“If you hold back on the emotions, if you don’t allow yourself to go all the way through them, you can never get to being detached, you’re too busy being afraid. You’re afraid of the pain, you’re afraid of the grief. You’re afraid of the vulnerability that loving entails. ” “But by throwing yourself into these emotions, by allowing yourself to dive in, all the way, over your head even, you experience them fully and completely. “(p. 104) Mitch is scared to release his emotions fully and completely but once he does, it all changes. Mitch Albom is a student at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.
His professor’s name is Morrie Schwartz. The classes that Mitch took at Brandeis with Morrie were usually on Tuesdays, and he took almost every class he could possibly take with him. Mitch made a promise to Morrie on graduation day that he would still keep in touch with him. After Mitch graduates from Brandeis, he does not stick to his promise and loses contact with Morrie. Morrie loves to dance but something gets in the way of that. A few years later, Morrie develops ALS. This is where your body loses ability to work and you cannot control it.
Mitch started to feel bad about the things he was doing with his life. Mitch is a Journalist, and he soon loses his job due to the union going on a strike. One day, Mitch was flipping through channels on the television and something catches his attention, with hearing the voice of Morrie Schwartz. Mitch stays on the channel to only recall that it is his old professor Morrie. Mitch starts feeling guilt for not keeping in touch with him. So, Mitch contacts Morrie and finds a way to go and see him. Mitch lives in Detroit, and Morrie lives in New Weston, Massachusetts.
Mitch takes a flight there to see his old professor sitting in a wheelchair in the driveway. Mitch hesitates to get out of the car because he didn’t feel he was ready to talk. It had been sixteen years since they had any contact. Morrie tells Mitch that he is dying because of ALS, but Mitch already knew that. After they talk that day, Mitch decides to come back again, and it just so happens that he comes back every Tuesday. Every Tuesday they meet in Morrie’s house. They meet and talk about all kinds of different things, but they all fall around the topic, “The meaning of life”.
One of Morrie’s favorite things is food, so every time Mitch comes to visit he would bring something from the supermarket. Morries face would light up every time Mitch showed him he brought something. Later on Morrie wasn’t able to eat the food because it was hard for him to swallow. Mitch kept bringing the food even though it wouldn’t get eaten. He only kept bringing it because he loved to see how happy Morrie got. Every Time they met it was a different topic. One time it followed along the lines of marriage, regrets, the world, death, family, and many more.
Mitch started bringing a tape recorder so that he could record what they talked about, but also wanted to record Morries voice. Mitch wanted to be able to hear his voice once he was gone, but sometimes felt guilty for recording. Mitch has a brother named Peter and he developed pancreatic cancer just like Mitch’s uncle did. Mitch tries to keep in touch with him but he never gets a response. Morrie helps Mitch realize why he may be ignoring the calls that he leaves to Peter. Mitch and Morrie were actually very close. So close that Morrie said if he had another son he would want him to be like Mitch.
Morrie always wanted to meet Mitch’s wife Janine. On one of the last Tuesdays before his passing, he was able to do that. Janine was a professional singer but she never sang when people asked her to. When Morrie asked, she went right ahead and sang for him. When she began to sing, Mitch says, “I was amazed, once again, at his ability to draw emotion from people who otherwise kept it locked away. ” (p. 146) Morrie always told Mitch since freshman year that it was okay to cry, and that one day he would make him cry. During Morrie’s last few days he did do that.
Morrie had a different outlook on things before he developed this disease. Morrie was always changing until the day he died. Once Morrie died, Mitch finally had contact with his brother again. He explained that he loved him. Morrie taught Mitch things that would follow him throughout the rest of his life. Tuesdays with Morrie is about Morrie Schwartz. Morrie was a professor of sociology at Brandeis University. Morrie loves to dance and it’s one of his favorite hobbies but he soon develops ALS. Morrie is a people person and wants to teach people the meaning of life.
In all of his classes he didn’t require books, and he gave everyone A’s. He did this because he just wanted to have discussions about life. He wanted to tell them how important things were in life. When Morrie was a child he lost both of his parents. He lost his mother at a young age and his father at a young age also. He loves getting the attention and love from everyone again because he didn’t get much of it when he was younger. Morrie brings out the emotion in everyone as Mitch tells us. For example when Morrie meets Janine, Mitch’s wife, he gets her to sing and when people usually ask her to sing, she usually declines.
Mitch Albom is a student at Brandeis University, but soon graduates after fulfilling his degree. Mitch is a journalist but soon then loses his job because of the union going on strike. He is totally distraught about this situation because he put so much work into his job and he came back one day and it was all shut down. Mitch learns lots of things from Morrie but one important thing was to live your life like you might die tomorrow, or that today might be your last day. Mitch sometimes takes things for granted, such as time, but then he realizes that he don’t have much of it.
Mitch is unique because he lets Morrie bring out the best in him and is so open-minded to whatever Morrie tells him. This book is told from the narrator’s point of view which is Mitch. This works very well because Mitch was the one that got to see how Morrie went through the rest of his life and all of the little details. If this was told from Morrie’s point of view it would have been totally different. The background stories that Mitch frequently mentions, sometimes gives us a better understanding of Morrie and how he was in his younger days.
It gives us examples of outside information that sometimes gives us a different outlook on the story. “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in. “(p. 52) In this book I think this is the most important lesson. You have to let it come in and to accept the love that people give, and to not take it for granted. Knowing that you have people that love you and that are there for you, is why you have to let people love you, because in the long run it will keep you happy. As an individual you have to love yourself and accept your life for how it is.
Love is very important because you have to let it happen and just accept it. Things people are suppose to take from this book is the lessons of life and how love is very important. From reading Tuesdays with Morrie I learned to appreciate life more and to love everyone. I learned to not take every little moment for granted. This book taught me that you should live everyday as if it would be the last one you had. I also learned you need to let any emotion you have out, because incase you get sad again, or if you experience a new emotion you know what to expect next time it happens.
