Summary
Tuesdays with Morrie is a biography of Morrie Schwartz told by his former student Mitch Albom. Morrie Schwartz was a sociology professor at Brandeis University when at the age of 77 he contracted ALS, a deadly disease that effects the nervous system. The disease slowly took away Morrie's ability to function on his own, but his ability to see the bright side of everything (even his impending death) remained the same.
The book tells the story of their relationship. In college, Morrie was Mitch's favorite professor and he made sure to take as many of Morrie's classes as possible. After he graduated, he lost touch with his old friend and professor. One night, when he was on a business trip for a sports magazine, Mitch saw an interview on "Nightline" featuring Morrie, and his ability to keep a positive attitude even after he could no longer walk unassisted. Mitch took interest and eventually began his Tuesday trips to see Morrie every week. The book was written about these special Tuesdays when Morrie and Mitch would talk about the important things in life in "Morrie's last class."
The book tells the story of their relationship. In college, Morrie was Mitch's favorite professor and he made sure to take as many of Morrie's classes as possible. After he graduated, he lost touch with his old friend and professor. One night, when he was on a business trip for a sports magazine, Mitch saw an interview on "Nightline" featuring Morrie, and his ability to keep a positive attitude even after he could no longer walk unassisted. Mitch took interest and eventually began his Tuesday trips to see Morrie every week. The book was written about these special Tuesdays when Morrie and Mitch would talk about the important things in life in "Morrie's last class."
Favorite Quote
"Without love, we are birds with broken wings"(285).
Morrie's favorite thing to talk about is love. He believes that the best way to be happy in life is to love those around you. As his death approaches, he begins to focus a lot of his time on loving others and even loving his disease. He realizes that while it's terrible for him to watch his body slowly wither away, it is "also wonderful because of all the time [he got] to say goodbye."
Themes
Life and Death: The story is written in light of Morrie's impending death, but the story is about life more than anything. Morrie does not view death as a bad thing but rather makes sure that his death doesn't define him and uses his death as a way to teach his friends some valuable lessons about life. Morrie is widely known as an inspirational character because of his affinity to stare death in the eye with a smile on his face.
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Love: Love is the most important thing in Morrie's life. Both of his parents died when he was very young, so he revels in feeling loved. He craves physical touch and being cared for in a way that most people lose touch with as they age. Morrie is a strong believer that loving others brings a huge amount of satisfaction to life, and that without love, we are unable to truly be happy. |
Culture: Morrie feels that our culture doesn't work for most people. "The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it." He is an avid believer that while we should take into account some things--the law for example--other things like our culture's tendency towards money should be pushed to the side burner in favor of more important things like happiness and love. |
Essay
The Bean Trees and Tuesdays with Morrie both teach the same important lesson: if the culture doesn't work for you, don't buy it.
When the Culture Doesn't Work
In the early stages of life, we are often pressured to conform to the way our culture works. One of the first things we are taught as a child is obedience. Children are typically not capable of making rational decisions, so parents ensure their safety by telling them what is okay and what is not okay—don’t talk to strangers, look both ways before crossing the street, don’t touch the hot burner, etc.. As they grow older, they are taught to obey rules in school—no cheating, no cutting, listen to the teacher. As they enter the ‘real world’, they are taught to abide by the laws—don’t speed, listen to your boss, pay your taxes. Throughout our adolescence, we are taught to obey. So what happens when the culture we live in tells us that the only way to be happy in life is to obtain money? What happens when our culture tells us that we aren’t good enough to break free of societal pressures? For Morrie Schwartz in Tuesdays with Morrie, and Taylor Greer in The Bean Trees, this was the case. The culture that they were brought up in didn’t work for them, so they didn’t obey the stereotypes they were given the day they were born.
Taylor Greer was raised in a small town where the typical teenage girl would end up pregnant in high school. “In those days the girls were dropping by the wayside like seeds off a poppyseed bun and you learned to look at every day as a prize” (10). For Taylor, this was not an option. She was adamant that she would not get stuck in her small town with a baby and a husband that didn’t truly care about her. After she graduated high school, Taylor made the decision to get out of her hometown and do something unconventional with her life. Although she didn’t have a definite plan, she refused to get stuck in a life that she didn’t love. Ironically, the thing that she once feared the most, turned out to be one of the best things in her life. As Taylor was passing through the Cherokee Nation, a woman left Taylor a small child that would later be named Turtle.
