TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE
Tuesdays with Morrie is a short narrative dealing with the last few months of an amazing man’s life, Morrie Schwartz. Mitch Ablom, the author, has written this novel documenting his experience of spending every Tuesday, during his last few months, with Morrie. It is a sad yet inspiring chronicle concerning the great relationship built between the two men, Morrie Schwartz and Mitchell Ablom.
From the beginning, as the novel opens, Mitch Ablom writes as if he were speaking to the reader. By using this first person point of view, Ablom is able to connect, and communicate, easily with any that picks up this book. In addition, Ablom is also able to become close and almost personal with the reader. With this type of narrative, where one is documenting an entire day spent with another, it is necessary for the author to write in this fashion in order to convey his message clearly. Ablom does not, however, write the entire novel in first person. In instances where Ablom is describing the memories of Morrie, he uses a third person point of view in which Morrie engages in a dialogue. Using the first person point of view, and toggling back and forth with a third person point of view, Ablom’s style is effective in presenting his thoughts and ideas.
As Ablom is “talking” to his reader, he also displays his thoughts. Many of these thoughts set the tone of the novel by providing an image of exactly what he is thinking. “It cracks me up. The whole time I know him, I have two overwhelming desires: to hug him and to give him a napkin. (p.31)” Without these thoughts shown to the reader, one cannot understand how much love Mitch Ablom has for his teacher, Morrie. The relationship between the two is an everlasting one that will last forever.
The entire narrative is in a very quick pace. Many different things contribute to this. First of all, being the obvious, the plot and story of this novel is engrossing and absorbing. Secondly, the structure and way in which the book was written contributes to its fast pace. The novel is broken up into short chapters. A novel that contains short chapters always seems to move in a quick tempo. However, although there are many chapters, there are no breaks in which the reader can get lost in. The novel is extremely fluid and continuous.
At the beginning of the book I found Mitch to be an aggressive white collar worker. He was extremely career driven, and spent most of his life working. He strived for bigger and better constantly, never feeling satisfied. As the book progressed Mitch became filled with compassion. The Tuesday meetings provided him with insight on the meaning of life, and how to achieve happiness without material possessions. At the end of the book I found Mitch to be relatable, and to have a great understanding of mortality.
In the movie, “Tuesdays With Morrie”, Mitch’s old professor, Morrie, is diagnosed with ALS. Mitch finds out that he is dying, and wants to fulfill the promise to visit him after graduation. Mitch starts visiting him. He talks to him and goes places with him, but when his condition worsens it is hard to go anywhere. Conflicts arise in his love life and work, but Mitch keeps visiting Morrie every Tuesday.
Most of Tuesdays with Morrie consists of replays of conversations between Mitch and his former teacher, Morrie. This may seem like a pretty boring topic, yet Mitch Albom felt the need to write this book. Mitch could have easily just gone to visit his old professor, chatted with him, and left it at that. Why do you think that Mitch Albom felt the need to share his story? What do you spend money on and how can you save for things? What does society teach us about money, wealth, and greed?
Mitch Albom and Morrie Schwartz, surely, demonstrate a mutualistic relationship in Tuesdays with Morrie because both characters benefit from affection, and their visits gives them a sense of purpose. One way Mitch and Morrie share a mutualistic relationship is with love and affection. Morrie is very affectionate and outgoing, so he surrounds himself with the people he loves instead of shutting everyone out when he discovered he had ALS. Mitch describes Morrie’s need for affection when he says, “I suddenly knew why he so enjoyed my leaning over… or wiping his eyes. Human Touch. At seventy-eight, he was giving as an adult and taking as a child” (Albom 116). Mitch sees that Morrie likes affection, and at first he feels uncomfortable at first, but by his last visit, he had changed, ”I leaned in and kissed him closely…he had finally made me cry” (Albom 185-186). Mitch also benefits greatly in this relationship. After his uncle passed away, Mitch decides t...
