Death is an inevitable part of life that we all have to face whether we wish to or not. Death affects many people throughout their lives and is an extremely common fear to have. The novel, Tuesdays with Morrie, tells the story of Mitch Albom, a sportswriter who discovers one of his most favorite college professors has been diagnosed with the life threatening disease ALS. After Albom purely just goes to Morrie for an interview, he builds a relationship with him, and ends up visiting him every tuesday leading up to his death, learning a new lesson every week. There are many important messages, themes, symbols and more that are present in the story. Constantly throughout the story, Albom uses symbolism to show that death is inevitable. One example
that illustrates this is during a story Morrie is telling Mitch during one of his weekly visits with him. During the story Morrie says “The first wave says, ‘You don’t understand! We’re all going to crash! All of us waves are going to be nothing! Isn’t it terrible?’ “The second wave says ‘No, you don’t understand, you’re not a wave, you’re part of the ocean.” (Albom, 179-180) This quote is important because the wave essentially symbolizes Morrie, who is about to “crash” because he is on the verge of death. Although the quote does show that death is inevitable in all accounts of life, this quote also gives Morrie a sense of hope and shows how he can become a part of something bigger than himself following his death. This helps illustrate the inevitability of death because the wave knows he is going to eventually crash and die just like Morrie when he loses his battle with ALS. Another key symbol in the story is Morrie’s bed. During one of Mitch’s last Tuesday visits, Morrie says, “When you’re in bed, you’re dead” (183). The bed, which is essentially what Morrie has been telling mitch to avoid the whole book, symbolizes Morrie’s death. Throughout the entire book, Morrie has told mitch to live life to the fullest, and now on the last Tuesday visit, Morrie is sitting in his bed doing the opposite. The fact that morrie has been telling everyone to live life to the fullest and now he is sitting in bed, because of a reason he could clearly not help ultimately proves how the quote shows the inevitability of death. The final extremely important and present symbol in the book is the hibiscus plant at Morrie’s house. On one of Mitch’s final Tuesday visits with Morrie, Mitch is sharing his thoughts with the reader, at one point he looks over at Morrie’s hibiscus plant and says “The hibiscus plant behind his head was still holding on, small but firm” (Albom 167).The hibiscus plant, which slowly dies throughout the book, is a symbol for Morrie’s death. As the plant becomes weaker and starts failing,the same happens to Morrie. The hibiscus plant, which we slowly watch die alongside morrie, shows that everything declines and eventually fails. The plant not only helps display morrie's death but also helps show the inevitability of death for all these reasons.
In the short story “The Possibility of Evil,” Shirley Jackson uses several symbols to tell the story about Miss Strangeworth. One symbol she uses consist of the roses that Miss Strangeworth treasures. The roses represent the love and perfection of Miss Strangeworth. As we know, Miss Strangeworth believes that the world is horrible and unclean and that she is the only perfect person. She loves her roses dearly which emphasizes her needs for everything to be perfect just like her. She values her roses so much because only she takes care of them making them a symbol of perfection and becomes one of the items that Miss Strangeworth loves and sees as superior to other roses. Another symbol Jackson uses compose of Pleasant Street, the street that
Everything was great, every day was the same except that particular day when your life
A horrific aspect of life that many people have a difficult time dealing with is death. The thought of death scares people because as humans we do not have a way to comprehend something that we cannot test, see or even have a grasp of. When a person loses a loved one they get scared by this reality of that they do not know where they are going and when they make it there how will it be for them. In William Faulkner's book, As I Lay Dying, we go through the process at which a family loses a “loved” one and we follow the family all the way until the deceased, Addie Burden, is buried in Jefferson. In As I Lay Dying you see the steps of grieving are different for many people and some of the people will come out destroyed and others without a scratch. The character Cash goes through a process of grief, odd to most in his way of grief we do not see pain because of the pressure he puts on himself to finish the journey for the family. Cash’s brother, Jewel, seems to snap from the pain of losing his mother and he let the pain ingulf his life. Finally, the last
Tuesdays with Morrie is a book about and old college sociology professor who gives us insight not only on death, but also on other topics important in our lives like fear, marriage, and forgiveness while in his last days being on Earth. Using symbolic interactionism I will analyze one of Morrie’s experiences; while also explaining why I chose such an experience and why I felt it was all connected. Seven key concepts will be demonstrated as well to make sure you can understand how powerful Morrie’s messages truly are. The one big message I took from Morrie was to learn how to live and not let anything hold you back
This poem dramatizes the conflict between love and lust, particularly as this conflict relates to what the speaker seems to say about last night. In the poem “Last Night” by Sharon Olds, the narrator uses symbolism and sexual innuendo to reflect on her lust for her partner from the night before. The narrator refers to her night by stating, “Love? It was more like dragonflies in the sun, 100 degrees at noon.” (2, 3) She describes it as being not as great as she imagined it to be and not being love, but lust. Olds uses lust, sex and symbolism as the themes in the story about “Last night”.
