Self-Made Man, a Real Man

¶ … Self-Made Man, a Real Man Awash in Tears Throughout the 1957 novella Seize the Day, the author Saul Bellow grapples with the myth of the self-made man that is so central to American culture. The protagonist, Wilky Adler, once attempted to fashion himself into a newer, better version of himself, a man he called Tommy Wilhelm. The new Tommy remains frustrated but determined to become successful and respected; despite the fact that he believes the world only sees him as a middle-aged failure.

Through the metaphor of water, of attempted rebirth, drowning, and the final real, cleansing real tears of the end of the novel, Bellow takes the reader through a single but significant day in Tommy's life and shows how it is possible even for this highly unlikely character to change. When Tommy first felt dissatisfied with himself, the only way he knew how to do this is was to essentially give birth to a new name, baptizing himself as a new man with a new identity and a change of circumstances.

Yet early on in the book, this first, attempted rebirth clearly has proves unsuccessful. Although his name has changed, Tommy is haunted by the sensation that he is not "Tommy" but that in his soul he "had always remained Wilky." (p. 25) He is haunted by a sense that a "huge trouble hangs over his head, and worries "the making of mistakes expressed the very purpose of his life." (p.

4;p.56) His first re-naming was not a true rebirth in a baptism of water that gave him a new life, but a form of oppressive escapism in the lies of Hollywood. Over the course of the narrative, it becomes clear that until Tommy learns what his true identity is on a psychological level, rather than seeking identity by merely changing the trappings of his external world, Tommy is like a drowning man, according to the third-person, omniscient narrator.

Only when Tommy cries real tears at the end of the novel, not the false tears of an actor, is Tommy truly reborn as a new man, and becomes 'Tommy' not the old Wilky, his father's misbegotten and prodigal son. Unlike a purely religious rebirth, however, Tommy's renaming and refashioning has a uniquely American, secular narrative arc. Tommy at first sees salvation in his ability to earn money and to become successful in the eyes of the world.

To become truly American and truly his father's son, he must have money, as "everyone was supposed to have money" to be accounted a success in America. (p. 30) His father was wealthy, so he wished to be wealthy. By making money and achieving fame, Tommy hoped to gain a sense of self and triumph over his father. But Tommy failed in Hollywood, and became a bit player rather than a leading man, because his external shape did not please the camera.

Tommy now calls his Hollywood aspirations both an ambition and a delusion. But rather than strive to become more mature to realize his dream of becoming his true and authentic self, after returning from California, Tommy returned to a kind of adolescent state, acting-out another fantasy of the perfect American success story. After becoming a salesman, he then quits his unrewarding but stable job, leaves his family, and moves to a hotel where he can come and go as he pleased.

He has no commitments in this lifestyle and he is not rooted to a home or any particular place. This does not bring him a new identity either, but merely allows him to indulge in the fantasy that he can become anyone, even though really, Tommy is nothing. Also, through this arrangement, Tommy returns to his father's side. He even tries to become financially dependent on the parental figure that he often says he despises, yet cannot escape seeking approval from, again and again.

Tommy is convinced that his father will change his attitude -- "old people," he says, contrary to popular wisdom, "are bound to change." (p.15) but his father cannot stop criticizing his son, even the way Tommy eats and looks at the breakfast table. Just like the camera was critical of Tommy, so is the unsparing gaze of his father. His father continues to call him by his old name, Wilky, which Tommy has rejected.

Tommy, once attractive enough to solicit the attention of a Hollywood scout, has become overweight and lethargic, and has trouble breathing because of the great, oppressive weight of the past that is now pressing down upon him. Rather than being reborn anew, Tommy is drowning in the sea of misery he has created for himself. Erasing his father by changing his name, fleeing back to his father -- nothing works.

Tommy says that he fears he will spend "second half" of "life recovering from the mistakes of the first half," but really this attempt to start anew is a familiar one, as he again tries to merely change external aspects of his self. (p. 100) Money, power, fame, if Tommy can just secure one of these things, or preferably all of these things, he is convinced that he will be reborn as his true self and triumph over his father's control and will.

But by making societal and fatherly approval the nexus of his life, Tommy is just treading water, effectively standing still, emotionally. For his entire existence, Tommy says, he has felt like an outsider, "everyone seems to know something" except him, he remarks, a feeling that still plagues him as he engages in fruitless speculation in the commodities market, again seeking to make money quickly and easily. (p.

78) at first, he rejects the assertion that his true sense of self is "inescapable," and believes that money, motion, and name changing will free him from who he is, so long as he can prove his worth in the seemingly infinitely fluid social space that is America. After being rejected in California, he decides that "people were feeble minded about everything except money," instead, and tries to fashion himself as a capitalist entrepreneur in lard instead, selling flesh just as his own flesh was sold as an actor.

(p.49) The truth is that, just as Tommy wished to become an actor, someone who has a profession being someone else, he is still trying to be someone he is not, acting as.