The last two chapters of Seize the Day, show how Wilhelm has truly reached his day of reckoning, as he finally discovers that he has been wrong and he asks for forgiveness and for a second chance. He is tricked by Tamkin, but he manages to accept it learning a valuable lesson. At the end of this novel, Wilhelm realizes that to be able to save himself from drowning in his misery, he has to let go. To be able to let go he has to have that moment of reflexion where his tears will be the ones that will cure him.
Throughout the novel, Wilhelm is afraid to let go and he avoids crying in front of others, cry in front of these people... No! No! And yet his unshed tears rose and rose and he looked liked a man about to drown.”(100) He tried very hard not to cry, which made it even worst. His emotions begun to accumulate and he felt as if he couldn’t breathe for much longer, until he finally feels that he is drowning. This resumes what I have been talking about previously because it shows that although he appeared to be strong, he was very weak and couldn’t handle it.
After he realized that Tamkin is gone, he goes back to his father and asks for forgiveness as he recognizes that was wrong and that he can’t take it much longer. His father refuses to help him and begins to feel once again as if he can’t breathe, “My chest is all up, I feel chocked. I just simply can’t catch my breath.” (105) His attitude towards his father changes dramatically and he wants to be with him just to feel that somebody cares about him, but he receives no support from Dr. Adler. He begins to choke and drown to death, but inside his soul. This is the symbolism that is found within this novel. Maybe the air that he is not receiving is the moments and the days that have gone by and that he hasn’t breathed into, or seized in other words. When he looses his investments in the stock market he feels as if he has lost everything, but later on he realizes that he is just as Tamkin has said people were, materialistic and dependant on the mechanical aspects of life.
As Wilhelm goes out into the street, he begins to observe the people that are around him, and he tries to understand their lives, something that he never did before. He opens up to the world and is ready to see beyond his enclosed perspective by observing others, “... in every face the refinement of one particular motive or essence- I labor, I spend, I strive, I design, I love, I cling, I uphold, I give away, I envy, I long, I scorn, I die, I hide, I want. (111) In this part of the novel, Wilhelm becomes more of a person as he tries to understand the world. At the beginning of the chapter he has doubts and hates himself for being stupid, and towards the end he allows his soul to be free within the crowd.
Finally, Wilhelm ends his day by discovering who he really is an accepting himself with his flaws and endless defeats. He saves himself from drowning by crying and expulsing all those tears that wouldn’t let him breathe for so long, “Wilhelm began to cry. He cried at first softly and from sentiment, but soon from deeper feeling...the source of all his tears had suddenly sprung open within him.”(113) He ends alone, but relieved from all the stress and constant worries that his past and his future tormented hi with, living that moment, seizing the day that had taught him so much of the world, humanity and himself just by being an observer and a pupil.
