Choose ONE and only one of the following questions. Answer it in a complete and thoughtful essay. Your essay should be a well-developed, clear, logical and complete idea developed from a definite thesis statement. Use the texts when necessary to support your answer, but do not merely summarize plot. Your paper should be 5-7 pages in length; no fewer than 5 full pages will suffice, and more than that is probably necessary to completely answer these questions.

Essays must be either typed on a typewriter or printed from a computer–12 point Times New Roman font, double-spaced. This paper is due on Wednesday, February 11. Papers handed in late will receive a one grade deduction for each day/class late. I will be happy to look at drafts. In fact, I encourage you to come in with a draft and/or send e-mail with questions.

You must, by noon of the day the paper is due, also upload a copy of your paper to turnitin.com following the process outlined in class.

Read the questions carefully. Support all answers with examples from the text, but do not merely summarize plot–analyze!

1) Write an essay in which you discuss the three different "persons" of Wilhelm Adler, Tommy Wilhelm, and Wilky. How are the three distinctive in the novel, and how do the three both cause (affect) and create (effect) the outcome of the novel?

2) Throughout the novel Tommy constantly raises the image of having something or someone on his back. Using at least three specific examples in the novel, discuss this image as it is important to the overall themes of the work.

3) Discuss the use of water as a symbol throughout Saul Bellow’s Seize the Day, concentrating on the closing pages of the novel; however, you’ll get a stronger essay if you consider the image throughout the novel as a whole. This is the most difficult option for this assignment.