While a hero is traditionally a fortunate individual of superhuman power or spirit, an anti-hero is by definition the opposite of a hero and is thus a person who is neither strong nor purposeful. An anti hero may be portrayed as having little control over events, seeming aimless or confused, or as being out of step with society. Tommy Wilhelm, the protagonist of Saul Bellow’s Seize the Day is an anti-hero because he is indecisive, less attractive, overemotional, and less powerful. 

The first quality of an anti-hero is indecision. Tommy stumbles and dwindles at every step. He is a dangling man. In Seize the Day, Tommy, being caught in an existential crisis, is in quest of identity or meaningful existence. He is engaged seriously in a struggle for survival. He fails, he suffers, and he is spurned (rejected). He is turned into a puppet at the hands of scrubby opportunist. His hope is ever crossed and his mind suffers the stings of torments. The modern dilemma “to be or not to be” is present in Tommy’s character. He seems to be a genius in bringing calamity upon him. He has always chosen the path that his intuition or intellect warned against. Thus invites bad consequences upon himself. 

Another anti-heroic quality is less attraction. Tommy is hardly attractive. He is large“fair-haired hippopotamus!in his middle forties. He is even filthy-” What a dirty devil son of mine thinks his aged father Dr. Adler. His dress-up style of talking and taking food reveals his flaws. He exhibits symptom of neurosis and his actions and attitudes are symptomatic of his lack of control or loss of order of his being. 

An important quality of an anti-hero is over-emotion. Tommy is too much emotional and childish and these very features make him dependent on others. Being unable to solve his problems, he rushes to his father for substantial support and he gets nothing but rebuff, Dr. Adler likes to appear affable. “Affable! His own son, his one and Only son could not speak his mind or ease his heart to him.” This is also the reason that he gives Mr. Tamkin the power of attorney to deal with his last survival without knowing him perfectly. 

The anti-hero will be less powerful. In Seize the Day the alienated hero is a terribly oppressed individual and it is with the feeling of his Oppression that the fiction begins. The non-human, diabolic forces of Materialism pose serious menace to overthrow him and subdue or demolish bis human traits. Tommy Wilhelm journeys through chaotic Situations, through a metropolis (city) of peril (danger); he fights a solitary battle against what is annihilating for mankind. 

In conclusion, unlike the mythic hero, there is no joyful homecoming for Tommy, or a satisfied sense completion of a mammoth task. He neither has the superhuman dimensions of Shakespeare's unforgettable tragic heroes. So, from all these aspects we can call him an anti-hero. 

Tommy wilhelm as an anti hero

Green Land | January 05, 2025 | 0 comments

While a hero is traditionally a fortunate individual of superhuman power or spirit, an anti-hero is by definition the opposite of a hero and is thus a person who is neither strong nor purposeful. An anti hero may be portrayed as having little control over events, seeming aimless or confused, or as being out of step with society. Tommy Wilhelm, the protagonist of Saul Bellow’s Seize the Day is an anti-hero because he is indecisive, less attractive, overemotional, and less powerful. 

The first quality of an anti-hero is indecision. Tommy stumbles and dwindles at every step. He is a dangling man. In Seize the Day, Tommy, being caught in an existential crisis, is in quest of identity or meaningful existence. He is engaged seriously in a struggle for survival. He fails, he suffers, and he is spurned (rejected). He is turned into a puppet at the hands of scrubby opportunist. His hope is ever crossed and his mind suffers the stings of torments. The modern dilemma “to be or not to be” is present in Tommy’s character. He seems to be a genius in bringing calamity upon him. He has always chosen the path that his intuition or intellect warned against. Thus invites bad consequences upon himself. 

Another anti-heroic quality is less attraction. Tommy is hardly attractive. He is large“fair-haired hippopotamus!in his middle forties. He is even filthy-” What a dirty devil son of mine thinks his aged father Dr. Adler. His dress-up style of talking and taking food reveals his flaws. He exhibits symptom of neurosis and his actions and attitudes are symptomatic of his lack of control or loss of order of his being. 

