Capitalistic Ideology in Bellow’s Seize the Day

 This time is the time of capitalism. People are running to catch money as though it is flying over their head. They want to have economic prosperity in short time. So people’s Arjun vision is on money and the activities that they do, seems to be for the sake of materiality. But all can’t achieve success as they wish. Their failure leads them to the state of frustration, humiliation and sense of alienation when they see around the people who are rich. This situation seems to be deeply rooted to capitalist ideology. This ideology either helps to bring economic prosperity or chaos in life. This analysis concentrates on the situation of a character Tommy Wilhelm who is the protagonist in the novella “Seize the Day”, Wilhelm who is the product of capitalist society and he fails to earn money as his and his father’s wish. His struggle to have money and economic prosperity is in vain .He gets defeated several times in spite of his several attempt to earn money. He becomes the victim of capitalism and its ideology. He is a representative character in Saul Bellow’s novella “Seize the Day”. He represents the modern men who are being self-victimized and self- alienated due to their failure to achieve materiality as they wish.

Capitalism and its effects on Tommy Wilhem in Bellow’s Seize the Day

Saul Bellow’s novella Seize the Day presents the sense of alienation in the contemporary life situation of the people living under the capitalistic ideology in an advanced capitalist society. The victimization of the characters especially Tommy Wilhelm is the main concern of this analysis .Along with the domination and exploitation of the characters under capitalistic ideology will be the key of this analysis while the disintegration of the Wilhelm’s family, his economic failure and decay of human relationship are some major causes of alienation. He is also victimized by means of capitalist ideology.

            The protagonist of the novella Seize the Day, Tommy Wilhelm lives in the America of the 1950s, which means that the backdrop of his life consists of a newly made,strong American economy, and of a country at war with the soviet Union that uses the tools of science and technology as weapons. Psychology and science appear over and over in this novella, as does the new urban experience the big city at its economic height. This background sets the ideology on character’s mind .The protagonist of the novella is at odds with the world around him. Tommy’s inner feelings and human needs are in constant battle with the external world of money and business. It is also the time when America is vigorously advocating democracy as an ideal form of government and the capitalistic ideology as ruling ideology.

Bellow mentions the period after world war second and urban landscape is used as the setting. It serves as a backdrop to Wilhelm’s isolation in the novella, an isolation that represents the many people’s feelings during that time period .Bellow illustrate the wavering feelings and thoughts of man through his characters locating them in urban location where Wilhelm gets victimized. The city serves to create the background of crowds and technology in Wilhelm’s world. It serves to illustrate his disjunction with the external world, the world that surrounds the city is mentioned at many point throughout the novella: Tommy is constantly claiming his hatred toward it, he would much rather live in the country, as he is unaccustomed to it. However there are moments when he finds himself at one with the crowd of city. Thus, this landscape can both serve as the dark backdrop of Wilhelm’s life, the very symbol of what he is trying to escape, or it can be force that allows him to feel solidarity with his fellow man he opines; “[E]ven though I was raised hare, Dad, I can’t take city life any more, and I miss of the country. There is too much push here for me. It works me up too much. I take thing too hard. I wonder why you never retired to a quite place” (Seize the Day 44).Wilhelm wants to escape from the city life. He gets city life very hard .It refers that he is unable to anchor himself in city life. This also signifies the predicament of Wilhelm in capitalistic society.

Wilhelm’s mind is manipulated with capital values and beliefs which we see in this novel Seize the Day. Dr. Adler, Tommy Wilhelm’ father is a difficult man who abides by the rules of capitalistic ideology. He is a Jewish American, who has worked hard during his life to achieve his position in life as a well established, successful and admired doctor and professor. He refuses to carry his children on his back because he believes that they should come to their own achievements. So he advises Wilhelm, “and I want nobody on my back. Get off! And I give you the same advice, Wilky. Carry nobody on your back”(55). Here, Dr. Adler becomes stern and often harsh: He believes on hard work and success. Therefore, he shows his materialistic mentality because the person himself should achieve materialistic success instead of carrying somebody on back a statement that lashes back at Wilhelm’s request that his father ‘carrying’ him. Dr. Adler lies to others, presenting him as a wealthy success.

Tommy Wilhem is the Jewish protagonist of post war era (World War second) in Bellow’s novella Seize the Day. Bellow reflects the Jewish sensibility through Jewish character. The impact of money on their lives is no longer an attribute of class but is of character. Class indeed, has even come to mean character: Tommy Wilhelm’s father, Dr. Adler has “class”. Wilhelm lacks it entirely. Bellow presents two kinds of Jewish characters: man having power ,influence, money, class and man who lacks these things having sense of being failed on their own, on the deeper and more inaccessible mysterious of human conditions. So, novelist points out the significance of Jewish characters representing social reality of post war era of World War Second relating with their condition and dream of material success.

