At the beginning of the book, you are introduced to a man by the name of Tommy Wilhelm who explains his dreams of becoming an actor. Although he had played the role of an extra in the past, he knew what acting was and what it should look like. Additionally, he tells the reader that he and his father live in the same hotel and everyday they greet one another in the elevator but today his father was already downstairs at breakfast. The hotel in which he and his father live in is called Hotel Gloriana. He feels out of place due to the fact that he’s in his mid-forty’s while he lives around men that his father’s age. He was used to a life full of excitement and living at a hotel with men past the age of retirement isn’t his idea of excitement. We also find out that Tommy’s real name isn’t Tommy, it was Wilhelm Adler but he changed it when he moved to California and he lost his job as a sales associate with the Rojax Association so he is currently working for a man by the name of Dr. Tamkin. Tommy has left his wife and his father doesn’t approve. He feels that Tommy should move back in with his wife and children. When Tommy asks his father about his mother’s death he becomes upset at the fact that he father isn’t able to give him a specific date as to when his mother died. You learn that Tommy takes pills but his father thinks that he takes them too much. While they are at breakfast, Tommy gorges himself with food and his father can no longer stand to look at him. They go into a conversation about how he left his wife with everything and when he asked her for their dog because they were so close with one another, she refused to give it to him. He told his father how she hates him and he feels as if he’s being strangled by her and begins to choke himself. She refused to divorce him and he was now falling in love for another woman. Tommy his dying for help from his father but he lets him know that he will guide him like a child. He tells him that he doesn’t understand how any man would take treatment like this from a woman and to just keep every single dime of his money.
Quotation:
“He thought, The money! When I had it, I flowed money. They bled it away from me, I hemorrhaged money. But now it’s almost all gone, and where am I supposed to turn for more?” (Bellow, 6)
Reflection:
Tommy’s father seems as if he’s not really proud to have him as his son. He has a really negative attitude towards him but I feel that he could be because he’s sick of living with him because Tommy should be out on his own. He doesn’t understand that Tommy is no longer happy with his marriage so I don’t really feel as though his advice was helpful because it isn’t as easy as he was making it seem. Additionally, he didn’t have much sympathy when talking about his Tommy’s mother. I notice that the author talks about Tommy using his ordinal name similar to how his father calls him “Wilky” for short. The author is constantly using detail and entering Tommy’s thoughts to tell the story.
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