An important quality of an anti-hero is over-emotion. Tommy is too much emotional and childish and these very features make him dependent on others. Being unable to solve his problems, he rushes to his father for substantial support and he gets nothing but rebuff, Dr. Adler likes to appear affable. “Affable! His own son, his one and Only son could not speak his mind or ease his heart to him.” This is also the reason that he gives Mr. Tamkin the power of attorney to deal with his last survival without knowing him perfectly. 

The anti-hero will be less powerful. In Seize the Day the alienated hero is a terribly oppressed individual and it is with the feeling of his Oppression that the fiction begins. The non-human, diabolic forces of Materialism pose serious menace to overthrow him and subdue or demolish bis human traits. Tommy Wilhelm journeys through chaotic Situations, through a metropolis (city) of peril (danger); he fights a solitary battle against what is annihilating for mankind. 

In conclusion, unlike the mythic hero, there is no joyful homecoming for Tommy, or a satisfied sense completion of a mammoth task. He neither has the superhuman dimensions of Shakespeare's unforgettable tragic heroes. So, from all these aspects we can call him an anti-hero. 

Seize the Day

An Ethnic novel contains stories whose central characters are Native American, Italian-American, Jewish, Appalachian or members of some other specific cultural group. Ethnic novel usually deals with a protagonist caught between two conflicting ways of life: mainstream American culture and his ethnic heritage. Seize the Day is an ethnic novel because it deals with a Jewish problem, mental conflicts, and American materialistic culture. 

First and foremost element of an Ethnic novel is to deal with a Jewish problem. War creates disorder everywhere and in many cases dislocation because of forced immigration. During the war many people, Jews especially, were escaping the Germans and, thus, fleeing, when they could. This dislocation results in alienation, materialism, frustration and anxiety. 

Another element of an Ethnic novel, mental conflict and isolation is found in the book. Tommy is an idealist surrounded by the pressures of the outside world. He is isolated and, thus, is forced to turn inward. The urban landscape is the symbol that furthers his isolation, for he is always “alone in a crowd”. Tommy feels cut off not only from his father and from the rest of his family—his sister, his dead mother, his estranged wife and their two sons—but he also feels alienated from himself and from everyone he meets. Tommy Wilhelm is shown in desperate loneliness and life annihilating alienation and he is in dire need of an understanding heart. This isolation and inner struggle is the predicament of modernity. Dr. Adler, a symbol of professional success, is reluctant to play any part that may bring consolation and comfort to Tommy’s heart. In respect of emotion and feelings, father and son are ocean apart. 

The materialistic American culture which is an important element of an Ethnic novel dominates the modern city. Dr. Adler and Mr. Perls are materialistic and appear to worship money. It is a postwar, post-depression, cold war, technological world. Adler believes in power and “success” and in rationalism. He is the “self-made man.” In fact, Bellow has given Adler the name of a psychiatrist whose teachings were based on ideas of “power.” Everywhere he goes he encounters the materialistic spirit. The old, shrivelled, men he meets in the brokerage office have dedicated their lives to making money on the commodities market. But Wilhelm senses something inimical to life in the way the secretive, uncommunicative Mr. Rappaport has made his money, in the “chicken business.” He imagines the appalling conditions in which the animals live on chicken farms. Then, when he notices that Rappaport will not let anyone see what he has written on his notepad, he thinks, “This was the way a man who had grown rich by the murder of millions of animals, little chickens, would act.” 

Bellow’s themes namely alienation, hard world of money, anxiety, deception and selfishness not only depict the Jewish life but also the complexity of modern American society. Saul Bellow generalizes his theme. So from this point of view we can say that Seize the day is an ethnic rather than an American novel. 

Seize the Day as an Ethnic Novel

Green Land | January 05, 2025 | 0 comments

An Ethnic novel contains stories whose central characters are Native American, Italian-American, Jewish, Appalachian or members of some other specific cultural group. Ethnic novel usually deals with a protagonist caught between two conflicting ways of life: mainstream American culture and his ethnic heritage. Seize the Day is an ethnic novel because it deals with a Jewish problem, mental conflicts, and American materialistic culture. 

First and foremost element of an Ethnic novel is to deal with a Jewish problem. War creates disorder everywhere and in many cases dislocation because of forced immigration. During the war many people, Jews especially, were escaping the Germans and, thus, fleeing, when they could. This dislocation results in alienation, materialism, frustration and anxiety. 

