Absurdity And Salvation-A Study Of The Spiritual Odyssey Of Wilhelm In Seize The Day

As the only winner of Nobel Prize for Literature bearing Jewish background, Saul Bellow enjoys great prestige in the world, on a par with another two famous American writers Hemingway and Faulkner in the literary world. His works have been exerting great influence over the American literature for a long time, especially in the post-World WarⅡperiod.As Saul Bellow's important novelette, Seize the Day (the other novelette is The Actual published in 1997) was specifically mentioned as his best work on the occasion of his receiving the prize in 1976. The book depicts the protagonist Tommy Wilhelm's one typical day, interspersed with the recollection of his past experiences, vividly presenting a panoramic view of an absurd world and the predicament of modern men.For one thing, since the publication of the novelette, it has been studied abundantly abroad. But the domestic researches in this field are far from being adequate. For another, Saul Bellow, the representative writer of post-war period, more or less would always show the existential traces in his works.Therefore, the present thesis, with the help of existing relevant studies, against the existentially theoretical background, tries to interpret the story as the spiritual odyssey of Wilhelm who successively experiences three stages of such odyssey:first "practice", then "alienation" and finally "salvation". By way of the analysis of Wilhelm's spiritual odyssey, the thesis holds that Seize the Day not only reveals the current situation of men in society, but also reflects Saul Bellow's humanistic confidence in and cares as well as concerns for human beings in general—he believes that the modern men tortured by mental and physical crises from the present absurd world can follow Wilhelm, the petty character's example to get a way out through their own epiphany, or awakening and gain their own salvation as well.Accordingly the whole thesis consists of five chapters.The introduction chapter, Chapter One just presents a panoramic view of Saul Bellow's life and his literary achievements, which are followed by the literature review of Seize the Day and the organization of the present thesis.Chapter Two analyzes the stage of practice, in which Wilhelm's personal experiences are exposed—his lifelong pursuit of meaning in an absurd world:in his youthful years, he has abandoned his college studies in Pennsylvania University; and then like most young people longing for success, he, at the age of twenty, decides for himself to change his name as Tommy Wilhelm to pin hopes on himself. With his new name, Wilhelm is coaxed by the scout Maurice Venice into coming single-handedly to Hollywood to take a screen test, in the hope of becoming an actor. But he ends up a failure there. Having accomplished nothing, the protagonist returns to New York to be employed as an oblivious clerk. Worse still, misfortune befalls Wilhelm again—before long he quits his job for the sake of somewhat unfair competition between employees. In desperation, he could do nothing but live with his retired father Dr. Alder for a livelihood, till which time the absurdity in the book reaches its peak. In other words, whatever efforts he has made, Wilhelm is still unable to realize his illusionary "American Dream" all the same.Chapter Three focuses on the interpretation of the second stage of Wilhelm's spiritual odyssey, where the concept of alienation is put forward and under such theory, Wilhelm's alienation with others is expounded that in his middle-aged years, the unemployed hero has nowhere to go, with his hopes for success broken into pieces. His present self is not only alienated from the outer world he exists in but also alienated from those people around himself. He is first and foremost alienated from his father, then from his separated wife and two sons and then from other people like his father's friends Pearls and Mr. Rappaport. One thing should be noted that Wilhelm is also self-alienated. The alienated and isolated Wilhelm has been completely excluded from the present world.Wilhelm's salvation is elaborated in Chapter Four. The present thesis holds that at the end of the story, the hero's crying at the funeral to conclude the novelette can be seen as his final epiphany or ultimate awakening, through which Wilhelm has culminated in his salvation and that the salvation includes two parts:one is Wilhelm's self-salvation and the other is the salvation from Tamkin, his so-called "spiritual father".Then follows the final chapter of conclusion of the thesis. The novelette is on the protagonist's spiritual odyssey from practice to alienation to final salvation, revealing the realistic aspect of the modern world and reflecting the writer's permanent concern and confidence for mankind.