CONFLICT

There are two conflicts in this novel: the major conflict is

Morrie vs. ALS and the second, minor conflict, is Mitch vs.
himself. Morrie must come to terms with his illness and accept
his coming death from ALS. In the meantime, Mitch, his
former college student, visits him every Tuesday. Mitch has
become very disillusioned with his fast-paced life and
constant strive for materialistic possessions. He struggles to
find meaning with his life and to change the person he has
become in the sixteen years since he had last seen Morrie.
Protagonist
Morrie Schwartz is the protagonist of Tuesdays with Morrie; he
is the character around which the action develops. Morrie is a
loving, compassionate and accepting older man who is losing
his life to the disease, ALS.
Antagonist
The disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), is the
antagonist of the story. This is the disease from which Morrie
is suffering throughout the novel. We see the disease
gradually begin taking over Morrie: he stops dancing; he then
eventually is confined to his chair in his study; the disease
then prevents him from eating solid foods and moving around
without help. Eventually he is bed ridden and fully succumbed
to the disease, which does finally take his life.
Climax
Mitch visits Morrie for the last time, when he is very close to
his death; after years of trying to get Mitch to open up, Morrie
finally succeeds at doing so by seeing him cry.

Outcome
At Morries funeral, Mitch has a conversation with Morrie, in
his head, and feels at ease due to the familiarity of the
conversation. Mitch also takes Morries advice and contacts
his brother in Spain. Another outcome of this story is the novel
itself-Mitch relaying the story of a man who changed his life.
SHORT PLOT/CHAPTER SUMMARY (Synopsis)
Morrie Schwartz was Mitch Alboms favorite college professor.
At the start of the novel Albom recalls a memory from his
college graduation day: he is saying goodbye to Morrie and
gives him a tan briefcase with his initials on it. They hug and
when Mitch steps back he sees that Morrie is crying. Mitch
promises to stay in touch with Morrie but he never does after
college.
Since his graduation, Mitch has become a newspaper reporter
and husband. He leads a very fast paced life and is constantly
working and traveling. He has become so engrossed in his
work that it consumes his life.
The novel recommences about sixteen years after Mitchs
graduation day; Morrie has since been diagnosed with
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Since Morries diagnosis,
he began jotting down ideas and thoughts onto scrap paper,
yellow pads or even envelopes. He also wrote philosophies

about living knowing death was very near. One of his friends
was so taken with his writing, he sent them to
the Boston Globe reporter, who wrote a feature story about
Morrie. The story intrigued one of the producers of the show,
Nightline, who then did a feature story about Morrie. Mitch
happened to see the Nightline show and recognized his old
professor. He called him to set up a visit.
Mitch began visiting Morrie every Tuesday. Their discussions
ranged from the world, regrets, death, love and money; the
purpose of their meetings was to discuss Morries view on the
meaning of life. Mitch became so intrigued by Morries
philosophies that he began taking notes and even recording
Morrie.
Morries philosophies included rejecting popular culture
morals and following self-created values, loving others, and
learning to accept death.
With each lesson, Morrie becomes increasingly sick; during
their last meeting, Morrie was bed ridden and near death. As
he and Mitch hugged for one last time, Morrie notices Mitch is
finally crying.
Morrie dies a short time after. At his funeral Mitch tries having
a conversation with Morrie, as he had wanted. Mitch feels a
certain naturalness and comfort to this conversation and
realizes that it happens to be Tuesday.
After Morries death Mitch regains contact with his brother
who lives in Spain and is battling cancer.
Tuesdays with Morrie is a true story about sportswriter Mitch
Albom and his favorite college professor Morrie Schwartz.
During Albom's undergraduate years at Brandeis University,
when he takes every class taught by his mentor, he and
Schwartz form a bond that goes beyond the typical
student/teacher relationship.
After graduation, Albom promises to stay in touch with his
professor and moves to New York City with the intention of
pursuing a career as a professional musician. He spends
several frustrating years working odd jobs and wondering
what he is doing wrong. He loses touch with all of his college
friends and with Schwartz. His musical dreams are dying a
frustrating death, and he feels like a failure for the first time in
his life.
Around that time, a favorite uncle passes away from cancer at
the age of forty-four. This frightens Albom into action. He
returns to school and earns graduate degrees in journalism
and business administration from Columbia University in New
York. Albom accepts a job as a sports writer and begins
working long, grueling hours, determined not to end up at a
corporate job he hates like his uncle did. He bounces around
the country working for different newspapers and magazines
before finally settling atThe Detroit Free Press, where his
career really begins to take off.
As Albom's career grows, so do his income and his material
possessions. The more he gets, the more he wants and the
harder he works. During this time, he also gets married. His
wife wants to start a family, and he promises her "someday."
One evening while flipping channels on the television, Albom
catches the introduction to Nightline and hears the name
Morrie Schwartz. His long-forgotten favorite professor is the

