Summary of Tuesdays with Morrie:
Tuesdays with Morrie is a memoir by Mitch Albom. It covers Albom’s meetings with his 79 years old professor Morris “Morrie” S. Schwartz during his last days. The student-teacher duo meets every Tuesday – giving the book its title.
The book is about the lessons a young man can get from a dying man, the tagline reads ‘an old man, a young man, and life’s greatest lesson.’ (Albom). While referring to the curriculum of these lessons, Albom makes it clear that ‘The subject was The Meaning of Life. It was taught from experience.’ (Albom).
Tuesdays with Morrie covers a wide variety of topics including death, fear, aging, greed, marriage, family, society, forgiveness, and above all a meaningful life. The book is therefore much like a guide on how to live life – especially for the modern reader who much like Albom has buried himself in accomplishments.
Plot Analysis:
The book has 28 small chapters. The first 7 chapters create the plot. There are many flashbacks focusing on Mitch’s relationship with his professor in college days. There are details about Morrie and his life. The author creates and develops his characters in these chapters.
Then, there are 14 chapters covering the Tuesday meetings of Albom and his professor. There are 7 chapters recurring in-between these 14 chapters. These chapters cover the Nightingale show recorded by Ted Koppel. Koppel has recorded Morrie’s lessons about life in his show. This show is the reason that Mitch contacts his old professor. The plot therefore is nicely woven to impart maximum knowledge to the reader.
Characters:
The book has two major characters Mitch Albom in his late thirties and 79 years old Morrie Schwartz. There are many minor characters including Morrie’s sons and wife, Albom’s wife and brother, Ted Koppel, and references to the family members of major characters.
The protagonist of the book is no doubt, Morrie Schwartz. The characters are obviously life-like because they are real characters. But to create and develop real-life characters in a book is a pretty hard nut to crack. These characters may appear boring or even irrational at times. However, Mitch undoubtedly creates old characters which have more vigor, charm, and appeal than the traditional adult protagonists.
The adults in this book only appear as supporting characters to Morrie. The man has lived an amazing and beautiful life, he doesn’t have many regrets, he is the one who ‘wanted to go serenely, and that is how he went…on a damp, windy morning.’ (Albom). But his character is such a beautiful persona in the literature that even though the reader knows from the beginning that he will die – he heavily grieves that he has really died.
Mitch Albom himself is just an ordinary character like all of us but has the audacity to listen and understand with an open mind.
Lessons in Tuesdays with Morrie:
Even though the book is full of life lessons but the ultimate lesson for a reader is the possibility of rediscovering himself at any age. In the conclusion of the book, Albom says, ‘if Professor Morris Schwartz taught me anything at all, it was this: there is no such thing as “too late” in life. He was changing until the day he said good-bye.’ (Albom). Mitch also rediscovers himself during his meetings with Morrie and the reader also gets a chance to rediscover his soul during this journey.
Along with this ultimate lesson, there are pearls of wisdom scattered around in the entire book. Some of my favorite are mentioned below:
‘the culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. We’re teaching the wrong things. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it. Create your own.’ (Albom)
‘The most important thing in life is to learn how to give love, and to let it come in.’ (Albom)
‘if you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them, too – even when you’re in the dark.’ (Albom)
‘If you’re always battling against getting older, you’re always going to be unhappy, because it will happen anyhow.’ (Albom)
‘We put our values in the wrong things. And it leads to very disillusioned lives.’ (Albom)
‘You can’t substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship…neither money nor power will give you the feeling you’re looking for, no matter how much of them you have.’ (Albom)
Concluding Remarks:
Tuesdays with Morrie is a must-have for everybody across the globe. It is much like a talisman one can hold on to during all the difficult phases of life. There is nothing that can be termed as a flaw in the book. Everything is finely knitted and structured. The chapter length is accurate for a variety of age groups and the language is full of aesthetic appeal.
Recommended To:
This is one of those few books which I would recommend everyone to read once in their lifetime. Tuesdays with Morrie gives the ultimate lesson one can possibly hope to get from any book.
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Check out the other Mitch Albom Book Review The Five People You Meet in Heaven available on our site!