Seize the Day Chapter V Summary & Analysis

There are two specific memories that are important in this chapter: the memory of his feeling in Times Square and the memory of Margaret nursing him to health during an illness. In the Times Square memory Tommy describes feeling connected to the people around him and to the "larger body" of humanity. He begins to feel an internal connection to the external world and, thus, the two halves of the soul begin to merge and unite (internal/external; real/pretender; natural/material). In short, he begins to become connected to the world that he has been isolated within. The memory is juxtaposed with a previous thought about Isolation. Tommy claims that people speak so many "languages" it is difficult to communicate. Still this thought is juxtaposed against the feeling of solidarity with the world in Times Square and capped off in the end with the following statement: "today, his day of reckoning, he consulted memory again and thought, I must go back to that [the feeling in Times Square]. That's the right clue and may do me the most good. Something very big. Truth, like." Truth, therefore lies in an understanding of self that comes with an understanding of the "larger body," that the self exists in.

The second memory is the memory of Margaret. In this memory Margaret nurses him back to health and reads to him. Importantly, she is reading to him, "somewhat unwillingly," a poem about love. This leaves the reader with both uneasiness and silent joy at Tommy's remembrance of love. The love is obvious because it lies within the lines of the poem and within the action of nursing. However, the uneasiness lies in Margaret's unwillingness. Also, the poem is about love but it is about someone who thought to leave someone else until they grew in love. In short there are many things about this memory that are not completely resolved. Much like the fact that after the Times Square memory, Tommy says that he did not feel that solidarity later in the day. Moreover, this chapter is not a chapter about Tommy having learned to swim but one in which he is in the process; it is a chapter not of full understanding but about the path to understanding.

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