subject of a Ted Koppel interview. Albom watches in shock as

he learns Schwartz is dying of ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease.
Shortly after learning the diagnosis, Schwartz makes an
important decision. He isn't going to hide behind his illness.
He isn't going to be ashamed or afraid of dying. He's been a
teacher all his life and decides he'll teach one final class,
teaching his students how to die. That's where Schwartz's old
student and friend Mitch Albom comes in. After seeing
the Nightline interview, Albom visits Schwartz and makes
another promise to keep in touch.
A few weeks later, Albom's newspaper goes on strike, and he
is out of a job. Left with too much time on his hands and too
many unsettling thoughts in his head, he returns to
Massachusetts to see Schwartz. In fact, he returns to
Massachusetts every Tuesday until the end of Schwartz's life.
After a couple of visits, Albom begins recording their talks,
with Schwartz's permission and his encouragement. He wants
to share this journey with the world and knows that Albom can
help him reach beyond the walls to which his disease has
confined him. For the next fourteen weeks, Schwartz and
Albom discuss everything from regrets and death to money
and marriage, from family to forgiveness. Their conversations
and the insights they give into the way Schwartz has lived his
life and accepts his death become the foundation around
which Tuesdays with Morrie is written.
TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE- My Perspective
I read this book recently and being a teacher understood that
the number of roles a teacher could take in the life of an
individual is many. The book, written by Mitch Albom, is a true
story of a relationship between a teacher and a student, which
goes far beyond the four walls of the classroom and spans
several years. In fact it still lives through the book Mitch has
written. Any one could take on the role of a teacher
consciously or unconsciously for any person at any point of
time in life. It was many years after school that Mitch came
back to Morrie upon hearing that his mentor was dying of a
terminal illness called ALS.ALS-Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis,
is a disease of the neurological system. The patient loses
control over muscles. For Morrie it was a slow and painful walk
to death. For Mitch it was remorseful to watch him this way.
On the many Tuesdays that Mitch meets with Morrie, he
decides the meetings to be pleasant talks between them. Life
is complicated, but for Mitch, on talking with Morrie, it gets so
much more simplified. Morrie talks on a wide range of topics
like fear, family, society, forgiveness, death, ageing, money,
greed, detachment and lots more. Who could get a teacher
like this? So he is a teacher right till the end of his days,
telling the world about life from the eyes of a dying man. To
convert each painful moment into a happy one, to be content
in whatever situation one has been thrown into by fate, is
what I felt needs to be learnt from this book besides others.
In his acknowledgments Mitch after thanking all, says, Mostly
my thanks to Morrie for wanting to do this last thesis together.
Have you ever had a teacher like this?
So it made me wonder, I guess it would make all thinking
people reflect about whether they ever had a teacher like this.
In India, to have a teacher like this is not a rarity. We have had
a strong guru- shishya/ student tradition in place. They would

