ENGLISH ESSAY: “TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE””Tuesdays with Morrie” written by Mitch Albom, tells the amazing story ofthe unbelievable life that Morrie Schwartz lived, and how he left such ahuge impact on peoples life’s such as Mitch Albom. Morrie Schwartz, withwhom Mitch has lost in touch with for the last 16 years. Upon seeing him onthe “Nightline” program talking to Ted Koppel about what it was like to diefrom Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS) Mitch was both horrified and ashamed.
SoonMitch found himself in weekly meetings with Morrie on a Tuesday where theywould share and reflect on life’s issues, this is where the transformationof Mitch begins. The story is an Autobiographical documentary written infirst person narrated by Mitch Albom. What makes this story so brilliant isthe way in which it is written to portray Morries fantastic philosophy oflife and his attitudes towards death. What keeps the reader so intrigued tofind out what happens next is the style of the Narrative structure of thetext. Narrative Structure, repetition, foreshadowing flashbacks andsymbolism are some of the techniques used by Mitch Albom to present themain themes in the text which are love and perish, acceptance throughdetachment and morality.
Repetition is an important technique used to depict both Mitch and Morriescharacters. Mitch calls Morrie “Coach” as he views him as a teacher oflife. Coach is repeated throughout the text which illustrates the impactMorrie is having on Mitch’s life, he continually learns from him. “Then again, how many business or law students ever visit their oldprofessors once they leave? Morrie’s students did that all the time. Andin final months, they came back to him, hundreds of them, from Boston, NewYork, California, London, and Switzerland; from corporate offices and innercity school programs.
They called. They wrote. They drove hundreds ofmiles for a visit, a word, a smile. “I’ve never had a teacher like you,”they all said.
“This proves that Morrie was not just a teacher, but a mentor. Also, itwasn’t just Mitch who became aware of this fact. The extract from the texthighlights Mitch wasn’t the only student who saw his ‘coach’ as a mentorand even, a hero. Morrie affected hundreds of his students in greatunimaginable ways to make significant differences in their lives. This isone of the reasons why Morrie is looked upon by so many as a fineinspirational professor, and was mourned by so many as he became ill andbegan to pass away. Morrie was Mitch’s “coach” at university teaching sociology, and this iswhere he fell in love with him and saw his love for teaching and helpingothers.
On one occasion Morrie gave all his students A’s to avoid themhaving to go to war, this shows Morrie’s strong character. The repetitionof flashbacks is an important and effective device used to show the growthof Mitch’s character. Before having a strong relationship with Morrie,Mitch can be seen as an ambitious money orientated journalist, but as thestory proceeds he starts to adopt Morrie’s attitudes and values towardslife. Flashbacks are used to depict Mitch as an ungrateful man with poorattitudes towards life. “As you grow, you learn more.
If you stayed as ignorant as you were attwenty- two, you’d always be twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, you know. It’s growth. It’s more than the negative that you’re going to die, it’s thepositive that you understand you’re going to die, and that you live abetter life because of it”.
This quote is said during a flashback in the second Tuesday. Morrie hadasked his class to perform a trust fall exercise where he would testanother’s trust and reliability. The attitude Morrie was trying to put outwas that one must sometimes trust blindly, relying only on what they fellto guide them in their decision making. He uses the exercise to teach hisstudents that trustworthiness is a quality shared by two people in apartnership, and that each person takes a risk in trusting the other.
Thisrisk, however, is a risk that people must take. Morrie teaches his studentsthat trust is blind; one can only judge whether or not to trust anotherbased on an instinctive feeling, not because of any rational judgment ormethod of thinking. This flashback is very useful in showing Morrie hasalways had the same attitude towards life, and that Mitch was to trust himand adopt his attitudes.The style the text .
