Seize the Day Lesson Plan

Seize the Day is a stunningly compact novel that captures with vivid detail a fascinating part of 1950s America. The novel occurs over the course of just one day, primarily through the eyes of Tommy Wilhelm. While written in the third person, the reader is witness to most of Wilhelm's thoughts as he becomes more and more desperate to save himself from seemingly endless bad luck and poor choices. He encounters his father, the logical and cold Dr. Adler, and runs into several residents of their apartment building; he speaks on the phone with his wife with whom he has two children but is separated; and, perhaps most importantly, he goes into business with the near-mythical Dr. Tamkin, a...