Another element of an Ethnic novel, mental conflict and isolation is found in the book. Tommy is an idealist surrounded by the pressures of the outside world. He is isolated and, thus, is forced to turn inward. The urban landscape is the symbol that furthers his isolation, for he is always “alone in a crowd”. Tommy feels cut off not only from his father and from the rest of his family—his sister, his dead mother, his estranged wife and their two sons—but he also feels alienated from himself and from everyone he meets. Tommy Wilhelm is shown in desperate loneliness and life annihilating alienation and he is in dire need of an understanding heart. This isolation and inner struggle is the predicament of modernity. Dr. Adler, a symbol of professional success, is reluctant to play any part that may bring consolation and comfort to Tommy’s heart. In respect of emotion and feelings, father and son are ocean apart. 

The materialistic American culture which is an important element of an Ethnic novel dominates the modern city. Dr. Adler and Mr. Perls are materialistic and appear to worship money. It is a postwar, post-depression, cold war, technological world. Adler believes in power and “success” and in rationalism. He is the “self-made man.” In fact, Bellow has given Adler the name of a psychiatrist whose teachings were based on ideas of “power.” Everywhere he goes he encounters the materialistic spirit. The old, shrivelled, men he meets in the brokerage office have dedicated their lives to making money on the commodities market. But Wilhelm senses something inimical to life in the way the secretive, uncommunicative Mr. Rappaport has made his money, in the “chicken business.” He imagines the appalling conditions in which the animals live on chicken farms. Then, when he notices that Rappaport will not let anyone see what he has written on his notepad, he thinks, “This was the way a man who had grown rich by the murder of millions of animals, little chickens, would act.” 

Bellow’s themes namely alienation, hard world of money, anxiety, deception and selfishness not only depict the Jewish life but also the complexity of modern American society. Saul Bellow generalizes his theme. So from this point of view we can say that Seize the day is an ethnic rather than an American novel. 

Seize the Day

Before the civil war in America, the black African people were treated as personal property and were subjected to all kind of injustice and discrimination. Slavery and discrimination, for instance, have brought severe miseries to Afro-Americans such as being treated as animals, losing their human rights, and subjecting to violence. But the real victims were the black African women, as these women had no position in society and were living the most pathetic and humiliating life. 

Being a survivor of slavery, Baby Suggs has eight children but “four taken, four chased”. She spends her life working in the plantation and, when she is free from slavery, she decides to “lay it all down”. She preaches at “the Clearing” to other blacks but after seeing Sethe kill Beloved, she gives up. Her faith, her love, her imagination and her great big old heart began to collapse twenty-eight days after her daughter-in-law arrived. Other slaves have the same miserable experiences. Paul D has been put an iron bit in his mouth, chained together with forty-five slaves in Alfred, Georgia, and almost drowned in muddy water. 

Stamp Paid is forced to share his wife Vashti with the slave owner. Halle goes insane at Sweet Home because he witnesses Sethe, being abused by schoolteacher and his two nephews. Sethe, the protagonist at Beloved, is whipped at Sweet Home, leaving the tree-form scars on ner back. However, these miserable experiences, given their traumatic characteristics, cannot be assimilated into the character’s personal history. Being unable to be discharged, the traumatic experiences fix on the characters’ psychic lives and disturb them thereafter. 

In Beloved, at first, blacks are at the hands of white people and they are slave. They have not only “...been abused by white men...”, but also they begin to lose their humanity. Even, the black people aren’t given permission to learn writing and reading. It is clear that if blacks could write they should not be treated as animals”. The female characters in the novel, especially Baby Suggs is brave to mention the inhuman acts of white race in her community. “Those white things have taken all I had or dreamt,” she said, “and broke my heartstrings, too. There is no bad luck in the world but white folks”. Baby Suggs utterances help one to visualize the hardness of the black life in a racist surrounding. 

In most parts of the novel, the racist thoughts and attitudes are displayed vividly. Knowing the truth that Sethe has killed her own baby daughter, Paul D insists to look over the newspaper pages. “Stamp Paid reluctantly shows Paul D the clipping from the newspaper concerning Sethe’s crime. Even so, the very fact that he has kept the clipping is significant”. Both of these characters know that if a black’s face is seen on papers, there should be an unusual event, since black race is ignored even in newspapers. To white people, Sethe’s act is seen as a “...private story”. In addition to this, there is a mystery meaning under this news. “The newspaper is the product of white society”. There is also an implication that the reason of Sethe’s behaviour is white race. 

