Companionship In John Steinbeck's Tuesdays With Morrie

Tuesdays with Morrie as a memoir simply shines light on how Morrie Schwartz impacted a former student’s life beneficially. Mitch is a young man whose life had blossomed to be fairly average. He is a married man and a journalist. Though he had not hit rock-bottom, he also

Janie's immaturity is displayed in her relationship with Logan Killicks. She primarily believes that marriage breeds love not vice-versa. “Husbands and wives always loved each other, and that was what marriage meant” (20). Janie was not exposed to a functional marriage as a child. Because she lacks a secondhand account of love, she is left with childish perceptions.

Have you ever dealt with adversity? Adversity is something most people deal with. Some people may say they do not run into this problem, but they would be lying. In Tuesdays with Morrie and Night the two main characters Morrie and Elie run into adversity. Morrie and Elie face death and the accepting of death.

Some may say that Janie gained the love that she imagined when she was a teen lying under the pear trees. The first husband is with Logan Killicks that Nanny arranged, so Janie does not know this person and all

To begin the first important aphorism that Morrie teaches Mitch is that Even though someone is dying it's not gonna ruin the relationship it might make them closer. One example that Morrie states is “Death ends a life not a relationship”(174). This is saying that even when Morrie dies Mitch and his bond or relationship still lives on the memories

The novel brings out the themes of close friendship and family. It teaches the reader the extreme importance of having friends you can rely on when situations

He responds by telling him that he would spend the day at home with his friends and discuss family issues followed by an evening walk and dinner. Mitch thought to him self, “It was so simple. So average. I was actually a little disappointed.”(Pg.176) This response shows that the things we own can never compare to the fond memories of loved ones that we hold on to. This conjecture brings Mitch to reminisce and eventually mend fences with his brother, Peter, who pushed him away because he was fighting cancer.

One of the first realizations Mitch has on life is that he has wasted his time attempting to become wealthy and spending money on materialistic things. An example is when they met on their third Tuesday, Morrie explains that “We’re so wrapped up in egotistical things...we’re involved in trillions of little acts that just keep going. So we don’t 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?” in order to prompt Mitch into believing that his life is full of egotistical choices that are not the key to having a fulfilling life (64-65). Instead,

The way that love plays a role in everyday life is that if you have that support system built around you then it makes life easier because you always have people that you can rely on to be there for you. Morrie said that his sickness would have been a lot more difficult had he not been surround by his family and the people that love him the most. Morrie says similar things about compassion as he does about love. Sometimes you just need to show a little compassion to make your day better and showing compassion to someone else will definitely make their day better. Morrie came to realize how important love is as the deadly disease progressed and he was getting closer to death.

8. Mitch asks Morrie how he would spend a day if for that one day he could have perfect health. What do you think of his response? I believe his response shows his true character. He mentions food being a big factor, having his friends with him, and dancing the night away with his partner. These are the things that Morrie cherished most in his life.

Janie’s first relationship was with Logan Killicks. She married him only because she wanted to appease her grandmother. Logan did not truly love Janie, but saw her as an asset to increase his own power. Logan expressed this through several

One of the themes discussed in Tuesdays with Morrie that was most meaningful to me was their focus on not feeling sorry for yourself. In the beginning chapters Mitch ask Morrie if he feels sorry for himself on second Tuesday they talked about feeling sorry for themselves. Morrie tells Mitch that in the mornings he does a little, but then after he has a little “pity party” he stops. Mitch and the other students begin to learn that the professor wanted to teach them the meaning of death - “Morrie’s definition”. Morrie's definition was “If you are dying you are useless, if you make a difference while dying you will succeed”.

Humans need more than just companionship, they need friendship. Friendship is a lot like food. We need it to survive. Throughout the book, everyone seems to be looking for some company. For example, Curley’s wife was always wandering around looking for someone to talk to. Crooks was ostracized, but he also seemed like he needed some company. An even better example is Lennie and George. They were traveling companions and had a saying “ cause I got you and you got me”. They’re saying that as long as they have each other, that’s all the company they’ll ever need. George killed his only friend and now he’s lonely and has no one to keep him company.

He had become dependent on others for nearly everything. Morrie's feeling on this was, "I felt a little ashamed, because our culture tells us we should be ashamed if we can't wipe our own behind. But then I figured, forget what the culture says." It's like going back to being a child again, it's inside all of us, and it's just remembering how to enjoy it.

Tuesdays with Morrie tells the real story of Morrie Schwartz. Morrie was a university professor who was dying of ALS (Lou Gehrig 's disease). Instead of being afraid of death, he faced it head on and decided to make the most of his time left. After seeing a Nightline episode featuring his old professor, Morrie, the author, Mitch, decides to pay his old professor a visit. Mitch is intrigued by Morrie 's attitude towards death and his life lessons, so he decides to visit Morrie again next Tuesday and record what Morrie has to say. This turns into a weekly meeting between Mitch and Morrie and eventually these meetings were turned into the book, Tuesdays with Morrie. Mitch - the author of the book and Morrie 's old student. Mitch is distracted in his life and focusing on things that Morrie feels are unimportant (work, fame, and success). Though focused on the wrong things, Mitch has a good heart and Morrie helps him find himself again “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.