Existentialism In Tommy Wilhelm In Seize The Day

Tommy Wilhelm in Seize the Day is does not achieve anything and by monetary standards in the world at the time is a failure. During the novel, he is lonely and depressed and self-deprecating. Not only is he cut off from his friends and family but also all of society. He is portrayed as a man who diminishes his own self-worth in order to try to reach not only the ideals of his father but match the falsities presented to him by Dr. Tamkin. He is too self-serving. He knows what is good for him, but he refuses to act on it because he would rather do what he wants. While Tommy does put himself down and often refers to himself as a hippopotamus, he does think of himself more than others which alienates him from work and society. Ultimately being

Wilhelm confronts the irrational. He feels like he was thrown into the world and feels a sense of alienation from the people around him. His life to him is a burden or a given. “The spirit, the peculiar burden of his existence lay upon him like an accretion, a load, a hump,” Bellow writes; “he was apt to feel this mysterious weight, this growth or collection of nameless things which it was the business of his life to carry about. That must be what a man was for” (Bellow 35). Yet Bellow’s description of Wilhelm as weak-willed shows more concern for morality than existentialism would allow. As we learned during lecture the existentialists stress revolt, freedom, and passion. As Albert Camus said “I draw from the absurd three consequences, which are my revolt, my freedom, and my passion.” And those ideals don’t fit Wilhelm or rather any other character in the novel very well. Bellow doesn’t seem to believe in the idea that “existence precedes essence” that defines existentialists. Though Wilhelm does feel that his life is a burden: “…the business of life, the real business—to carry his peculiar burden, to feel shame and impotence, to taste these quelled tears—” he does appear to have an essence: “the only important business, the highest business was being done. Maybe the making of mistakes express the very purpose of his life and the essence of his being here. Maybe he was supposed to make them and suffer from them on this earth” (Bellow