preview

Death In Mitch Albom's Tuesdays With Morrie

Decent Essays

Death is a very complicated phenomenon and is hard to see someone go through the process. Its even tougher when someone is terminally ill like Morrie in the novel written by Mitch Albom, Tuesdays With Morrie. Morrie Schwartz is one of the main characters in Tuesdays with Morrie. He suffers from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, otherwise known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. This disease attacks the nervous system which then weakens voluntary movements and impacts physical functions. Motor neurons from the brain go to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the control muscle movement is lost. ALS tends to start at the legs and work its way up throughout the body. The patient has no control over their body. The prognosis of the disease is usually no longer than five years. “ALS is …show more content…

Morrie Schwartz is a professor at Brandeis University. He retired sixteen years ago. Mitch loved Morrie as a professor. Morrie taught sociology courses and Mitch took almost all of those courses. Mitch and Morrie are the two main characters. Even though Morrie is dying from ALS, he will not give up on teaching. Mitch graduated from Brandeis university and promised Morrie he would keep in touch with him. Although Mitch didn't keep in touch with Morrie, once he found out he was dying, he traveled to West Newton, Massachusetts to visit him. Mitch continues to visit Morrie every Tuesday to listen to Morrie’s lesson on “The Meaning of Life”. Every week Mitch goes to see Morrie, his condition is worse than the previous week. In these weekly meetings, Morrie talks about life and death, and stresses that you cannot be afraid to die. Throughout this entire novel, many aspects such as spirituality, caring, grief, and loss are important to the nursing

Get Access