Creating Meaning Out Of Nothingness

Saul Bellow is a prominent Jewish writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976 for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture. The Royal Swedish Academy singled out for special praise Seize the Day (1956), as one of the classic works of our time. The protagonist, Tommy Wilhelm, is a middle-aged Jew. He suffers from the marriage, bears the indifference of his father and loses all his saving in the speculation market in the day. The paper aims to penetrate the meaning of life revealed in the fiction in the light of existentialism. Tommy Wilhelm gets involved in sharp conflicts with others, which manifests the prominent statement,"Hell is—other people", by Sartre. The conflict between Tommy Wilhelm and others indicates his inner rift. As a being for-itself, Tommy Wilhelm has the capacity of transcendence to achieve his authentic being. Sartre asserts that man is condemned to be free, so Tommy Wilhelm creates who he is through his constant choices and actions. Then confronting the reality of death, humans achieve the wholeness and integrity of life which embodies both happiness and suffering.The paper embodies an introduction, three chapters and a conclusion.The introduction includes literary reviews of Saul Bellow and the work, Seize the Day, both at home and abroad. In addition, it presents the background and core of existentialism.Chapter One analyzes Tommy Wilhelm's relation to Dr. Adler, Tamkin and Margaret, which reflects that conflict is the original meaning of being for-others. According to Sartre's view of relations of humans, Tommy Wilhelm is destined to bear the horrible conflicts between him and others.Chapter Two focuses on Tommy Wilhelm's performance of transcendence. As being for-itself has the capacity of negativity, Tommy Wilhelm strives to flee from the finite and determinant one to perform the transcendence in accordance with his belief and value.Chapter Three discusses the meaning of death which gives to Dr. Adler and Mr. Rappaport and Tommy Wilhelm's attempt to pursue authentic being. Death lends integrity and wholeness to the life, so Wilhelm cries over the death of a stranger for the fate of humans which embodies both joy and suffering.The last part is the conclusion. The paper digs out the true meaning of life of modern men, represented by Tommy Wilhelm, through the detailed analysis of his relation to others and himself from the perspective of existentialism.