Jeff Shaul

Indian Hill High School

4 August 2004

TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE

1. One of the significant lessons Mitch Albom, the main character and author, learns from his “class time” spent with Morrie deals with money and its underlying impact on one’s personality and altruism. Morrie states it eloquently with “…We put our values in the wrong things. And it leads to very disillusioned lives…” (Albom 123-124). What that denotes is that “We” or most of the people with a desire for money has misplaced their values by incorrectly placing it on money or some other materialistic desire. This illustrates that people are placing their values in the wrong place which is caused by society’s “brainwashing” which is backed up with Morrie’s statement, “More money is good. More property is good. More commercialism is good. More is good. More is good. We repeat it—and have it repeated to us—over and over until nobody bothers to think otherwise…” (Albom 124). What Morrie is saying is that culture is reinforcing the deep desire for materials such as money or cars or gadgets by repeating the theme of “More is good. More is good.” The important idea discussed in Albom and Morrie’s conversation about money is summed up with the quote, “…These were people so hungry for love that they were accepting substitutes. They were embracing material things and expecting a sort of hug back…” (Albom 125). The main idea here is that importance is put in materialistic things such as money will not return the person’s embrace but if put in other non-materialistic things such as family or friendship, it will be returned double-fold.
2. The seasonal symbolism evidenced through the novel draws some parallels with Morrie’s progressing decay. His decay from his terminal disease begins on a “hot, humid day in August 1994…” (Albom 7). This is interesting for late spring where Morrie’s problems began to appear and was diagnosed in late summer is the season of the beginning of life such as flowers blooming or trees growing new leaves. However, as the Earth continues its orbit, Morrie’s health takes a downward plummet as time goes by. In the next fall, the season of loss and falling leaves is compared to Morrie’s weakening body for now he could not lift his arms and the long dreaded day came where Morrie lost all his dependency for he had to need help “wiping my ass” (Albom 174). As the trees became stark and cold, flowers dead, Morrie died. The parallel between winter and death can be compared to the old Greek myth of Ceres, the goddess of agriculture and her daughter Propserina who was kidnapped by Hades, the god of death so she could be his queen. Ceres without her daughter wailed and became careless of her tending so trees died away, flowers writhed up. Therefore, the progression of the seasons beginning in spring and ending in winter can be compared with the progression of life – birth and finishing with death.
3. Morrie became the person he is probably due to his rough childhood. His childhood is described in chapter 12 – The Professor. His up-and-close view on death seen in later chapters probably originated from his experience with a death close to his own: his mother. He also had more experiences with near-death and life-threatening illnesses such as his brother David who had polio. Those unforgettable occurrences would have had a huge impact on Morrie’s thinking and ideologies. Her mother’s death also triggered the marriage of a new stepmother – Eva. Eva was a person who had taught her new family to love and care and most importantly education which was of the utmost importance. That probably most shaped Morrie to the person he was.
4. “When you’re in bed, you’re dead” (Albom 153) has a significant meaning to my life. How so? It is like a sense of worthiness, a sense of being wanted or needed or any other emotion of being able to be relied on. Therefore, basically, if you no longer are needed or is relied on/looked up to, you are as good as dead because a person like that is an empty shell with no more reason to live. This has some bearing on my life because my paternal grandmother was like that…she had no more understanding of her emotions for she had Alzheimer’s so eventually she was forced to bed and no longer could be relied on. Basically, when she got to that stage of disease, she’s as good as an empty wrapper with the candy inside gone. That affected me a lot because I was only 6 and I was a spectator during the whole game.
5. Mitch Albom has changed for the better as a result of his renewed friendship for he now recognizes that his job which deals with celebrities that have no bearing on his personal life is meaningless. So now, he is more focused on loving his family and his brother such as trying to renew his connections with his brother.
6. “Love each other or die” is arguably the strongest quote that sums up what the book is all about. It is so profound because if you love each other and place your values, similar to the lesson about money, in the right place, it will grow and blossom and you will be happy no matter what. If you do not find love, you will begin to love money or other materialistic things, and then you will just writhe up and become an empty shell, essentially dead.