Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Is Tommy Wilhelm a fool, or a hero? Is he a sympathetic protagonist, or is he simply a figure of fun?
- Saul Bellow is ranked among the greatest American prose stylists of the twentieth century. What are the most distinctive characteristics of his writing in Seize the Day?
- Most of the action in Seize the Day is remembered, and not a lot happens in the novel's present tense. What's the major effect of the novel's focus on Tommy Wilhelm's inner life?
- For Tommy Wilhelm, the hustle and bustle of urban life is both overwhelming and alienating. Does Seize the Day critique city-living in America, or are Wilhelm's feelings his alone?
- In a 1986 made-for-TV adaptation of Seize the Day, Robin Williams played Tommy Wilhelm, and Jerry Stiller played Dr. Tamkin.
- Those were pretty good picks, if we do say so ourselves, but if you were to cast an updated adaptation of the novel, whom would you choose? Who makes the best bumbling hero today? Who plays a good con artist, or a great oddly endearing fraud?
- Quick! Your best buddy has asked you to make her a Seize the Day-studying playlist. What are you going to put on it?