Realism
Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher who's kind of a big deal, once suggested that theatrical productions should only represent events that could happen in the same span of time it would take to watch the play. (Believe us: you would not have found him sitting through a stage version of Peter Jackson's The Return of the King.)Aristotle died centuries before some eighteenth-century whiz-kids invented the novel, but if he'd lived until 1956, he would've loved Seize the Day.
From the moment Tommy Wilhelm steps out of his room at the Hotel Gloriana, to the moment he breaks down in the funeral parlor down the road, no more than six or seven hours has passed. Factoring in bathroom breaks and time spent checking your phone, we're betting that it wouldn't take you any longer than that to read Seize the Day in one sitting. That compressed time frame—in which an ordinary guy eats a couple of meals and runs a few errands on one slightly out-of-the-ordinary day—is just one of the things that signals the novel's devotion to realism.