Seize the Day Themes

This Study Guide consists of approximately 59 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Seize the Day.

Seize the Day Themes

This Study Guide consists of approximately 59 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Seize the Day.
This section contains 1,332 words
(approx. 4 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy the Seize the Day Study Guide

Alienation and Loneliness

Tommy Wilhelm's sense of estrangement not only from his own family but also from his acquaintances and the entire city of New York places the themes of alienation and loneliness at the core of the novel. From the novel's opening scene, in which Wilhelm talks briefly with "Rubin, the man at the newsstand," it is clear that these men know many things about each other, and yet "None of these could be mentioned, and the great weight of the unspoken left them little to talk about."

Wilhelm longs to connect on an emotional level with his father, but old Dr. Adler speaks to his son "with such detachment about his welfare" that Wilhelm, Adler's "one and only son, could not speak his mind or ease his heart to him." Wilhelm's sense of alienation from himself is represented by his confusion over his different names: his father...

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This section contains 1,332 words
(approx. 4 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy the Seize the Day Study Guide
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Seize the Day from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.