Humanity In Tuesdays With Morrie

From the time where Elie had to decide to fight for his father’s life, to the time where he questioned his beliefs, Elie has had to make many life-changing decisions. As some of his decisions left negative consequences, some were left a positive outcome. In the end, all the decisions Elie had made in the camps has made his life miserable or at its best. For better or for worse, the events that Elie encountered makes his life unforgettable as realizes there was more to life than he had thought of

Forty-two years after entering the concentration camp for the first time, Elie Wiesel remarked, “Just as man cannot live without dreams, he cannot live without hope” (Nobel Lecture 1). This means a lot from someone who endured almost two years of the terror in the WWII concentration camps. During these two years, Elie endured the sadness of leaving his former life and faith behind, the pain of living off of scraps of bread, and the trepidation of the “selections”, where he almost lost his father. He watched the hanging of innocent people, was beat by Kapos and guards time after time, and marched in a death march right after having a foot surgery. Through all of this, he survived because he remained hopeful. Hope was all the Jewish people

Before Elie went to Auschwitz, he possessed many positive character traits, such as being curious, responsible, and disciplined. Weitsel writes, “Together we would read over and over again the same pages of the Zohar. Not to know it by heart but to discover the very essence of divinity” (5). Studying with his tutor and mentor was something Elie loves to do. He grew up in a small town as a strict Orthodox Jew. He loves to learn and read about religion, but he longs to gain a deeper understanding of God and spent many hours with his tutor Moishe, which shows his curiosity for knowledge and discovery. Elie also shows great responsibility in these miserable and anxious times. “Go and wake the neighbors, said my father. “They must get ready…” (Weisel,14). His father asks Ellie to go warn the others in the Ghetto that they must pack their belongings and be ready to leave. Elie’s father trusts him and treats him as an adult. He is often asked to help

While Morrie grew up his mother passed away, and his father was a very unemotional man. He never showed Morrie any love or affection. Not showing love for one’s own child can very well be considered an act of inhumanity. Elie faces inhumanity throughout his own childhood and is forced to grow up very fast. He watches the people of his religion be killed daily, he watches children burn in pits. Even though both books talk about what it takes to be humane they also discuss the terrible theme of inhumanity.

Before Elie went to Auschwitz, he exhibited many positive character traits. (Such as Compassion, Depressed, and Friendly. An example of compassion that Elie showed before was on page 5 that said, “And Moishe the Beadle, the poorest of the poor of Sighet, spoke to me for hours on end about the Kabbalah’s revelations and its mysteries. Thus began my initiation. Together we would read, over and over against, the same page of the Zohar. Not to learn it by heart but to discover within the very essence of divinity”(Wiesel). How he shows compassion is, Elie treats a man of lower social status with kindness, and the man repays him with studies of the Zohar. So a random act of kindness, could pay off someday, you never know. The next example of how Elie showed traits before Auschwitz was depression on page 10, “The Bible commands us to rejoice during the eight days of Passover, but our hearts were not in it. We wished the holiday would end so as not to have to pretend”(Wiesel 10). Elie was so depressed and scared, that

The focus throughout Tuesdays with Morrie was on life. Many might see it as the story of death, but it is actually the story life. Morrie might talk a little on how he meets death, but what he is talking about is living at the end of his life. Mitch writes, “Now here we were . . . . . . Dying man talks to living man, tells him what he should know.”(Albom, 133) When a timer is placed on Morrie’s remaining days, he obtains a dying man’s perspective on what is truly important in life, and how to incorporate in life this importance. I looked for parts of the book that pertain directly to my life; I focused on this concept while reading this book. My thesis remained elusive. There wasn’t a Tuesday that jumped out at me, and then I came to the

Question: How does Morrie rationalize his thoughts that aging is growth, and not decay, as most people see it? Provide specific examples from the text to support your answers. Essay should be a minimum of 750 words.

