Tommy Wilhelm as a victim hero.

 

In the novella" Seize the day" by Saul Bellow Tommy Wilhelm is a middle aged, modern man, who is considered to be a victimized hero of modern Society because it is the materialistic modernity which makes him isolated from the human community for being unsuccessful in his earthly life.

In the novella" seize the day" we find Wilhelm as a modern hero who is quite frustrated about his present life because he could not make money or wealth likewise his father Dr. Adler. He makes quite a few mistakes while making choices about his life which eventually lead him to be a complete failure. 

Once he has cherished the high flying Ambitions of American dream in his mind. Therefore, he seeks the short cut way to be wealthy in his life. But in real life, he is unsuccessful because he takes the wrong choices about his life. 

First of all, he left his college in order to be a Hollywood actor, his father warns him about the negativity  of Hollywood,  but he eventually motivated by the hypocrite "Maurice Vanice" who persuaded him to invest money in Hollywood. Maurice motivated him by saying that he has a physical charms and striking features which could bring a position for him in Hollywood. However, he was deceived by so called director who actually runs the business of prostitution in the name of  film making.              

Secondly,  his tragic mistake is he was confused about marrying the materialistic women Margarete, but eventually he gets married to her which makes his earthly existence is completely miserable. His wife shows no love to him. She puts pressure on him for giving her money and she does not grant him divorce thus he cannot marry the women Olive with whom he was truly in love. That is why, we finds him as a victim  hero who is broken both emotionally and psychologically.  

Furthermore,  he invests his last savings of 500dollar in a commodity market because Dr. Tamkin makes him understand that he could still make a fortune and becomes a rich man by making investment in the field of share business. However,  he got the deception from Dr. Tamkin and becomes a destitute after losing his last hope of savings to Tamkin.

Therefore, he appears as a failure to the Society, to his wife even to his father. He has been a helpless man, suffering from existential crisis and he is desperately  seeking his identity and meaningful survival. He goes  into many debts, seeks help to his father  but his father brutal treatment put him into down in the dumps. He says his father with a tone of frustration " What do I expect?.. I expect help!

 But instead of giving a helping hand to him, his father mocking him for being unsuccessful. Thus, he realizes that Only money is the matter because he raised in a society where people adore only money. While arguing with his father he utters the phrase out of anger " The money makes the difference".

He believes If he had money, his father would be proud of him.

As he lacks of money thus his father is ashamed on him.

He also says that " Everyone was supposed to have money.. They would be ashamed not to have it."

Finally he says

"The water of the earth going to roll over me"

Throughout  the novella we find the protagonist Wilhelm as a drowning man who is a victim of a society where Only making money is matter. He realizes, The society whose only god is money is not for him .He has nothing to be a part of this  society; he is isolated from the society and he only finds connection of his life with a death man in a funeral procession. 

He finds the ultimate solace of  his soul in a funeral possession where he cries his eyes out for an unknown death person because he relates his life to the unknown person who is death. Likewise the Death man, Wilhelm is also death mentally, spiritually  and psychologically.

In conclusion, I can tell you that,

In the novella SEIZE THE DAY by Saul Below we find Wilhelm as a victimized hero because he makes many mistakes in his own life thus he could not be prosperous like his father Dr. Adler, for this reason the modern society rejects him. Therefore, he suffer from existence crisis and turns into a  victim hero of modernity.