learn values of life, discipline, feeling of service towards the

teacher, undue respect to the spoken word of the teacher,
skills based on talent; all this was ingrained right from a very
young age. Children would leave the comfort of their homes
to live with their Guru, thus learning lessons of life. The child
would go back home whenever the guru felt it was time.
There are so many similarities between perceptions of Morrie
in his last days, and a Guru in India. (India of the olden days).
The Guru here is like a Zen master; a person who removes
darkness of ignorance, and shows light. The Guru is discerned
as a person sitting on the throne of power of knowledge, with
a garland of the ultimate reality adorned on his neck. The
guru is a person who lets the student know himself, and
encourages self knowledge. The guru in his own charming
ways sows the seed of knowledge and compassion which is
the base for all rightful acts. For the student, the gurus feet
are revered as the ultimate.
I was thus attracted to the content and style of this book.
There are a lot of portions that I need to keep in my memory,
so I am going to jot them down here for myself and for
whoever else reads it.
About Morrie, a little bit. Being a Russian American Morrie was
an astute, disciplined person, with a gentle attitude about
him, as understood from the writings of the author. Not that
life had treated him kindly in his childhood days. Money was
always a problem, memories of his own mother who died
when he was just eight years of age, haunted him throughout
his life, there were n special attachments with his father, and
he had responsibilities of his younger brother who was
affected by polio. Life was tough, but a teacher for Morrie.
Having gone through it all early in life, Morrie could easily sail
through the latter better part of his life as a professor of Social
Studies. Morrie takes his lessons freely from Buddhism,
writers, thinkers, and others, Mahatma Gandhi too. He was
very passionate about dance, something to me that
personifies total freedom, the expression is simply soul
stirring.
Now to quote from the book portions that I have specifically
found worth keeping are as follows. They are taken directly
from the book.
When Morie got to know about his illness: and On
Death
=Do I wither up and disappear, or do I make the best of my
time left?
He would not wither. He would not be ashamed of dying
Study me in my slow and patient demise. Watch what
happens to me learn with me...
= He was intent on proving that the word dying was not
synonymous with useless He chose a date for a living
funeral. On a cold Sunday afternoon, he was joined in his
home by a small group of friends and family. Each of them
spoke and paid tribute to my old professor. Some cried, some
laughed. One woman read a poem..Morrie cried and
laughed with them. His living funeral was a rousing success.
=There are some mornings when I cry and cry and mourn for
myself. Some mornings, Im so angry and bitter. But it doesnt
last too long. Then I get up and say, I want to live...

=Dying is the only one thing to sad over. Living unhappily is

something else. So many of the people who come to visit me
are unhappy.
Because the culture we have does not make people feel good
about themselves. Were teaching the wrong things. And you
have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesnt work,
dont buy it. Create your own. Most people cant do it. Theyre
unhappy than me-even in my current condition.
= Death is a great equalizer, the one big thing that can finally
make strangers shed a tear for one another.
=Everyone knows theyre going to die, but nobody believes
it. If we did, we would do things differently.
=To know youre going to die, and to be prepared for it any
time, thats better. That way you can actually be more
involved in your life while youre living.
=Do what the Buddhists do. Every day have a little bird on
your shoulder that asks, Is today the day? Am I ready? Am I
doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?
Morrie borrowed freely from all religions He was a religious
mutt, which made him even more open to the students he
taught over the years, and the things he was saying in his
final months on earth seemed to transcend all religious
differences. Death has a way of doing that. The truth is once
you learn how to die, you learn how to live.
Morrie created a cocoon of human activitiesconversation, interaction, affection, -and it filled his
life like an overflowing soup bowl.
Morrie told Mitch: So many people walk around with a
meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when theyre
busy doing things they think are important. This is because
theyre chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning to
life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to
the community around you, and devote yourself to creating
something that gives you purpose and meaning.

