin, “Nature only knows one thing, and that’s the present. Present, present, eternal present, like a big, huge, giant wave—colossal, bright and beautiful, full of life and death, climbing into the sky, standing in the seas. You must go along with the actual, the Here-and-Now, the glory—“ (Bellow 89).
Tommy is actually a success where human development is concerned because, though he may not have riches, he has striven all his life to remain open and alive. He does not want to just exist
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2615
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)
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