Dr. Adler is an icon of Jewish American. He is an immigrant in America. They have an obligation to take position in American society so they have to do hard labour for it. Dr. Adler does if and secures his place but Wilhelm is unable to get place. He is not right kind of Jews because Jews have capitalistic ideology. Anyhow they seek material success. So Wilhelm says “In Dad’s eye I am the wrong kind of jew. He does not like the way I act only he is right kind of jew”(87).Here he comments his inability to posit himself in American society. He has the sense of guilt when he fails everywhere. The father seems to have the mindset of an immigrant: work hard and you will succeed.

America after the war was a prosperous America, and therefore, Wilhelm who has grown up during the depression and has reached middle age during this time of money and prosperity has a strong relationship with money. He blames others because they love money as he comments:”they adore money! Holly money! Beautiful money! it was getting so that people were feeble minded about everything expect money”(36) .people are money minded; people get salvation in material success. So it is considered as holy. Wilhelm takes such people as feeble minded people whereas he is a failure in this society. Like many of his generations he has strong desire for it but he is unable to get it.

He gets so many people cynical:[H]e was especially horrified by the cynicism of successful people. Cynicism was bread and meat to everyone and irony too” (17).Every man has thought of material prosperity. He fails in the network of his thoughts but he cannot be fit with this ideology of cynicism.

Ideology has material; existence as Althussur points out in Ideology and Ideological State Apparatus. The idea of material experiences is predominant n American contemporary society character are the byproduct of that society; Dr. Adler’s material existence and his ideology of materialism can be easily crystallized through his behavior toward his children, his thinking and Wilhelm’s soliloquies: “No, you hate me. And if I had had money you would not by god, you would have admitted it. The money makes the difference. Then we would be a fine father and son” (55).Material existence creates the relationship even between father and son. Wilhelm is a hated on because he depends on his father’s help. So, Adler’s denial to assist Wilhelm adds harm in relation. Wilhelm further refuses to compare himself with Dr. Adler though he is the son of that father as he says “you, Dad, were a success in his father’s dream. He is the failure if a capitalistic society. He sees success of his father but not of himself. So, he is failure regarding the American dream.

Bellow presents Dr. Adler, and Dr. Tamkin are the millionaire while Wilhelm lacks it. Dr. Adler advises Wilhelm to move to get millionaire. He has dream of material prosperity. So Dr. Adler tells to Wilhelm time and again to be successful man. Wilhelm need to td work to be something like American does. Similarly Dr. Tamkin tells the story of being almost a millionaire. He opines:

A Friend of mine tipped me off on the cotton. I made heavy purchases of it. I did not have that kind of money but everybody there knew me. […..]The sale was made on the phone. Then, while the cotton shipment was at sea, the price tripled. When the stuff suddenly became so valuable all hell broke loose on the world cotton market, they looked to see who the owner of this big shipment was. (68)

Dr. Tamkin lures Wilhelm in his dream of success for material prosperity. But Wilhelm cannot assimilate his philosophy of success. He is victimized regarding to ideological dream of success.

            New and different kinds of qualifications are necessary for a subject to exist in the capitalistic bourgeoisie American society. Wilhelm needs to learn the scientific and technical skills to be qualified as a competitive labor power of the capitalistic market. As a labor-power they must be competent, i.e suitable to be set to work in the complex system of the process of production. They should be dynamic according to requirements of the socio-technical division of labour, its different jobs and posts. But Wilhelm is not qualified in these all aspects. He is not an educated man. Dr. Adler is in favour of capitalistic values: he always talks about money and business, he believes on hard work and success.

            Wilhelm has neither academic qualification nor any idea of the salesman. Dr. Adler defends him as a sales executive. He further comments, “He did not have the patience to finish school. But he does all right for himself. His income is up in the five figures somewhere”(13). He seeks help from his father, not means of earning, but he claims Wilhelm as sales executive which is ironic in itself. This ideology of Dr. Adler does not be tolerable to Wilhelm. Wilhelm posits his view opposing father’s idea of sales executive. He claims “for many weeks there had been no executive, no ales, no income”(13). In reality he does not have no any special post to play a role in the capitalist society.

But Wilhelm goes opposite of his father as he says: “its Dad thought Wilhelm, who is the sales man. He is selling me. He should have gone on the road”(13). Dr. Adler has capitalistic belief whereas Dr. Adler’s ideology is dominant for labour. In capitalistic vast society, people sell not only commodities; they are destined to sell themselves. Human being become commodity fetishism, the self consciousness of the people is the commodity from coming to awareness of itself.  Wilhelm opines that his father is selling himself and wants to commodity him in the market. He does not want to be on the road to sell goods. So he claims that Dad is salesman not Wilhelm.

