What are families for, if not to bail you out of your bad decisions and pick you up when you're feeling blue? According to Wilhelm's father in Seize the Day, they're for just about anything but those things. Wilhelm is convinced that Dr. Adler would love him more if he were rich, and Dr. Adler is convinced that his son would bleed him dry if he got half a chance. Neither man is really capable of understanding or helping the other, making this father-son relationship about as functional as the one between Luke Skywalker and a certain Darth.
Questions About Family
- To what extent is the narrator's perspective on Dr. Adler influenced by Wilhelm's views?
- Is Wilhelm right in thinking that his father is obsessed with thoughts of death?
- Is Dr. Adler's opinion of Wilhelm fair? Does the novel's narrator give us any reason to take it with a grain of salt?
Chew on This
Although Wilhelm resents Dr. Adler for failing in his fatherly duties, Wilhelm himself is no better. Dr. Adler may have felt "freed" by the death of his wife, but Wilhelm sought freedom from his own wife and children by having multiple affairs. Ultimately, Dr. Adler and his son have more in common than Wilhelm likes to think.
Wilhelm thinks of himself as a man with strong family values, but his relationships with his father, sister, wife, and children don't bear this out. In this, as in so many other areas of his life, Wilhelm's image of himself isn't exactly true to nature.