Similarities Between Tuesdays With Morrie And Night

Alan Paton once delineated inhumanity and humanity to man incredibly: “There is only one way in which one can endure man’s inhumanity to man and that is to try, in one’s own life, to exemplify man’s humanity to to man.” In the novels Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom, and Night, by Elie Wiesel, main characters are struck by negative things and are required to make the best of a difficult situation. In Tuesdays with Morrie, the main character, Morrie Schwartz, is diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Sometimes called ALS, the disease was challenging for Morrie. In Night, Elie Wiesel and his family are Jews. As the novel progresses, Elie and his family are shipped to concentration camps, where his mother and siblings are immediately killed.

This had a very negative impact on Elie, but he was left with no choice; man’s inhumanity required to him to make the best of the situation at hand. Morrie and Elie both deal with man’s inhumanity in the best way possible, yet they handled the situations in very different ways.
First, Morrie Schwartz was a good, kind-hearted man. He loved to teach, talk, and most importantly dance. When he was diagnosed with ALS, he learned quickly his dancing days were over. These dances would keep him going, realizing that he could still go out and have fun. ALS is a torturous disease; Mitch described the disease by saying, “ALS is like a lit candle: it melts your nerves and leaves your body a pile of wax” (Albom 9). This inhumane disease was burdensome on Morrie, yet he made the most of his remaining time. He decided he needed to speak with many of his friends. When speaking to these friends, he would incorporate life lessons. One important life lesson he expressed was living a life full of meaning. Morrie explains that many people float through life without any purpose or meaning. He delineates not to chase the wrong things, and encourages Mitch to devote himself to others, the community, and something that gives one meaning or purpose (Albom 43). Despite the inhumanity of the gruesome disease, Morrie Schwartz made the most of his remaining time in this world by teaching and encouraging others, just as he had always done before.
Elie Wiesel was launched into a tragic and agonizing situation at a young age.

After being deported to concentration camps, Elie began to see the inhumane acts of humans. Elie saw humans go through the “selection process,” in which he reported that the doctors held their numbers, like it was all a game (Wiesel 72). Elie survived all selections, yet his time in the concentration camps were brutal. The Holocaust made the Jews be a subhuman group. Hitler and his men gave their best efforts in exterminating these Jews; this is about as inhumane as it could possibly get. Yet, Elie kept his head down and kept pushing through, day by day. Elie and all prisoners were moved from one concentration camp to Auschwitz, where they were forced to run for days in brutal, blizzard-like conditions. Elie did his best to stay positive in even the worst times, and it seemed his father tried to follow in his footsteps. Elie recalls a time when his father smiled: “I shall always remember that smile. What world did it come from?” (Wiesel 90). One difference Elie had from Morrie is that in these difficult times, he was forced to take care of his father. In Morrie’s situation, he had to have others take care of him. As inhumanity struck Elie in the novel Night, he was still able to keep a positive and humane attitude just like Morrie, yet was the caretaker instead of being taken care

of.
Morrie Schwartz and Elie Wiesel both handled man’s inhumanity in positive ways, all while doing it in different ways. Despite the inhumane disease, Morrie remained the same gentle, passionate man he always was. He realized he wanted to teach others the details in life, and made a special impact on countless people before his death. Elie Wiesel also kept his head up, pushing through this terrible time of the Holocaust. Although handling it in a different way by taking care of his father, Elie still had the same compassionate qualities as Morrie. Morrie Schwartz and Elie Wiesel both defeated inhumanity in the best way possible: humanity.