keep going. So we dont get into the habit of standing back

and looking at our lives and saying, is this all? Is this all I
want? Is something missing? You need someone to probe
you into that direction. It wont happen just automatically.
We all need teachers in our lives.
A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his
influence stops. Henry Adams
On Family
The fact is, there is no foundation, no secure ground, upon
which people may stand today if it isnt the family.Love is so
supremely important. As our great poet Auden said, Love
each other or perish.
Even as he was dying, he showed respect for his childrens
worlds. Little wonder that when they sat with him, there was a
waterfall of affection, lots of kisses and jokes and crouching by
the side of the bed, holding hands.
On Emotions
Learn to detach. You know what the Buddhists say? Dont
cling to things, because every thing is impermanent
Detachment does not mean you dont let experience
penetrate you. On the contrary, you let it penetrate you fully.
Thats how you are able to leave it.
Take any emotion-love for a woman, or grief for a loved one,
or what Im going through, fear, pain from a deadly illness. If
you hold back emotions-if you dont allow yourself to go all
the way through them you can never get to being detached,
youre too busy being afraid. Youre afraid of the pain, youre
afraid of the grief, youre afraid of the vulnerability that love
entails. But by throwing yourself into these emotions, by
allowing yourself to dive in, all the way, over your head even,
you experience them fully and completely. You know what
pain is. You know what love is. You know what grief is. And
only you can say, All right I have experienced that emotion. I
recognize that emotion. Now I need to detach from that
emotion for a moment.

On caring for people

On Ageing
The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out
love, and to let it come in.
We think we dont deserve love, we think if we let it in well
become soft. But a wise man Levine said it right. He said,
Love is the only rational act.
On feeling sorry for himself
I dont allow myself any more self- pity than a few tears each
morning.
Its horrible to watch my body slowly wilt away to nothing.
But its also wonderful because all of the time I get to say
goodbye.
What if todays my last day on earth?
The culture doesnt encourage you to think about such
things until youre about to die. Were so wrapped up with
egotistical things, career, family, having enough money,
meeting the mortgage, getting a new car, fixing the radiator
when it breaks-were involved in trillions of little acts just to

Morrie had ageing in better perspective.

All this emphasis on youth-I dont buy it. Listen, I know the
misery being young can be, so dont tell me its so great. All
these kids who came to me with their struggles, their strife,
their feelings of inadequacy, their sense that life was
miserable, so bad they wanted to kill themselvesAnd in
addition to all the misery the young are not wise. They have
very little understanding about life. Who wants to live
everyday when you dont know whats going on?... I embrace
aging.
You have to find whats good and true and beautiful in your
life as it is now. Looking back makes you competitive, And,
age is not a competitive issue.
On Money
Wherever I went in life, I met people wanting to gobble up
something new. Gobble up a new car, a new piece of property,
a latest toy. And then they wanted to tell you about it, Guess
what I got?

You know how I always interpreted that? These were people

so hungry for love that they were accepting substitutes. They
were embracing material things and expecting a sort of hug
back. But it never works. You cant substitute material things
for love or for the gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense
of comradeship. Money is not a substitute for tenderness, and
power is not a substitute for tenderness When youre dying,
when you most need it, neither money nor power will give you
the feeling youre looking for, no matter how much of them
you have.
On love and marriage
There are a few rules I know to be true about love and
marriage. If you dont respect the other person, youre gonna
have a lot of trouble. If you dont know how to compromise,
youre gonna have a lot of trouble. If you cant talk openly
about whats going on between you two, youre gonna have a
lot of trouble. And if you dont have a common set of values in
life, youre gonna have a lot of trouble. Your values must be
alike. And the biggest one of those values is Love.
Well I have tried to put forth what I liked from the book. In fact
there is lots more, but more of that later
Posted by Varnika Kapoor at 1:44 AM
Labels: ageing, death, family, guru, knowledge, love, marriage
, money, Morrie,relationships
1 comment:

Shuchi Grover said...

I loved this post, Varni. This is a heartfelt review of a book you
clearly loved and enjoyed, and wanted to write about and
share with others. I really really enjoyed reading this writeup,
and could appreciate the sentiments you were attempting to
share through this.

~It is okay to cry

~Value your friends and most importantly tour family because
they will always be there for you
~Love is the single, most important thing in life
~If the culture of the world doesn't 'suit' your own lifestyle,
create your own
~To be able to detach yourself from an feeling you first need
to allow yourself to experience it fully
Monday, 10 June 2013
Self reflection

What I Believe About Life

Tuesdays with Morrie has definitely changed my view on life.

