Analyzing Mitch Albom's Tuesdays With Morrie

ZEN Project: “Tuesdays with Morrie”
In the novel “Tuesday’s with Morrie”, Mitch Albom describes the relationship between him and his college professor who he hasn’t seen in years. Mitch, who is a sports reporter is constantly busy and hasn’t had time to stay in touch with his professor as he promised. After sixteen years, Mitch is bombarded with the devastating news that he professor has been diagnosed with ALS. Not knowing how to face him after breaking his promise, Mitch decided to fly to Boston to apologize and to say his goodbyes. Once Mitch arrived, his professor remembered him instantly and gives him a warm welcoming hug.
They both go inside where the professor’s nurse prepared dinner for the both of them to catch up on sixteen years and reminisce about past memories. As Mitch was getting ready to leave, the professor told him he would like to see him again. Feeling remorse for not following through the first time he promised he would stay in touch, Mitch decides to amend his actions with a second promise. It then becomes a routine for Mitch to go and visit his professor consistently, eventually getting to the point that he would go and visit his professor every Tuesday.
Throughout these meetings with the professor, Mitch realizes that he has been living life the wrong way. The more Mitch meets with Morrie, the less of an obligation

he feels. Not only does Mitch begin to enjoy the time he is spending with Morrie, he also learns from it. One Tuesday meeting, Mitch asks Morrie if he is able to record their conversation in order to always remember his advice. Morrie is so pleased to see that Mitch is taking an interest in him, that he gives his illness less of an importance.
What this book conveys, can be seen in everyday life. We are often too busy with work, school, and enjoying our personal life that we forget to spend time with the people that matter. We overlook the fact that life is short and that the world does not revolve around us. Things change from one day to the next and one needs to learn how to appreciate life and the people who are in it. I am not less guilty of this than anyone else.
My grandma was diagnosed with lung cancer four years ago. I know that from one day to another things can change and I might not be able to say goodbye, yet I have been so busy with school and work that I haven’t taken the time to go to homestead and visit her. Unlike me, Mitch actually took the initiative to fly to Boston and visit his professor. This book made me realize that I need to spend time with my grandma before it’s too late, and if someone could fly every week to go see their professor, I should be able to make an hour drive to go see someone who means so much to me. I know if I dedicate my time at least once a week like Mitch did, I could learn a lot of life lessons from my grandma. My grandma and I had a great relationship when I was younger, but as I grew up, life began to get a little tougher and I gave more importance to other things rather than her.
Various times, my girlfriend has tried talking me into going to see my grandma over the weekend, and various times I have promised that we will. Instead I end up going out with my friends, fishing, partying, drinking and having fun. Just like Mitch, I’m living my life the wrong way. I’m working to spend it on the weekend rather than working for a better future. Thankfully I decided to go back to school and finish what I started. Yet, schooling is not an education, people go to school to make more money, a profit, to follow cultural norms, the same norms Morrie advices to break free off. At least my grandma is still alive. There are people who we can’t bring back.
I have spent the last seven years trying to atone for my actions. My cousin Vicky, who I was very close to, passed away from Sepsis. Even though my cousin Vicky was older than me, we had an incredible relationship. She used to take me out to the movies, play at the park, and even take me to the arcade as a kid. Vicky passed away at the age of 56, she was divorced and had two daughters who are twenty eight and thirty two years old. When Vicky was sick, she knew her time was coming close to an end and just like Morrie she didn’t have any remorse or regrets.
Death shouldn’t be a reason to get close to someone. We should always appreciate the people who are in our lives, because in a blink of an eye, it can change. My job as a police officer has lead me to become the type of person that does not like to go to sleep mad at anyone, as unimportant that person may be. I was recently offered a position in the city of Orlando as a police officer. Even though Orlando is four hours away from Miami, I’m going to take every opportunity I have to come down to Miami and spend it with my family and friends. Coming from that line of work where in a blink of an eye, my life could be over, I want to spend every chance I have with the ones who I truly love.
Just like Mitch, we are all going to have obstacles in life; Mitch’s obstacle was work. His job interfered with his Tuesday meeting with Morrie, but Mitch overcame that obstacle and continued to see Morrie because it was a priority. My obstacles are going to be working four hours away from my family and girlfriend and the fact that our schedules won’t match up. Starting in a new department, my days off are most likely going to be Tuesday and Wednesdays which are the days that my girlfriend is going to be in school and the days my parents are going to be working. Saturday and Sunday, days off which most of the society has, are going to be the days in which my parents and girlfriend will be coming up to Orlando to visit me, yet those days I’m going to be busy working. This is when one needs to set their priorities straight. My parents and girlfriend are my number one priority and as tempting as Orlando may sound, I will be turning that position down.
When comparing “Tuesday with Morrie” to our class discussions it is clear that they go hand in hand. One of the key topics in handling relationships is listening skills and assertiveness. In the book, Mitch’s listening skills didn’t play a good role in his personal life as he was too focused on his work. He wouldn’t pay enough attention to his girlfriend. He also wasn’t very assertive; He lacked a confident and forceful personality. As the work develops, Mitch becomes more self-aware. He begins coping with his work related stress through empathy. Mitch is learning through the life experiences of Morrie. In the novel, one can see how things effect society through the showcase of a real life story and Morrie’s views on the different circumstances on life. Each lesson that Morrie teaches Mitch contains a message about how individuals should reject popular cultural values and develop their own. Morrie himself has fled all customs and created his own. Morrie gives Mitch many important lessons, but the most important one is that in the absence of love, theirs a void that can be filled only by loving human relationships.
The novel can better be explained through the interactionist perspective, which reminds us that all society, institutions, and people are affected by their interaction with one another. George Mead, better explains this through symbolic interaction. Morrie sees norms in the same way Karl Marx see religion, as the opium which keeps the masses under program thinking. One has to set themselves free in order to be liberated from this program. Through socialization with Morrie, Mitch gains social experience and discovers his higher self. As an extrovert in the media world he is successful, but as an introvert he does not fall behind.
Both Mitch and Morrie are well adjusted people, Morrie though finds it easier to maximize gratification and at the same time minimize pain. When faced with the news of his illness, Morrie seemed to be calm and develops an effective behavior. Mitch is a great example of the social learning theory, he learns through the reinforcement that his college professor provides him. He develops a social attachment towards Morrie through these meaningful interactions.
In phycology this symbolic interactions are portrayed in experiments such as Harlow’s studies on dependency on monkeys. In this experiment Harlow makes two robot monkey mothers. One of them is covered in cloth and the other one is made up of wire. The monkeys that were given an option to pick between the two mothers spent more time clinging on to the terry cloth surrogates. Both mothers performed the same functions when it came to feeding the babies, this suggest that infant love is not simply based on the satisfaction of physiological needs. In the case of “Tuesdays with Morrie”, Mitch’s job as a sports reporter would symbolized the wire mother. His job satisfies his needs by providing him with money and putting food on his table. Morrie on the other side fulfills him psychologically and emotionally.
Throughout the novel there is a lot of symbolism, as Morrie’s body deteriorates, so does the condition of the hibiscus plant. The plant represents his oxygen and his life which is now falling apart. Morrie recounts the story of the waves in the ocean crashing at the shore, to emphasize how his persona as well will soon crash and disappear. This crashing is a symbolism of death. Throughout Morrie’s struggle with ALS, he refuses to stay in bed. This is because the purpose of a bed is for one to sleep on it, and sleeping is a temporary form of death. Phycology is the study of the individual. Mitch Alboms novel, is the study of Morrie. Originally Albom had planned for the novel to be just about Morrie, but somewhere along the way it ended up being about the both of them. According to Howard Brody, one copes with illness with the strength of one’s conviction, our system of thought endow pain; we make sense of pain in much the same way we make sense of the world, through ethnomethodology.
Ethnomethodology is the belief that humans create the illusion of reality to go by each day without going crazy.