The Bean Trees centers on the relationships Turtle and Taylor form throughout their journey. As Taylor forced herself to see the world as it really was, she learned that she didn’t like everything she saw. One of the biggest realizations came from meeting a couple from Guatemala who illegally sought refuge in America. Taylor immediately liked Estevan and could not understand why he had to work at a Chinese restaurant when he had better grammar than her, an American, and was qualified to be a teacher. Estevan was a very intelligent man, and Taylor did not like the way that her society treated him simply because of his circumstances. “’This is how Americans think…You believe that if something terrible happens to someone, they must have deserved it,”’ Estevan once remarked (157). As Taylor matured, she began to focus more of her time on loving those around her rather than focusing on all of the bad in the world. The people that surrounded her became a family that did not follow the culture, and this was what Taylor needed to be happy.
In Tuesdays with Morrie, Morrie Schwartz spent the last days of his life teaching Mitch various lessons, but one of the most prominent was that “if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it”(148). After Mitch graduated college, he lost sight of the dreams he had as a young adult and began to focus on the culture more than the things he once valued. Rather than becoming a pianist like he once wanted, he became a sports writer because it was a more reliable and profitable job. Instead of spending time with his wife, he was often gone on business trips because the society that he lived in pushed the idea that money bought happiness. Morrie knew Mitch when he was an aspiring young man, and he felt that it was important to remind him of the passions that he once had. “’You can’t substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness… Money is not a substitute”’(379). Morrie made sure that Mitch understood how important loving others was by using the last of his days to teach him that ‘”the most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and let it come in”’(177).
While The Bean Trees and Tuesdays with Morrie are very different novels, they still teach the same lesson: sometimes the culture that we are brought up in does not correspond with our morals, make us happy, or make us feel good about ourselves. It us up to the individual to make the decision to deviate from that culture and make a culture that they are happy to be a part of. Taylor Greer and Morrie Schwartz both decided to live their lives apart from a culture that they did not like, and in the end they were both better people for it.
Taylor Greer was raised in a small town where the typical teenage girl would end up pregnant in high school. “In those days the girls were dropping by the wayside like seeds off a poppyseed bun and you learned to look at every day as a prize” (10). For Taylor, this was not an option. She was adamant that she would not get stuck in her small town with a baby and a husband that didn’t truly care about her. After she graduated high school, Taylor made the decision to get out of her hometown and do something unconventional with her life. Although she didn’t have a definite plan, she refused to get stuck in a life that she didn’t love. Ironically, the thing that she once feared the most, turned out to be one of the best things in her life. As Taylor was passing through the Cherokee Nation, a woman left Taylor a small child that would later be named Turtle.
The Bean Trees centers on the relationships Turtle and Taylor form throughout their journey. As Taylor forced herself to see the world as it really was, she learned that she didn’t like everything she saw. One of the biggest realizations came from meeting a couple from Guatemala who illegally sought refuge in America. Taylor immediately liked Estevan and could not understand why he had to work at a Chinese restaurant when he had better grammar than her, an American, and was qualified to be a teacher. Estevan was a very intelligent man, and Taylor did not like the way that her society treated him simply because of his circumstances. “’This is how Americans think…You believe that if something terrible happens to someone, they must have deserved it,”’ Estevan once remarked (157). As Taylor matured, she began to focus more of her time on loving those around her rather than focusing on all of the bad in the world. The people that surrounded her became a family that did not follow the culture, and this was what Taylor needed to be happy.
In Tuesdays with Morrie, Morrie Schwartz spent the last days of his life teaching Mitch various lessons, but one of the most prominent was that “if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it”(148). After Mitch graduated college, he lost sight of the dreams he had as a young adult and began to focus on the culture more than the things he once valued. Rather than becoming a pianist like he once wanted, he became a sports writer because it was a more reliable and profitable job. Instead of spending time with his wife, he was often gone on business trips because the society that he lived in pushed the idea that money bought happiness. Morrie knew Mitch when he was an aspiring young man, and he felt that it was important to remind him of the passions that he once had. “’You can’t substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness… Money is not a substitute”’(379). Morrie made sure that Mitch understood how important loving others was by using the last of his days to teach him that ‘”the most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and let it come in”’(177).
While The Bean Trees and Tuesdays with Morrie are very different novels, they still teach the same lesson: sometimes the culture that we are brought up in does not correspond with our morals, make us happy, or make us feel good about ourselves. It us up to the individual to make the decision to deviate from that culture and make a culture that they are happy to be a part of. Taylor Greer and Morrie Schwartz both decided to live their lives apart from a culture that they did not like, and in the end they were both better people for it.