Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the initial situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice.
Exposition (Initial Situation)
The Most Important Meal of the Day
The opening pages of Seize the Day make it clear that Tommy Wilhelm is having a rough go of it lately, but it isn't until mid-way through breakfast with his father and Mr. Perls that we finally learn why. As Dr. Adler and Mr. Perls gossip about Dr. Tamkin and laugh at his dubious credentials and strange ideas, Wilhelm sinks into despair. Why's that? Well:
They were laughing at the man to whom he had given a power of attorney over his last seven hundred dollars to speculate for him in the commodities market. They had bought all that lard. It had to rise today. By ten o'clock, or half-past ten, trading would be active, and he would see. (2.98)
Ruh-roh. We don't know about you, Shmoopers, but we'd be worried too.
Rising Action (Conflict, Complication)
This Little Wilky Went to the Market
Things start to heat up as Wilhelm and Tamkin head over to the brokerage office to see the day's numbers and meet their fate. Tamkin assures Wilhelm that everything is going to be fine, and for a little while Wilhelm believes him. But when Tamkin refuses to put in a selling order after they've started to recoup their losses, Wilhelm starts to get twitchy again. What's a dude gotta do to make a quick buck?
Climax (Crisis, Turning Point)
Down for the Count
Is it fate, or is it Tamkin's scheming that keeps Wilhelm from heading into the brokerage office as soon as they return from lunch? Whichever way, by the time Wilhelm finally gets his eyes on the numbers, it's all over. His savings are gone, Tamkin has disappeared, and unless his father can help him out, bankruptcy is staring him straight in the face like a disappointed goat. From this moment, Wilhelm has reached a turning point from which he can't return.
Falling Action
Et Tu, Papa?
Is Wilhelm really all that surprised when his father refuses to bail him out? Probably not, but that doesn't make Dr. Adler's refusal any less hard to handle. On top of everything else, Wilhelm now has to tell his wife that he can't make child support—news that she won't take too kindly.
Resolution (Denouement)
Sob Story
Seize the Day doesn't exactly end with everything tied up in a neat little bow; instead, the novel draws to a close as Wilhelm sobs brokenly in the corner of a funeral parlor while a crowd of strangers looks on. But for a man who's spent weeks wishing someone—anyone—in his life would take pity on him and recognize his sorrow and fear, this may be the purest moment of human connection he's had in a good long while.
As some wise men once said: you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find . . . you get what you need!