As Sullivan suggested, our personality is like plastic, it can change from total relaxation to total horror. Morris’s personality though appears to be stable due to his coping mechanism. As he approaches death, he abandons each of the five theories of personality, he is no longer an extrovert or stable, and soon enough he will no longer be conscious or agreeable. All he has left is to be open, open with Mitch. By teaching Mitch about life and how to break free from cultural norms, he also teaching the concept of

self.
Mitch symbolic interaction with Morrie lead him to come to possess a social identity. His outlook on life determines his outcome. Mitch is aware of his existence and the boundaries of his own body. He is knowledgeable of his needs and is also able to refer to his own being. Mitch is not only able to organize his own experiences, but also the wisdom Morrie is passing on to him. In phycology we learn about moral development and the ability to judge right from wrong, by prioritizing his meeting with Morrie. Mitch shows a sign of development. Mitch does not only develop morally but cognitively, he puts his work to the side and begins paying more attention to his girlfriend and Morrie. Morrie plays the role of Victor Frankel in Mitch’s life, he teaches him the role of meaning and how beautiful life really is. Finally on the last Tuesday meeting, Mitch’s finally detaches from cultural norms when he puts gender roles behind and let his emotions emerge. As Morrie and Mitch say their final goodbyes; Mitch can’t help but cry.