What picture of racial violence do you get in Beloved ?

Green Land | January 02, 2025 | 0 comments

Before the civil war in America, the black African people were treated as personal property and were subjected to all kind of injustice and discrimination. Slavery and discrimination, for instance, have brought severe miseries to Afro-Americans such as being treated as animals, losing their human rights, and subjecting to violence. But the real victims were the black African women, as these women had no position in society and were living the most pathetic and humiliating life. 

Being a survivor of slavery, Baby Suggs has eight children but “four taken, four chased”. She spends her life working in the plantation and, when she is free from slavery, she decides to “lay it all down”. She preaches at “the Clearing” to other blacks but after seeing Sethe kill Beloved, she gives up. Her faith, her love, her imagination and her great big old heart began to collapse twenty-eight days after her daughter-in-law arrived. Other slaves have the same miserable experiences. Paul D has been put an iron bit in his mouth, chained together with forty-five slaves in Alfred, Georgia, and almost drowned in muddy water. 

Stamp Paid is forced to share his wife Vashti with the slave owner. Halle goes insane at Sweet Home because he witnesses Sethe, being abused by schoolteacher and his two nephews. Sethe, the protagonist at Beloved, is whipped at Sweet Home, leaving the tree-form scars on ner back. However, these miserable experiences, given their traumatic characteristics, cannot be assimilated into the character’s personal history. Being unable to be discharged, the traumatic experiences fix on the characters’ psychic lives and disturb them thereafter. 

In Beloved, at first, blacks are at the hands of white people and they are slave. They have not only “...been abused by white men...”, but also they begin to lose their humanity. Even, the black people aren’t given permission to learn writing and reading. It is clear that if blacks could write they should not be treated as animals”. The female characters in the novel, especially Baby Suggs is brave to mention the inhuman acts of white race in her community. “Those white things have taken all I had or dreamt,” she said, “and broke my heartstrings, too. There is no bad luck in the world but white folks”. Baby Suggs utterances help one to visualize the hardness of the black life in a racist surrounding. 

In most parts of the novel, the racist thoughts and attitudes are displayed vividly. Knowing the truth that Sethe has killed her own baby daughter, Paul D insists to look over the newspaper pages. “Stamp Paid reluctantly shows Paul D the clipping from the newspaper concerning Sethe’s crime. Even so, the very fact that he has kept the clipping is significant”. Both of these characters know that if a black’s face is seen on papers, there should be an unusual event, since black race is ignored even in newspapers. To white people, Sethe’s act is seen as a “...private story”. In addition to this, there is a mystery meaning under this news. “The newspaper is the product of white society”. There is also an implication that the reason of Sethe’s behaviour is white race. 

Beloved

Beloved is a story written as a cluster of images ‘or re memories. They are told as separate and distinct events tied together thorough storytelling and personal narrative. The novel is also written out of time sequence. As the main character, Sethe, struggles to come to terms with her past, the reader gets bits and pieces of Sethe’s story as she gradually recollects her history. It is from these fragments that an entire story is woven. . 

Memories provide a framework for creating meaning in one’s own life as well as in the lives of others. In Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, memory is a dangerous and debilitating faculty of human consciousness. Sethe endures the tyranny of the self-imposed prison of memory. She expresses an insatiable obsession with her memories, with the past. Sethe is compelled to explore and explain an overwhelming sense of yearning, longing, thirst for something beyond herself, her daughter, her Beloved. 