            Father and son do not understand to each other. Both are from different world. Father admits, straight out, to not understanding his son, says “I con from a different world”(49). Though Wilhelm rejects this idea of different world, war created another American and thus farther and son are raised in different world and have different belief systems in this convex: “the father were no fathers and the sons no sons” (54). There is no significance even in relation. Money and success determines relation. Both are the subject of capitalistic society.

            Ideology hails or interpellates individuals as subjects. Individual ideology differs with another though people do not realize they are in ideology or they were in ideology. It interpellates them as subject having different roles, identity even their subjectivity. Dr. Adler’s ideology and other characters including Wilhelm are interpellated as construction of subjectivity. The society not only confesses subject hood on particular definition, but also of their roles. He plays several roles significantly he has been as actor , salesman, hospital orderly, a ditch digger, seller of toys, a seller of self and so on. He thinks for all these money plays an important role. “The money makes difference”(55).Capitalists society value the role of money to determine the role of an individual.

            Dr. Adler wants to change self of Wilhelm as a businessman. Wilhelm’s unwilling of self change of the way of father’s desire cannot be successful. He comments: “you want to change myself” (54). It is necessary to change his self to exist in a capitalistic society. But his ideological interpellation or haling constructs obstacles in such direction. He further realizes his own mistake and wrong judgment about self,” I have had the wrong ideas about myself and was not what I thought I was”(54). Neither he could change his self nor did he take advice of his father.

            He identifies himself as an animal as “he called a hippopotamus” (23). His subject hood is positioned with animal’s name; it shows his ideological hailing as animal without rationality and consciousness. He is identified as ‘Wilhy’ and ‘Velvel ’by his father and grandfather respectively both in animalistic terms. Similarly several animalistic imageries are used throughout novel to identify him. He calls himself “as ass! Idiot! Wild boar! Dumb mule! Slave! Wallowing hippopotamus and so on”(55). This motif refers Wilhelm’s animalistic nature, his tendencies and the internal instincts. It also may serve to show tussle between naturalism and materialistic world of capitalism, in fact Wilhelm has been called ‘wolf’. Bellow symbolically shows meaninglessness of failure man in capitalistic society. He is compelled to follow capitalistic values and norms. Dr. Adler wants son with such values. In capitalism, failure interprets himself as a humiliating self. Wilhelm humiliates himself positioning as an animal. 

            Wilhelm is a failure economically. He can be son of Dr. Adler only in the situation of being material success. This ideology discomforts him. So he replies, “just keep your money”(13). He gets disgrace. He does not get any enjoyment of material success so he suggests Dr. Adler, “Keep it and enjoy it yourself”(13). In reality only successful people get pleasure, no money and so on. Unlike worker, he does no labor, gets no money so he also cannot get any pleasure. Wilhelm wants to keep himself away from social influence. He especially wants to remove from social influence. This ideological interpellation of wilhem contrasts his subjectivity as a failure in capitalistic society. Therefore, he shows distress on capitalism as he wants to escape from the social reality of America. So, he comments, “I will get out of here. I don’t belong in New York any more”(82).  Money is in reality just an embodiment, a condensation, and a materialization of a network of social relations. It functions as equivalent of all commodities. In New York where he is living, the everyday spontaneous ideology reduces money to social economic reality. He tries to escape from such reality.

            As men represent their real conditions of existence to themselves in an imaginary form, Dr. Tamkin, a prominent character of the novella has imaginary representation of his self. He sees himself as a millionaire. He says, “I almost become a millionaire myself” (68). Dr. Tamkin has a capitalistic ideology; he is in his illusion of reality.

            Tamkin also has the paradoxical nature as he takes himself as a millionaire at the same time he claims that “money making is aggression: they make a willing by fantasy”(69). Therefore, Tamkin is in the net of capitalistic ideological fantasy. Social reality is represented in an imaginary form.

            Each and every character has an ideological fantasying a capitalist society. They have the illusion of material success of sense of co-operation; they are out of social reality. Such unreality of an imagination has resulted into frustration. This has led him towards the sense of alienation as capitalistic ideology is practised as epithet of domination and alienation.

References

Althusser, Louis. Ideology and Ideological State  Apparatues.

Bellow, Saul. Seize the Day. London: Penguin Books, 2001.

Eagleton, Terry. Marxism and Literary Criticism. London and New York: Routledge. 1996.