Morrie Schwartz was a professor and a teacher until the end.
Even after death, Mitch Alboms book has inspired and
enlightened people around the world. In the book, the lessons
of life given by Morrie are told. In his last moments, Morrie
was in between the gap between life and death, thus able to
inform the readers valuable and important things they should
pack.
Life nowadays has been complicated. I have learned from the
book that in order to live in harmony and avoid unnecessary
conflict, we must learn how to communicate and compromise.
Its best to have a positive attitude, and have the ability to
turn what might often be perceived as a negative situation,
into a privilege.
Culture has made a set of rules that most of us follow,
however, this set of rules might not be the best, as most of
them are most self-centred. I have learned from Tuesdays
with Morrie that if the culture does not suit you, just forget it.
Live the way you want, the way that makes you happy.

A truly beautiful piece of writing!

We are a group of high school students at Leeming senior
high-school. Recently we've been investigating the book
"Tuesdays with Morrie' by Mitch Albom, which we found really
interesting.
Furthermore it has influenced our view on life and also death
in a great way and we'd love to share our thoughts about this
with you.

***

We personally believe that the true story 'Tuesdays with

Morrie' is a great piece of literature that contains so many
lessons which can be important to every one of us.
We'd like to summarize a few of theme here that we were able
to connect with the most.

Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one

only remembers to turn on the light.

~The simple things in live bring more happiness then material

things you can purchase with money would ever be able give
you
~Live in the moment, don't worry about ageing but enjoy life
to the fullest
~Forgive, not only others but also yourself

In the book, Morrie had also inferred that we should

not let self-pity consume you, but concentrate on the good
things in your life, because if you do not, you might lose sight
of what is important and what is not.

When Morrie was dying, he did not focus on the fact

that he was dying, but focused on the people around him,
thus he remembered the important things in life,
relationships. Relationships between friends, students and
family gives you support. If it was not for them, we would not
have the secure ground that we stand on today.
In fact, there is no foundation, no secure ground,
upon which people may stand today if it isnt the family. If you
dont have the support and love and caring and concern that
you get from a family, you dont have much at all. Love is so
supremely important. Love each other or perish. Family is no

just about love, it is about knowing that there is someone

watching out for you, and nothing can ever give you that, not
money or fame.
He had also told us that sometimes we must trust
others. Sometimes, you cannot believe what you see, but
what you feel. And if you are ever going to have other people
trust you, you must feel that you can trust them, too even
when youre in the dark.
Even when youre falling.
Morrie talked a lot about death in the book. He said
that when we are looking death in the eye, we look at life from
a different place, a healthier place, a more sensible place; it is
as if some mystical clarity of thought comes. Culture does not
encourage you to think if what if this is your last day on
earth until you are about to die. We get wrapped up in
egotistical things, career, family, money, and materialistic
things were involved in trillions of little acts just to keep
going. This is why we do not look back at lives, and think if we
are living a life we want. If we were to die today, would we die
in peace, knowing that we have lived life to the fullest?
In my opinion, when we learn to die, we learn to
live. Mitch had said that maybe death is a great equalizer, the
big thing that can finally make strangers shed a tear for one
another. This is because love is essential for one to truly live,
and when we are on deaths door, we learn to love things we
have always taken for granted. The most important thing in
life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come it.
Morrie had repeated emphasized that Love is the only
rational act.
Everyone knows that they are going to die, but
nobody believes it. It we did, we would be doing things
differently. The better approach for death is to accept that you

are going to die, and be prepared for it at any time. This way,
one would be more involved in life. You should ask yourself if
today is the day, would be ready, have you done all you
wanted to do, and if you are the person you want to be.
We have to appreciate things around us, things such
as sunshine, trees and how they change with the seasons,
how the wind blows. We do not notice how vital and how
much we rely on simple things like that, but when you cannot
go out and experience these things, a big part of us feels
missing. When Morrie knew that his time was almost up, it
was as if he was seeing these for the first time. Why do we
wait until our last moments before we learn how to appreciate
nature and other things in life that we rely on so much, but
take so little notice of it?

***

In conclusion, Tuesdays with Morrie has given me a new view

on life. He has highlighted the important things in life, and
thus make me step back and look at my life, and ask myself if
I am satisfied with my life, if Ive done all the things I want to
do. I have been inspired and touched by Morries actions in his
final moments, and I aspire to do the same.