The Value of Suffering and Neediness in Shaping Human Nature: Seize the Day, Chapters VI - VII

Suffering is man’s best friend. Sorrow, guilt, deception, and all other emotions that make a person feel miserable and useless are all byproducts of suffering and the lack of happiness in one’s life. All of these result in longing, or the desire to live a more comfortable, better life that will produce the outcomes a certain individual needs in order to be able to carry out a happy existence. Happiness, therefore, is man’s worst enemy. It is a mere illusion that restlessly disturbs our consciences, a desire that will never be fully achieved. The absence of happiness leads to suffering, which becomes a person’s permanent companion and the sole unchanging aspect of their lives. “Yes, thought Wilhelm, suffering is the only kind of life they are sure they can have, and if they quit suffering they’re afraid they’ll have nothing.” (p. 94). When suffering ceases to exist, all aspects of the world we are accustomed to live in tumble down as well. Happiness can be defined as a utopia, an ideological paradise which will never be able to materialize and come into existence; thus, when suffering vanishes from our lives we are left with a void, an emptiness only the perpetual, incessant suffering can fill.

Apart from the insights on solitude, Seize the Day also exposed the complex paradox of need and abundance: “They don’t need therefore they have. I need, therefore I don’t have. That would be too easy.” (p. 97). This passage is trying to communicate life’s relativity when faced with different mental conditions. An individual who does not need anything in life will greet any insignificant benefit as a surplus that will contribute to construct his life and improve his conditions. A person who has his mind permanently fixed on the need to acquire more will welcome a fortune as a worthless acquisition which is unable to entirely fill the gap he has fabricated in his mind. When one has his mind fixed on the need to obtain something, everything else in life becomes scarce and insufficient; however, when one expects nothing, anything else will come as a present and an addition that will contribute to make his existence more plentiful.

The ending of the novel was not what I expected. In fact, Wilhelm did nothing in order to “seize the day.” At the end of the book, Wilhelm had gotten nowhere in life. He still possessed this inconsumable desire, this void in life which, according to the previous paragraph, would never be able to fill itself up. Bellow says that this character “…sank deeper than sorrow, through torn sobs and cries toward the consummation of his heart’s ultimate need.” (p. 114). The reader is left with many unanswered questions. Did Wilhelm lacking everything or did he need something specific? If so, what did he need? The words “his heart’s ultimate need” revolve around a very ambiguous concept. Tommy Wilhelm’s life lacked everything from love to stability to purposefulness. When he exclaimed to his father “‘You don’t give the little bit I beg you for.’” (p. 106), Wilhelm was talking about his need for love, even if this manifestation involved the demonstration of the most insignificant action which could reveal that Dr. Adler did, in fact, care for him. Wilhelm, devastated by Tamkin’s untrustworthiness and fluctuant attitude, had the necessity to ensure a little stability in his life. The constant increase and decrease in stock marked prices symbolized the unstable conditions this character was forced to live with; thus, Wilhelm was in desperate need of someone or something he could trust and rely on in times of crisis. In addition to this, the character of Wilhelm was deprived of a fixed goal in life he was set to accomplish, something that would differ him from all other individuals and make him a separate, independent character. Right before entering the church, Wilhelm recalled seeing a “…great crowd, pouring out, pressing round, of every age, of every genius, possessors of every human secret, antique and future, in every face the refinement of one particular motive or essence - I labor, I spend, I strive, I design, I love, I cling, I uphold, I give way, I envy, I long, I scorn, I die, I hide, I want.” (p. 111). All but Tommy Wilhelm, already in his mid-forties, possessed a certain characteristic that distinguished them from all other individuals. His heart’s ultimate need could have been the necessity of being someone, anyone in life. All of these needs rely on a tangible object or person in order to fulfill themselves. Materialism demanded Wilhelm to live a plentiful life where financial success was paralleled by an appearance of stability. Wilhelm needed to thrive in his social relations towards other individuals, such as his father, and in his economic relations with money and wealth as well.

When viewed from a more abstract, sentimental approach, the concepts of "seize the day" and the main character's ultimate need vary. Wilhelm needed to be an individual who, unlike his father, would be able to express his feelings in whatever way he desired without experiencing any shame or remorse. As an attack to materialistic society, Bellow might have created in Wilhelm a true human being who lived life not for the stake of money but for the well-being of his emotional self. The phrase "seize the day," then, adopts a totally different meaning. Success is not measured by the amount of material goods one manages to secure in life, but by one's ability to be oneself at any desired moment. Sobs and tears are not a sign of weakness, but rather a proof of one's ability to relieve the burdens one carries inside the soul. "...Dad, I just can't breathe. My chest is all up - I feel choked. I just simply can't catch my breath." (p. 105). In the end, this character managed to eliminate the suffocating feeling that congested his body and soul. The triumph of human nature over the modern, mechanical world was symbolized in Wilhelm's break-down at the church. It is true that Tommy Wilhelm's life lacked love, confidence, and purposefulness, but these, like tears, are simply aspects that distinguish us humans from any other ordinary machine. Suffering and neediness add spark and meaning to our lives, making of this entire experience an opportunity to highlight our separate, individualistic natures and "seize the day."