Before he went to Auschwitz, Elie exhibited many positive character traits. Some positive character traits he exhibited were the qualities of being motivated to succeed, faithful to God, and confident in humanity. “Yes, we even doubted his resolve to exterminate us. Annihilate an entire people? Wipe out a population dispersed throughout so many nations? So many millions of people! By what means? In the middle of the twentieth century!” (Wiesel 8). In this piece of text, Elie states that he

Tuesdays with Morrie, was based on a true story about friendship and lessons learned. It’s about a sports writer, Mitch and former sociology professor, Morrie, who is in his last days of life after being diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and their rekindled relationship after many years. They first met on the campus grounds at Brandeis University. This never forgotten relationship was simply picked back up at a crucial time in both Mitch’s and Morrie’s life. After seeing his professor in an interview on the show “Nightline”, Mitch is reminded of a promise he made sixteen years earlier to keep in touch. Since the airing of that

Before Elie went to the Concentration camp, he had many good character traits. On page 31 - 32 Wiesel states, “The wind of revolt died down. We continued to walk until we came to a crossroads. Standing in the middle of it was, though I didn't know it then, Dr. Mengele, the notorious Dr. Mengele. He looked like the typical SS officer: a cruel, though not unintelligent, face, complete with monocle. He was holding a conductor's baton and was surrounded by officers. The baton was moving constantly, sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left”… “This conversation lasted no more than a few seconds. It seemed like an eternity.” In this part of the book Elie had just gotten to the camp and is getting sorted by the angel of death. This part of the text showed that Elie was brave because Elie had just talked to a man who had killed hundreds of people, and he never said he was scared or acted like he was frightened. Another trait he had before he changed was that he was hard working. One example of that trait is on page 50, “Sitting on the ground, we counted bolts, bulbs, and various small electrical parts.” In this part of the book after they got

Before Elie was sent to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, he displayed positive character traits. He was faithful, courageous, and smart. In the beginning, Wiesel states, “He had watched me one day as I prayed at dusk” (4) Elie was talking to Moishe the Beadle (teacher in Sighet) and was not afraid to express his faith. Obviously, Elie was faithful because he was praying. In addition, this showed that he was also very passionate about his faith and did not care if people knew if he was Jewish. Elie had this trait before he was sent to Auschwitz, and he made his faith the top priority. Elie’s faith was an outlet for him, and he was a very positive person because of it. Further into his stay at the Auschwitz concentration camp, Elie started to let his faith drift away, leaving him with almost nothing. Next, Wiesel says, “There could no longer be any doubt: Germany would be defeated. It was only a matter of time, months, weeks perhaps.” (8) Elie and his family were getting worried about the Nazi’s invading many Jewish homes. Elie became very confident about the situation and told himself that the Germans would be defeated. Confidence was deeply displayed in this piece of text evidence because he begins to make it a fact that the Germans would lose the war and everything would be okay. Elie’s confidence was a big part of his positive personality before he was in the camp because it gave him hope. Elie has a complete change of heart once he is in the death camp for a while and becomes very hopeless. Lastly, Wiesel explains, “I continued to devote myself to my studies, Talmud during the day and Kabbalah at night.” (8) Elie listened to the radio and heard that there were bombings from Germany and

When Elie first arrives at Auschwitz, he is completely overwhelmed. He meets another inmate and the three are all very optimistic about their futures. This is not the case for all inmates, though. The very next person Elie meets has adopted an indifferent attitude about his situation, and has become so tauntrimized by the hardships of life in a concentration camp that he does not care if he lives or dies. When he approaches Elie and his father, his only advice is, “You should have hanged yourselves rather than come here” (30). Because of his traumatic experiences, the inmate has become so numb even death seems better than the life he is being forced to live.

Before Elie had been deported to the terrors of the Auschwitz, he was a completely different person. Some of the traits that he exhibited were hopeful, shielded, and religious. As Wiesel said in “Night” “There was joy, yes joy. People must have thought there could be no greater torment in God’s hell than that of being stranded here, on the sidewalk, among the bundles, in the middle of the street under the blazing sun.” (16) The town was not concerned about what was going on. They didn't believe that anything else would get worse. Elie and the people of his town were unable to accept the fact that anyone would do such a horrible deed. Elie and his neighbors were ecstatic because they thought nothing could get worse than it was already; what Hitler would do to them in the future, did not even seen imaginable. The victims believed that God would

The symbolic interactionism is an excellent sociological perspective that allows us to focus on micro activities and to analyze our society which is the product of everyday’s life. Tuesdays with Morrie is more than a simple book, more than a romance one; it is a great book that teaches us many of life’s greatest lessons. An analysis of this book using the SI perspective and concepts such as meaning making, status, impression management, looking-glass self, role taking, role making, and self-presentation helps us understand the real meaning of Morrie’s words and lessons.

“It is through literature that we learn about life. Through literature we profit from the experiences of others, comparing them with our own.” - Bob Cameron