Authors use literary elements throughout short stories to give an overall effect on the message they give in the story. In his short story, “Doe Season” by Michael Kaplan, illustrates a theme(s) of the hardships of not wanting to face the reality of death, losing of innocence and the initiation of growing up. Kaplans theme is contributed by symbolism, characterization, setting and foreshadowing.
Morrie was a sociology professor. He was very close to his student, Mitch Albom, and during the end of his life, as Morrie battles ALS. Mitch meets with him every Tuesday to discuss a large number of life’s topics. On the first
Mitch spends every Tuesday with Morrie not knowing when it might be his dear sociology professor’s last. One line of Morrie’s: “People walk around with a meaningless life…This is because they are doing things wrong” (53) pretty much encapsulates the life lessons from Morrie, Mitch describes in his novel, Tuesdays With Morrie. Morrie Schwartz, a beloved sociology professor at Brandeis University, was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), which most people would take as a death sentence. Morrie viewed it differently; he saw it more as an opportunity. This is because he does not follow the so-called “rules” of society. These rules come from the sociological concept of symbolic interaction, the theory that states that an individual’s
Throughout the movie I noticed that Mitch and Morrie fell under many of the theories that we have discussed in class. In particular they covered Marcia’s role confusion theory, Kübler-Ross’s denial and acceptance theory, and lastly Erikson’s identity achievement theory. The characters Mitch and Morrie fall under these three theories which I will explain below.
Some people spend their lives working towards the coming of their death, and their life thereafter, where others spend their lives doing everything they possibly can to make the most of their time on earth. In Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom, the lead character Morrie Schwartz was diagnosed with the fatal disease Lou Gerrig’s Disease, also known as ALS. Although many people would fall into a deep pit of self-loathing and regret, Morrie Schwartz took the opportunity to teach people about life and love. He surrounded himself with friends, and loved ones in his final days. Contrary to Morrie’s attitude, Lear, in William Shakespeare's King Lear, treats death as a negative thing in his life, fearing it, and running from it.
In Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” she uses the structure of her poem and rhetoric as concrete representation of her abstract beliefs about death to comfort and encourage readers into accepting Death when He comes. The underlying theme that can be extracted from this poem is that death is just a new beginning. Dickinson deftly reassures her readers of this with innovative organization and management, life-like rhyme and rhythm, subtle but meaningful use of symbolism, and ironic metaphors.
While the majority of the people in this world may seem so sweet, in some there is evil that lives amongst them. The story “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson is able to display the features of evil doings that humans have the potential to do through everyday life and through her own little twist. Miss Adela Strangeworth is known in her town for her kind heart and friendliness, though behind the scenes her ironic true colours are revealed. Next, the roses in which she plants symbolizes the presence of evil in Miss Strangeworth herself. Lastly, the peaceful atmosphere of the story is used to hide the focus of evil that is within. Jackson uses the literary devices of irony, symbolism and atmosphere to thoroughly exhibit the traits of
It is inevitable that we will all die it is a fact that everyone must come to terms with. There comes a time in everyone’s life that they must face death; a friend’s tragic accident, a family member’s passing or their own battles with diseases. When faced with the idea of death people will act in different ways some may find it therapeutic to apologize for the negative they have done, some may want to spend time with loved ones to ease the future pain, and others may decide that their life was not what they believed. The story Death Constant Beyond Love tells us about a man named Senator Sanchez who is living a happy life with his wife and five kids. That is until he is told by doctors that he only has a short time to live. Death is unknown much like love, we do not know or understand when love will find us, and it is the same with death. In Death Constant Beyond Love is not your typical love or death story. After told about his pending doom Senator Sanchez wants to keep his life as constant as normal, until his desires for a young woman change his plans, and then he dies.
Tuesdays with Morrie, written by Mitch Albom, is a story of the love between a man and his college professor, Morrie Schwartz. This true story captures the compassion and wisdom of a man who only knew good in his heart and lived his life to the fullest up until the very last breath of his happily fulfilled life. When Mitch learned of Morrie’s illness, the began the last class of Morrie’s life together and together tried to uncover “The Meaning of Life.” These meetings included discussions on everything from the world when you enter it to the world when you say goodbye. Morrie Schwartz was a man of great wisdom who loved and enjoyed to see and experience simplicity in life, something beyond life’s most challenging and unanswered mysteries. Morrie was a one of a kind teacher who taught Mitch about the most important thing anyone can ever learn: life. He taught Mitch about his culture, about trust, and perhaps most importantly, about how to live.
Emily Dickinson is an American poet who encourages individuals to embrace the idea of death rather than fearing it. Having grown up in a city with a very high mortality rate Dickinson accepts how common death is in the natural life cycle and depicts this in her poetry. Although a very isolated individual, Dickinson is able to describe her acceptance and comfort with the idea of death in her poems and convey them to her readers. Dickinson’s poems encourage readers to live every moment as it were their last because it is unknown when death will come. Have courage when facing death, rather than fearing it. Dickinson illustrates that death is not something to be feared or desired but something that is natural.