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
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
"Tuesdays with Morrie" is about an elderly man named Morrie Shwartz diagnosed in his seventies with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Morrie has always lived his life in his own fashion, taking his path less stressful. And continues to do so until his dying day. One of his former students sitting thousands of miles away in Michigan stumbled upon this episode of “Nightline” on the television by chance and most likely by fate. This student, Mitch Album, decides to pay a visit to his favorite tutor in quiet suburb of Boston. As he was a professor of Sociology for many years, Morrie begins again to educate Mitch Album, in, what he calls, his “final thesis.” The old professor and the youthful student meet every Tuesday. As the disease progresses, Morrie shares his opinions on issues such as family, love, emotions, and aging. Although the cover of the book states “an old man, a young man, and life’s greatest lesson,” but the book actually provides numerous life lessons.
Which is why he falls under Erikson’s theory of identity achievement. Identity achievement is when a person understands who he or she is as a unique individual, in accord with past experiences(Berger pg 356). Morrie understands who he is completely so he decides to give advice on life issues that most people go through while Mitch records him. During one session Mitch asked Morrie what his perfect last day would be and he gave it in complete detail from start to finish, it started off having a lovely breakfast, then going for a swim, have some lunch with friends, sit around and tell each other how much they meant to one another, go to dinner and have pasta and duck, then dance until he was exhausted, then go home and fall asleep. He had lived his life too the fullest and he knew exactly how he would want to spend his last day.
Morrie Schwartz the lead character in Tuesdays with Morrie, receives terrible news early on that his death is near, as he is suffering from Lou G...
Tuesdays with Morrie is an inspiring tale in which Mitch, a young man struggling with the concept of a meaningful life is given a second chance, and a new outlook on life when he meets his past teacher, Morrie. They quickly renew the relationship they once possessed in college. Morrie becomes Mitch’s mentor, role model and friend once again. This time around, however, the lessons are on subjects such as life, love, and culture.
Wisdom is a part of this story because morrie has very good judgement, and experience. Morrie is very aware and responsible, morrie told some very great life lessons to morrie and to the class that he taught. More is a very wise man who has been thr0ugh a lot of rough stuff in his life, these hard times he has been through has taught him many new and helpful things that he tries and shares with those around him. He is clever and discerning. An example of wisdom in tuesdays with morrie is, “The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it.” (Albom, 42). This quote is an example of wisdom because morrie is very aware 0f this culture and how it works, morrie shows intelligence and respect. Morrie tells it how it is to mitch and gives him some good advice that if the culture doesn't work don’t buy it. Morrie also said, “Everyone knows they’re going to die but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently.” (Albom,81). By this quote morrie is saying that the best thing is to not live life in denial. There is as bit of pressure in life to make it count. Don’t be complacent about life. Be aware and try to make something matter in the time you are here. If you don’t know where to start, it usually good to start with giving of yourself and finding out where that
There was a student in Morrie's social phsychology class that year, his name is Mitch Albom. These two characters grew a bond to one another where they spent their lunches together, talking for hours. unfornatuely when Mitch graduated, he did not keep his promise to keep in touch with is loving professor. Based on the reading, Mitch gets lost in the work field and becomes a work alcholic. When his uncle dies of pancerous cancer, Mitch decided to make something of himself, he felt "as if time
The story is written in a third person omniscient (although limited) point of view. Miss Brill also interprets the world around her in a similar fashion. She is her own narrator, watching people around her and filling in their thoughts to create stories to amuse herself. Compared to most people, Miss Brill's thinking is atypical. Generally, in viewing the world around him, a person will acknowledge his own presence and feelings. For example, if something is funny, a person will fleetingly think "I find that amusing." While that entire sentence may not consciously cross his mind, the fact that it is humorous is personally related. Miss Brill has no such pattern of thought. She has somehow managed to not include herself in her reactions; she is merely observing actions and words. In this manner, she most resembles the narrator of the story by simply watching and relaying the events around her.
How to give a summary of such a powerful book seems to me to be beyond comprehension. The book has left me so full of life, so committed to changing the way I behave, the way I think, the way I feel about life, death, how I treat others, and how I spend the hours of everyday. The book has left me with thousands of zooming thoughts in my head, like moths circling a light bulb, just trying to feel the soothing heat being radiated from it’s ember glow. The way I feel after reading this book, must be how an immigrant felt when taking those first steps onto American soil. Extremely overwhelmed yet so filled with anticipation for the new life they can lead, if only they make the right choices for themselves, and not fall into the pitfalls of society’s culture, but make a culture of their own. “ Invest in the human family. Invest in people. Build a community of those you love and who love you”
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.