English essay: Tuesdays with Morrie.” “Tuesdays with Morrie,” written by Mitch Albom, tells the amazing story of the unbelievable life that Morrie Schwartz lived and how he left such a huge impact on people’s lives, such as Mitch Albom’s. Morrie Schwartz, whom Mitch has lost touch with for the last 16 years, appeared on the “Nightline” program talking to Ted Koppel about what it was like to die from Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS). Mitch was both horrified and ashamed upon seeing him.
Soon Mitch found himself in weekly meetings with Morrie on Tuesdays where they would share and reflect on life’s issues. This is where the transformation of Mitch begins. The story is an autobiographical documentary written in first-person narration by Mitch Albom. What makes this story so brilliant is the way in which it is written to portray Morrie’s fantastic philosophy of life and his attitudes towards death. The style of the narrative structure of the text keeps the reader intrigued to find out what happens next. Narrative structure, repetition, foreshadowing, flashbacks, and symbolism are some of the techniques used by Mitch Albom to present the main themes in the text, which are love and perish, acceptance through detachment, and morality.
Repetition is an important technique used to depict both Mitch and Morrie’s characters. Mitch calls Morrie Coach” as he views him as a teacher of life. “Coach” is repeated throughout the text, illustrating the impact Morrie is having on Mitch’s life. He continually learns from him. “Then again, how many business or law students ever visit their old professors once they leave? Morrie’s students did that all the time. In the final months, they came back to him – hundreds of them from Boston, New York, California, London, and Switzerland – from corporate offices and inner-city school programs.”
They called. They wrote. They drove hundreds of miles for a visit, a word, or 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. It wasn’t just Mitch who became aware of this fact. The extract from the text highlights that Mitch wasn’t the only student who saw his ‘coach’ as a mentor and even a hero. Morrie affected hundreds of his students in unimaginable ways, making significant differences in their lives. This is one of the reasons why Morrie is looked upon by so many as an inspirational professor and was mourned by so many as he became ill and began to pass away. Morrie was Mitch’s coach” at university, teaching sociology, and this is where he fell in love with him and saw his love for teaching and helping others.
On one occasion, Morrie gave all his students A’s to avoid them having to go to war. This shows Morrie’s strong character. The repetition of flashbacks is an important and effective device used to show the growth of Mitch’s character. Before having a strong relationship with Morrie, Mitch can be seen as an ambitious, money-oriented journalist. However, as the story proceeds, he starts to adopt Morrie’s attitudes and values towards life. Flashbacks are used to depict Mitch as an ungrateful man with poor attitudes towards life. As you grow, you learn more.”
If you stayed as ignorant as you were at twenty-two, you would always be twenty-two. Aging is not just decay; it is growth. It is more than the negative that you are going to die; it is the positive that you understand you are going to die and that you live a better life because of it.
This quote is said during a flashback in the second Tuesday. Morrie had asked his class to perform a trust fall exercise to test another’s trust and reliability. The attitude Morrie was trying to convey was that one must sometimes trust blindly, relying only on their intuition to guide them in decision-making. He uses the exercise to teach his students that trustworthiness is a quality shared by two people in a partnership, and that each person takes a risk in trusting the other.
This risk, however, is one that people must take. Morrie teaches his students that trust is blind; one can only judge whether or not to trust another based on an instinctive feeling, not because of any rational judgment or method of thinking. This flashback is useful in showing that Morrie has always had the same attitude towards life, and that Mitch was to trust him and adopt his attitudes.
