LITERATURE ANALYSIS: TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE

Nonfiction Analysis: Tuesdays with Morrie

Topic(s) and/or Event(s):

• After graduating from Brandeis University, Albom says goodbye to his professor Morrie Schwartz. Promising to keep in touch with Morrie, Albom's career has him break this promise. Years pass by and Albom is living a very successful life, meanwhile his old professor Morrie has been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). While flipping through TV channels he found that caught him by surprise. Morrie was being interviewed on TV. Now knowing that Morrie had very little time left, Albom decided to go visit his former professor and made it a habit by visiting him every Tuesday.
• I believe that Albom chose to write about this to keep the memory of his former professor alive, and hoping that Morrie's final lessons could help others.
• This book was recommended to me by my former English teacher Mrs. Byrne. After several different recommendations, I decided to read this book due to the fact that it seemed more interesting than the rest. The reason that this book caught my attention was the introduction. In the introduction, Albom describes the "curriculum" of the class and the final exam was to write a long paper that was later called Tuesdays with Morrie.
• I found this book to be realistic. In a way I was able to make connections between this book and my own life. The death of Morrie reminded me of the death of my grandfather. Even though my grandfather did not have ALS, he suffered from prostate cancer. But like Morrie, my grandfather did not want me to see his death as a bad thing.

People:

• It is true that we see Albom's perspective of himself and other characters. Based on what he says about others he never speaks down on them, but has at least good things to say about them.  As for his tone it changes throughout the book, but the tone I seemed to identify was quite remorseful, especially when he has a conversation with Morrie.
• Main Characters:
• Mitch Albom: In, the story we get two see both sides of Albom. The eager student in college and the final student of Morrie. He is about six feet tall with black hair. In a fictional story I would use direct characterization because I have already read the story through his perspective.
• Morrie Schwartz: A former college professor of Albom with a enlightened view on life. Physically he is a small man with blue-green eyes and thinning silver hair that spills onto his forehead. If I were to rewrite this as a fictional story, I would use indirect characterization for Morrie's character in order to reveal Morrie's true emotions and thoughts of his final moments.
• What is interesting about these two characters is their relationship with each other. Even after the several years that gone by, they tend to keep a good attitude towards each other and share their views openly.

Style:

• Albom used a bit of tools of fiction writing. For example he used allusions in certain parts of the book. One of these allusions was about Job. The man from the bible that God made suffer in order to test his faith.
• I would say that Albom uses lengthy description mostly on action and dialogue. Because of these choices the overall effect is that we focus on the lessons that Morrie teaches.
• A tool that Albom uses to demonstrate tone and to create a mood is a simplistic writing format.
• I believe that Albom's attitude toward the audience was to not just inform them about Morrie's final moments, but to let them identify their own perspectives when it comes to death and farewells.
• While writing the story, Albom interviewed other close relatives and friends of Morrie. This helps contribute the story because it helps reveal more about Morrie the just his final moments. We get to see Morrie's past and struggles that led him to where he was.

Enduring Moment

An idea I picked up from this book was that death ends a life, not a relationship. To me it means that the death of someone will not mean that the person is truly gone.  Each persons life is valuable and should not be taken for granted. All of the memories that you have shared with someone will not be diminished, but will continue to live on through others. 

"As long as we can love each other, and remember the felling of love we had, we can die without ever really going away" - Morrie Schwartz