0.8. In Seize the Day, the protagonist is a victimized hero. Do you agree? [DU. 1999, NU. 2014]

 

0.8. In Seize the Day, the protagonist is a victimized hero. Do you agree? [DU. 1999, NU. 2014] 

Or, Discuss critically on the theme of victimization in Soul Bellow's Seize the Day. [NU. 2008] 

 

Ans. The theme of victimization is very important in the novella Seize the Day. The theme of victimization is expressed through conflict between internal and external, modern complications and images.

 

Wilhelm is a victim that his struggle consists of the internal vs. the external, however, is too vague. To be more specific we must highlight some of these struggles. For instance, some of the opposing forces at work that create a struggle in Wilhelm are the choices posed to him and his father's way of thinking vs. those alternative" choices posed by Dr. Tamkin, his surrogate father 

 

Tommy is struggling with the demands of the world around him. However, his problems seen amplified and larger that most people’s because he is not aware of who he is and so his everyday life lie heavy upon him. 

 

Wilhelm is a victim of the modern complication. We have to realize that Tommy's struggle is internal and that this “internal” struggle is, in many ways a modern one. This is not human being has not been struggling with the sense of time. Tommy, it is evident, plays many roles. He plays Adler's son, a role that is difficult for him to escape. He cares too much how his father sees him. And, he often becomes that he believes his father sees in him. He has been an actor, a hospital orderly, a ditch-digger, a seller of toys, a seller of self and a public relations man for a hotel in Cuba. He has, therefore, many characters and never his true self. Beneath his masks, reader is privileged to discover through interior monologues, he is truly an introvert trapped in the body of a man who has been forced to be extroverted, he is also sensitive and almost, at times feminine. This femininity is poked at and criticized, however, by his father when he accuses him of having had a relationship with a man for his office.

 

The theme of victimization is expressed through images. The novel portrays Tommy as a man who is drowning. The imagery that surrounds him is the imagery of water and he is constantly "descending" and "sinking into hellish depths. However, the author must bring into question the character of Tommy because although he constantly blames others, such as his father, his wife, or D. Tamkin, for his strife and place in life. He must learn to take cradle for his own mistakes. He is character in flux, a character that WAVED between victimization and a temptation to martyrdom and  self-acceptance, and he wavers too between childishness and maturity. Nevertheless, it is this very fluctuation that will help him his way to seeking truth because, as Dr. Tamkin says, the path to not a straight line. 

 

 

However, style is not Bellow's only achievement rather victimization is very evident. This internal world becomes complicated and points to the complicated state of the human being. The device helps to outline the role of psychology in the novel and also helps to pose characters in concordance or dissonance with each other