Adversity In Tuesdays With Morrie

Life is not easy, nor is it simple. Life is simply what one chooses to make of it. Kevin Conroy said something similar to that in his quote: “Everyone is handed adversity in life. No one’s journey is easy. It’s how they handle it that makes people unique.” In the two books Night, by Elie Wiesel, and Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom, the audience is shown two very different types of adversity, but adversity none the less. The novels both deal with confinement, loss, and death; those are three of the biggest adversities one can face. While both novels do deal with these adversities, they deal with them differently, and under very different circumstances. Both novels approach adversity in different ways, and they address it in different

ways, but both novels face the same adversities.
The novels each shed a different light on the subject of adversity.

In the first novel, Tuesdays with Morrie, the main character, Morrie himself is going through a very devastating illness. He is losing his independence, not by choice, and not by the hand of some wicked person, but through the illness he has contracted. Morrie, however, does not show the negativity of his situation. He sees his adversity before him, he knows he is going to die and he has no fear for his future. He simply wishes to make a positive impact on the lives of the ones around him. Night however brings a darker feel to the adversities of life, like Morrie, young Elie is losing his life too, but in a different way. Elie is losing his life to the evil that is in the land. Elie sees death in front of him, but he does not reach it, he lives to tell the story, perhaps that is the reason his story is more sad, more haunting. Elie shows the adversity as what he saw it and that is how it is portrayed in his book, completely

negative.
The novels tend to show different ways to handle adversity too. Morrie addresses his adversity as a way to change the lives around him. He wants to impact those around him in a positive way. Morrie used his time, the time he knew he was dying to try to teach the people around him something, Morrie says people need to forgive themselves and they need to do it before it is too late (Albom, 166). Morrie used his adversity to get his story out, so that people would choose to lead a better, more fulfilled life. Elie chose to do the same thing in a way. Elie chose to show people what his adversities truly were, and through that he gave the world a story that it needs to hear. Through Elie’s adversity he put the spotlight on the adversity itself, showing exactly what happened and what went on. Elie talks about when his father died, he thought of nothing, which shows the cruelty of the world they were in (Wiesle, 112).
The adversities themselves in these novels are very similar in a way.

While Morrie fights to tell his story, one of a dying man, who has led his life to the fullest. Elie fights to tell his story, the story of a young boy, who has seen far too many tragic things in his life. Morrie is becoming confined, he is becoming confined in his own body “The things I am supposed to be embarrassed about now- not being able to walk,” (Albom, 155). Elie is confined by the evil around him, he is being limited in both area, and self “Two ghettos were created in Sighet,” (Wiesel, 11).

Both novels tell heart breaking stories. They tell stories of loss and of humanity or lack thereof. They show adversity in different lights. Morrie teaches people to make the most of their adversity. Elie tends to teach people not to forget their adversity. Both men, so very different in the things they did and faced, but both men so strong for what they were able to accomplish. Adversity is in every life, in every day. Adversity is something one must learn to handle though. Without adversity life would be too

simple.