Tuesdays with Morrie- Stefanie D.

“Tuesdays with Morrie”

 

Summary:

           

          Tuesdays with Morrie is a non-fiction novel which tells the relationship about the author, Mitch Albom with one of his college professors, Morrie Schwartz. The book starts off with Mitch reminiscing on his college years at Brandeis University where he met one his Professor Morrie Schwartz. Mitch states early in the book how close he was to Morrie and how he truly valued him as a teacher and role model. After graduation, Mitch moved onto pursue writing as a sports columnist. One evening Albom was watching the evening news when he saw his old sociology professor, Morrie, being interviewed by Ted Koppel on ABC nightline news. Morrie was being interviewed about his odd disease, ALS amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Albom saw this as a great opportunity to contact his old role model. The story soon unfolds to Albom visiting Morrie every Tuesday leading up to the week of his death. They simply sit, eat, and talk about life and death. Albom ends up learning a great deal about himself, Morrie, and the true meaning of living life. Morrie leaves Mitch with the aphorism, “When you're in bed, you're dead.” The story continues with life lessons being taught until Morrie’s expected death.

 

Analysis:

 

Tuesdays with Morrie exemplifies life and death and all that is in between. It is one of the greatest books with the message of how to truly live one’s life. It explains how one should constantly be striving to achieve a greater attitude towards life and our hardships as human beings. There are many applicable themes within the book which any human can relate to. Morrie discusses a range of topics from education, health, love, communication, acceptance, values, death, and many more. These topics happen to be enduring ideas, which transcend time. These ideas are not only applicable to our generation, yet they will easily be applied to the lives of people who will live in the near future, and applied to the human lives of those from 2,000 years ago. I believe that Tuesdays with Morrie nicely dives into the deeper issues which we start questioning at a young age.

            This young adult novel seems excellent for a middle school class because it is an easy read, but has so much substance and depth. I think that although many middle school aged students have not experienced some of the larger themes within the book, such as death or disease, it is imperative that they are introduced to the ideas and can accept them at a younger age.

            I read this book for the first time this year, and I am twenty-one years of age. Although I have a different interpretation of the book than my thirteen year old self would have had, I can still greatly appreciate the book and it’s universality to human existence. This book would open up a great discussion for life goals and ambitions. It could also be easily used to help students examine and develop their own set of values and sense of self. I believe that the book would be an excellent tool  to open up the idea of students interviewing older people at a nursing home or even their grandparents. I really value older people and their life experiences and think it is extremely important for young students to appreciate these people and learn from them. Students would be able to interview elders and send in a written report of life advice they learned. 

         This book explores a life on a deeper level that many young students do not have to face until they are of an older age. I believe this book would definitely help students to at least be aware of life's great turmoils. Tuesdays with Morrie not only opens up room for in depth class discussions, however, it gives many students advice and aphorisms to live by. I took a great deal away from this book and was greatly touched after reading it. I believe that many students would appreciate this book even at the middle school level and they would be able to take a lot of life lessons away from it. 

 

 

 

 

Citation:

Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays With Morrie. USA: Random House, 1997. 192. Print.