Memories in Toni Morrison are generally scarring, although they can be visible or invisible. In Beloved, Sethe will forever carry a tree on her back, “A chokecherry tree. Trunk, branches, and even leaves” , in memorandum of the nightmare life that she had at Sweet Home, a tree of scars commemorating the beating that made her run away and caused her husband’s breakdown. Sethe has obvious scars which Paul D. and Amy Denver can see, and name, and use to make Sethe recount the tale behind them — and yet Sethe herself is closed to their significance. Perhaps Paul D is in a worse position than Sethe: his scars are internal and he has to fight his own battles he has never spoken of his time under the Schoolteacher in Sweet Home to anyone. Pau) D has none of the physical markings of trauma for someone like Sethe to kiss better even his eyes do not have the usual wildness which Sethe believes follows on from having worn a bit. So, his fight with memory holds the potential for more pain than Sethe, 

It is not the repression of memory which haunts Sethe, she is plagued by memories, but Paul D has to conquer his repression and his tendency to keep his painful remembering. The most obvious symptom of focusing on the past is the tendency of individuals to only remember those stories which are not fit to be passed on. 

As an embodiment of the past, Beloved is a hair-shirt welcomed by Sethe until she begins to devour her, showing all the greediness and desire for possession, until Sethe finally resolves the situation into one where the past perpetually haunts them only now as part of them and in their understanding rather than their fear. The power of Beloved and all that she represents over the residents of 124 is illustrative of the totalising power of the past. Baby Suggs also suffers by remembering her past. Though she had eight children, she was allowed to keep only one son. 

Main characters of Beloved

Green Land | January 01, 2025 | 0 comments

Beloved is a story written as a cluster of images ‘or re memories. They are told as separate and distinct events tied together thorough storytelling and personal narrative. The novel is also written out of time sequence. As the main character, Sethe, struggles to come to terms with her past, the reader gets bits and pieces of Sethe’s story as she gradually recollects her history. It is from these fragments that an entire story is woven. . 

Memories provide a framework for creating meaning in one’s own life as well as in the lives of others. In Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, memory is a dangerous and debilitating faculty of human consciousness. Sethe endures the tyranny of the self-imposed prison of memory. She expresses an insatiable obsession with her memories, with the past. Sethe is compelled to explore and explain an overwhelming sense of yearning, longing, thirst for something beyond herself, her daughter, her Beloved. 

Memories in Toni Morrison are generally scarring, although they can be visible or invisible. In Beloved, Sethe will forever carry a tree on her back, “A chokecherry tree. Trunk, branches, and even leaves” , in memorandum of the nightmare life that she had at Sweet Home, a tree of scars commemorating the beating that made her run away and caused her husband’s breakdown. Sethe has obvious scars which Paul D. and Amy Denver can see, and name, and use to make Sethe recount the tale behind them — and yet Sethe herself is closed to their significance. Perhaps Paul D is in a worse position than Sethe: his scars are internal and he has to fight his own battles he has never spoken of his time under the Schoolteacher in Sweet Home to anyone. Pau) D has none of the physical markings of trauma for someone like Sethe to kiss better even his eyes do not have the usual wildness which Sethe believes follows on from having worn a bit. So, his fight with memory holds the potential for more pain than Sethe, 

It is not the repression of memory which haunts Sethe, she is plagued by memories, but Paul D has to conquer his repression and his tendency to keep his painful remembering. The most obvious symptom of focusing on the past is the tendency of individuals to only remember those stories which are not fit to be passed on. 

As an embodiment of the past, Beloved is a hair-shirt welcomed by Sethe until she begins to devour her, showing all the greediness and desire for possession, until Sethe finally resolves the situation into one where the past perpetually haunts them only now as part of them and in their understanding rather than their fear. The power of Beloved and all that she represents over the residents of 124 is illustrative of the totalising power of the past. Baby Suggs also suffers by remembering her past. Though she had eight children, she was allowed to keep only one son. 

Beloved

Community played a vital role in this novel. Beloved shows the level to which individuals need the support of their communities in order to survive. Sethe first begins to develop her sense of self during her twenty-eight days of freedom, when she becomes a part of the Cincinnati community. Similarly, Denver discovers herself and grows up when she leaves 124 and becomes a part of society. Paul D and his fellow prison inmates in Georgia prove able to escape only by working together. They are literally chained to one another, and Paul D recalls that “if one lost, all lost.” Lastly, it is the community that saves Sethe from mistakenly killing Mr. Bodwin and casting the shadow of another sin across her and her family’s life. 

In the face of Beloved’s escalating malevolence and her mother’s submissiveness, Denver is forced to step outside the world of 124. Filled with a sense of duty, purpose, and courage, she enlists the help of the community and cares for her increasingly self-involved mother and sister. She enters a series of lessons with Miss Bodwin and considers attending Oberlin College someday. Her last conversation with Paul D underscores her newfound maturity: she presents herself with more civility and sincerity than in the past and asserts that she now has her own opinions. 

