Essay on Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie

The meaning of life is to find the meaning of life. Is it not? We all go through each day trying to figure out which road out the infinite amount of paths will lead us in a better direction where happiness is prominent and society is flawless. However, not every single human being is going to fit on that narrow, one-lane highway to success. Bad choices, accidents, fate, family matters, society, temptation, anger, rage, addiction, and loss of hope can all be deciding factors in opting to choose that wrong path to self-destruction. The adverse thing is, once you've traveled so far down the road, you get so discouraged that you feel like you can never turn back or make up for the "lost time."

Many people learn many things in many different ways. Most learn in school or church, some learn in asking questions, but I believe the best lessons are taught from a good friend. Tuesdays With Morrie is a true story of the remarkable lessons taught by a dying professor, Morrie Schwartz, to his pupil, Mitch Albom. Morrie teaches Mitch the lessons of life, lessons such as death, fear, aging, greed, marriage, family, society, forgiveness, and a meaningful life. This is a story of a special bond of friendship that was lost for many years, but never forgotten and simply picked up again at a crucial time of both Morrie's and Mitch's lives.

It is important to note that the first eight lines are a part of a single sentence. This is important because it means that if we remove the repeated poetic verse found within these lines, we discover that Millay is simply saying “Love is not all… / Yet many a man is making friends with death / Even as I speak, for lack of love alone” (1-8) . This is a justifiable conclusion because after the words “Love is not all” the author uses a colon, which means that the lines following are simply a definition for what she means by “Love is not all” (1) . When put in such simple terms, it’s easy to see how this is almost indistinguishable from saying, “Love is not all, but it would be better to be dead than not have it.”

In Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Love is Not All (Sonnet XXX),” the poem’s writer originally discredits the value of love, claiming that it is not essential because it does not support life; however, later Millay describes that love has some value.

As you get older, you learn that life is shorter than you think. Researchers explain that one third of our life is sleeping and another third is working/school. This means humans are usually left with less than one third of your life which you can do things you love. Today, humans don’t understand how much time they lose doing useless things. The worst thing is sometimes you don’t even know when your end is near. You could even die today from a heart attack or die in a fatal accident. We are explaining the general truth about many observations which is known as aphorisms. In Mitch Albom’s novel, Tuesdays With Morrie, Morrie demonstrates many examples of aphorisms. The aphorisms in this novel were interpreted in different ways for people to

Morrie was always happy to be alive even when his disease started to take over. He always found something to be positive about. My grandma ,in a way, is like Morrie because she was loving to everyone. She can bring the best out of anyone and loves to see people happy. Evan has her health depreciates, like Morrie’s, she still tries to make people feel good.

Tuesday’s with Morrie is a creative and beautifully written story about an elderly man named Morrie that is facing physical deterioration due to ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. During the course of the book, a former college student that Morrie taught, named Mitch, begins to spend ample time with Morrie after years of not seeing each other. The two meet Tuesday afternoons and discuss multitudes of things; mostly topics that revolve life and the importance of focusing on what matters as opposed to meaningless subjects like media and money. The main premise of Tuesday’s with Morrie is not only to teach life lessons about how important love, family, and moral values are, but to show that aging is not to be feared because it is a natural part of life. Unfortunately, the book ends with Morrie passing away; but it ended on a positive note because Morrie had accepted what was happening to his body.

Mitch Albom, a previous student at Brandeis University starts the story out with a flashback of when he would meet at his old professor, Morrie Schwartz’s once a week. Mitch begins to explain how “Morrie would sit in his study where he could watch a small hibiscus plant die.” In a flashback to his graduation, Mitch approaches his professor, Morrie Schwartz, and gives him a portfolio. While at Brandeis, Mitch takes “the greater part of the humanism” courses Morrie teaches. He tells Morrie that he will stay in contact, but doesn 't follow through.

In page 108 of Mitch Albom’s novel titled Tuesdays with Morrie, Morrie Schwartz is asked if he had the chance to reincarnate, in what form would he come back as. Morrie’s reply is a gazelle. His choice is interesting because gazelles are one of the most underrated animals in the world. Gazelles are thin and graceful antelopes that are found in Africa and Asia. They bear resemblance to deer and are in the same family as cattle, sheep and goats. Gazelles can be identified by their curved horns, tan coats and white rumps. Often, there are stripes, spots or random markings on their coats. Although their outside appearance is gorgeous, it is not much help when it comes to fleeing from their predators. All animals rely on a certain characteristic

From this book, I realized that life is like a car and I’m the driver; it is me who will drive my life to reach the places and dreams I want to reach; it is me who will fulfill my life whether good or bad experiences. Knowing my real importance to this world will make me feel that I worth the living, I worth the world and the people that surrounds me. I also know that love is the greatest thing in order to hold every relationship in life. Even in nature, you’ll do everything that you can to keep and make it healthy and better. But the thing we all need to accept is death; the ending in every people’s story. This is a book with full of lessons and motivations not just to Morrie and Mitch’s life, but also to our lives. Those people who are afraid

But scenery without solace is meaningless.” (Albom 35). This means that you can have everything you want but without the happiness and peace actually inside you, then it’s worthless. The captain told Eddie, “Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you’re not really losing it. You’re just passing it on to someone else.” (Albom 94). The quote said here tells the audience that even though you are struggling to give up something, it’s for the sake of someone else you needs it more. Towards the end of the novel Marguerite says to Eddie, “Life has to end, love doesn’t.” (Albom 173). Everytime I read this I feel she’s trying to tell us that love means so much more, than what it sounds

The relationship formed between the author and Morrie enable him to tell the story in an intimate and sensitive way. Because

“Well, for one thing, the culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. We’re teaching the wrong things” (35).

Love is something that many people desire. It is not entirely just about the love of a lover but can also be about the love of a parent or sibling. Marlowe’s poem, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love,” deals with love. He wishes for the love of a woman and promises her many things. Raleigh’s poem, “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd,” and Williams’s “Raleigh was Right,” deals with love but it talks about how love does not entirely last through time.

Tuesday with Morrie is a book about the life lessons Morrie taught his favorite student, Mitch. Morrie was a teacher most of his life but he didn’t teach his most important lesson until his last six months on earth while battling ALS and losing to the terminal illness. Mitch is a young man that does not expect his life to change so drastically has he spends each Tuesday with Morrie in his study. Each Tuesday Morrie and Mitch share stories, laughs, and tears as Mitch documents every moment with him. Mitch finds himself learning more from Morrie than he ever has being a student in his classroom. The subject Mitch was being taught by Morrie was The Meaning of Life and Mitch was luckily documenting it all and sharing it with the world, teaching readers the lessons of life Morrie has to teach. Morrie turns the dying experience into a learning experience for himself and the loved ones around him.