Resumo de Seize The Day

Seize The Day is a novel about Tommy Wilhelm's failures. He is an unemployed middle-class, middle-aged man who is waiting for a divorce from his nagging wife. He is out of place among the old inmates of Hotel Gloriana, where he and his father live separately. He desperately wants the help of his father, both emotionally and financially, but he can never obtain it. He invests his last dollar in the commodities market through Dr. Tamkin, and loses it all. The main action of the novel's narrative is confined to one day, but the movement towards the climax is heightened by several flashbacks into Wilhelm's past. One flashback explains his stock market investment with Dr. Tamkin, the pseudo-psychologist, who convinced Wilhelm to invest his savings in commodities. Now he justifiably fears for his investment, for it is his last money on earth. Wilhelm also reflects on his relationship with his father, Dr. Adler, who refuses to be kind or helpful to his son. Wilhelm recalls that when he left college to go to Hollywood, he had changed his name from Wilhelm Adler to Tommy Wilhelm. He thinks this is what has caused his father's anger towards him. Finally Wilhelm remembers the way that Maurice Venice misled him, making him believe he could become an actor in Hollywood. There are two major pressures that are pushing Wilhelm under -- the estrangement between Wilhelm and his father and the estrangement between Wilhelm and his wife. In the dining room of the hotel, Wilhelm approaches his father, who is seated with Mr. Perls. Although he attempts to please his father and impress Mr. Perls, Wilhelm condemns them both in his mind for their transparent greed. The conversation turns to Dr. Tamkin and his dubious credentials. Wilhelm has foolishly allowed Tamkin to invest all his money in the stock market. When Perls leaves the table, Wilhelm begins to gorge himself on the remaining food. It makes Adler reflect on his son's obesity and slovenly ways. Wilhelm feels congested as his father criticizes him. Wilhelm is genuinely concerned about his emotional condition and his father's indifference to it. Dr. Adler accuses Wilhelm of victimizing himself by allowing his wife to dominate him and by foolishly expecting perfection from his marriage. Wilhelm feels the pressure of this unjust accusation and struggles for breath, again becoming choked and congested. Wilhelm is also worried about his investment in lard. He has listened to Dr. Tamkin's philosophy about the real and the pretender soul. He has also followed Dr. Tamkin's advice to invest his money in the stock market, for the pseudo-psychologist told him that "only the present is real, the here and now. Seize The Day. Now Wilhelm senses fearfully that he is in the water deeper than he had anticipated. After breakfast with his father, Wilhelm, bewildered and frightened, accompanies Tamkin to the brokerage house to watch the market returns. It is a foreign and fearful world to him of bright lights, machines, and whirring tumblers. His fear, of losing his savings and from not understanding the market, sparks off two reflections. First, his mind escapes to a peaceful moment on a farm he once owned upstate, near Roxbury. It is the kind of existence he longs for again. Second, he recalls an experience he had in an underground corridor beneath Times Square, where Wilhelm had felt a closeness to and a tremendous love for all people. These are the kind of emotions he wants to feel again. Over lunch, Tamkin increases Wilhelm's fear and isolation. He makes Wilhelm realize that his father has totally turned his back on him, his sons have been turned against, and Margaret has deserted him. He has no one to turn to and fears the worst. When he returns to the brokerage house, he learns that both his commodities, lard and rye, have plummeted, wiping out his investment and his last penny in the world. In desperation he tries to find Tamkin, who has fled town; he also approaches his father and phones Margareof who reject him. He is truly alone in the world and drowning in his suffering. Rushing out into the street in total panic, Wilhelm encounters the inexhaustible current of millions of every race and kind pouring out. He is swept along by the crowd and pushed into a funeral parlor. When he looks at the unknown dead man, he cries softly for the loss of another human being; he sobs for himself and his lost opportunities; and he weeps for a lost, sick humanity that cannot connect with one another. Fortunately, the tears are a catharsis for Wilhelm, a baptism into a new life of hope and possibility.

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