When Paul D learns the story of Sethe’s “rough choice”—her infanticide—he leaves 124 and begins sleeping in the basement of the local church. In his absence, Sethe and Beloved’s relationship becomes more intense and exclusive. Beloved grows increasingly abusive, manipulative, and parasitic, and Sethe is obsessed with Satisfying Beloved’s demands and making her understand why she murdered her. Worried by the way her mother is wasting away, Denver leaves the premises of 124 for the first time in twelve years in order to seek help from Lady Jones, her former teacher. 

The community provides the family with food and eventually organizes under the leadership of Ella, a woman who had worked on the Underground Railroad and helped with Sethe’s escape, in order to exorcise Beloved from 124. When they arrive at Sethe’s house, they see Sethe on the porch with Beloved Mr. Bodwin, who has come to 124 to take Denver to her new job, arrives at the house. Mistaking him for schoolteacher, Sethe runs at Mr. Bodwin with an ice pick. She is restrained, but in the confusion Beloved disappears, never to return. 

Cincinnati’s black community plays a pivotal role in the events of 124. The community’s failure to alert Sethe to schoolteacher’s approach implicates it in the death of Sethe’s daughter. Baby Suggs feels the slight as a grave betrayal from which she never fully recovers. At the end of the novel, the black community makes up for its past misbehaviour by gathering at 124 to collectively exorcise Beloved. By driving Beloved away, the community secures Sethe’s, and its own, release from the past. 

What role does community play in this novel ?

Green Land | December 24, 2024 | 0 comments

Community played a vital role in this novel. Beloved shows the level to which individuals need the support of their communities in order to survive. Sethe first begins to develop her sense of self during her twenty-eight days of freedom, when she becomes a part of the Cincinnati community. Similarly, Denver discovers herself and grows up when she leaves 124 and becomes a part of society. Paul D and his fellow prison inmates in Georgia prove able to escape only by working together. They are literally chained to one another, and Paul D recalls that “if one lost, all lost.” Lastly, it is the community that saves Sethe from mistakenly killing Mr. Bodwin and casting the shadow of another sin across her and her family’s life. 

In the face of Beloved’s escalating malevolence and her mother’s submissiveness, Denver is forced to step outside the world of 124. Filled with a sense of duty, purpose, and courage, she enlists the help of the community and cares for her increasingly self-involved mother and sister. She enters a series of lessons with Miss Bodwin and considers attending Oberlin College someday. Her last conversation with Paul D underscores her newfound maturity: she presents herself with more civility and sincerity than in the past and asserts that she now has her own opinions. 

When Paul D learns the story of Sethe’s “rough choice”—her infanticide—he leaves 124 and begins sleeping in the basement of the local church. In his absence, Sethe and Beloved’s relationship becomes more intense and exclusive. Beloved grows increasingly abusive, manipulative, and parasitic, and Sethe is obsessed with Satisfying Beloved’s demands and making her understand why she murdered her. Worried by the way her mother is wasting away, Denver leaves the premises of 124 for the first time in twelve years in order to seek help from Lady Jones, her former teacher. 

The community provides the family with food and eventually organizes under the leadership of Ella, a woman who had worked on the Underground Railroad and helped with Sethe’s escape, in order to exorcise Beloved from 124. When they arrive at Sethe’s house, they see Sethe on the porch with Beloved Mr. Bodwin, who has come to 124 to take Denver to her new job, arrives at the house. Mistaking him for schoolteacher, Sethe runs at Mr. Bodwin with an ice pick. She is restrained, but in the confusion Beloved disappears, never to return. 

Cincinnati’s black community plays a pivotal role in the events of 124. The community’s failure to alert Sethe to schoolteacher’s approach implicates it in the death of Sethe’s daughter. Baby Suggs feels the slight as a grave betrayal from which she never fully recovers. At the end of the novel, the black community makes up for its past misbehaviour by gathering at 124 to collectively exorcise Beloved. By driving Beloved away, the community secures Sethe’s, and its own, release from the past. 

Beloved