Seize the Day Themes

With a population of nearly eight million people in the 1950s, New York City might not seem like an easy place to feel isolated. But for a man like Tommy Wilhelm—on the outs with his father, sepa...

What are families for, if not to bail you out of your bad decisions and pick you up when you're feeling blue? According to Wilhelm's father in Seize the Day, they're for just about anything but tho...

Even though Wilhelm wants forgiveness and mercy from his father and wife, he can hardly bring himself to take responsibility for his mistakes. The precise date of Wilhelm's "day of reckoning" isn't...

You've got to say one thing for Dr. Tamkin: he may be a liar, but at least he's an entertaining one. He claims to have treated the Egyptian royal family and their circle of friends; he tells Wilhel...

Tommy, Tommy, Tommy. Fool you once, shame on me. Fool you twice, shame on you. Shmoopers, you can say one thing about Tommy Wilhelm in Seize the Day: the man is consistent. He may make the same bad...

Maybe it's not about the money, money, money for Jessie J, but it sure is for Tommy Wilhelm in Seize the Day. His company promised him a promotion, but gave it to someone else. His wife makes endle...

You know a character's life is on the rocks when a literary critic (Lee Richmond, to be precise) describes him as the "maladroit, suffering," "pathetic heir" to "the failure of the American Dream."...

It's hard to know whether Seize the Day is a love letter to New York City, or an official complaint. As Tommy Wilhelm knows all too well, NYC is the city where dreams are made, but it's also the ci...