The theme of heroism is one of the most frequent issues, discussed in numerous literary works. Each author tries to present his/her own vision of hero, endow this hero with the best qualities, and make him/her useful to other people. A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave, and Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom are the three works from different times, which help me create my own understanding of the word “hero” and realize that this hero can be found inside of any human being and may be significant to many other people around.
Nowadays, people hear such word as “hero” very often. “You are my hero!” – a girl says to her boyfriend, who’s just saved her from a huge dog. “He is a real hero” – a wife thinks about his husband, who’s just repaired the roof. “This boy will be a real hero” – a grandmother demonstrates her admiration of the boy, who’s just helped her cross the road. To my mind, people just do not pay much attention to a real meaning of this word, fling and use it in accordance with their emotions and feelings.
This is why, in order to remember and understand a true meaning of heroism, it is better to address to literature and find out how professional writers describe real heroes. On the one hand, it is impossible to believe that works by Robert Bolt, Frederick Douglas, and Mitch Albom have something in common. One of them lived in the middle of the 19th century, another is from the 1900s, and the last one is still alive and work in Detroit.
However, on the other hand, all these stories are based on real events, the authors introduce real heroes, who take really important and courageous steps in their lives, and these stories are not about some unbelievable human qualities or world disasters – each of these stories presents ordinary people within ordinary conditions, and explains how their attitudes to life and the desire to be better made them real heroes for many people around.
The main hero from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas , an American Slave got a wonderful chance to comprehend “the pathway from slavery to freedom” at the time, he did not really expected it (Douglas, 39). A real hero should understand the sense of freedom, and it is possible only in case of being enslaved and then getting the cherished freedom.
And in order to achieve this freedom, it is crucially important to control own desires and evaluate the situations from different perspectives, like another hero of selfhood from A Man for All Seasons, Sir Thomas More. The main purpose of More was “do prepare myself for, higher things” (Bolt, 22).
To my mind, these heroes are connected by one purpose – to be ready to do great things and help the others. As for helping other people, this very quality is also inherent Morrie Schwartz from Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie. The teacher demonstrates his unbelievable courage in spite of the fact that he is already aware of his death, and this painful and frustrating process reminds the hero about soon end. He cares about his students, tries to teach them the best qualities, in order to provide them with a chance to improve their own lives and their attitude to this world.
“Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live” (Albom, 104). In this case, the meaning of the word dying may be interpreted in different ways and compared to the ideas of other heroes under consideration: if you were not enslaved, you could not appreciate freedom; if you could not comprehend own desires, you could not explain them to the others; if you did not die, you could not enjoy this life and live.
In general, these three characters have one feature in common – they want to be ready to take great steps in order to help other people to achieve success, and, at the same time, not to forget about personal self-improvement even being bound by unfair realities of this world.
Works Cited
Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson. Broadway, 2002.
Bolt, Robert. A Man for All Seasons: A Play of Sir Thomas More. Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers, 1996.
Douglas, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
The book “Tuesdays with Morrie” is about the lessons the author (Mitch Albom) learnt from a former College teacher, coach and friend-Morrie Schwartz on death and life. Essentially, the book starts with a brief history on Morrie’s life before the illness and his reaction after the diagnosis. Readers learn that Morrie opted not to throw in the towel but continued with these classroom activities until his body could not allow him to do so. Mitch Albom then gives a brief summary of his interactions with Morrie in College.
Eventually, we learn about the first time Mitch sees Morrie on TV after decades of loosing touching and this is the ice breaker that brings these two individuals together. The rest of the book essential delves into the lessons on life that Morrie gets from his dying mentor. It is called Tuesdays with Morrie because that is the day when they meet every week. In these lessons, Morrie clarifies the most important aspects of life and affirms that one needs to be bold enough to focus on these things.
To the protagonist, living life in the moment and then detaching oneself from those moments is a sure way to get the most out of it. Furthermore, he asserts that when one focuses on giving rather than taking then one can find purpose. To him, it is the little things that matters the more as seen through his description of what a perfect day is. He also stresses the importance of family and love as these are essential foundations that can get one through the hardest and most difficult times.
Short Reaction
When I started this remarkable book, I expected to get insights on death and the end of life (although I was able get these) the most profound aspect about the book was its teaching on life and living. It has lessons for almost every single aspect of life that one faces i.e. school, marriage, careers, money, society and most importantly life’s misfortunes. It taught me how to get the best out of life rather than focus on a frantic rat race.
The book was so profound to me because it was not a work of fiction; these were all assertions made by a real human being. Morrie Schwartz did indeed fall victim to the unforgiving illness – Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and all the advice he gave was personal and genuine. I could connect with every emotion, every struggle and every loss. To me, the author did a splendid job by capturing all of Morrie’s assertions in a book that has been distributed to the rest of world.
There is no doubt that what Morrie shared with the author is relevant in any person’s life and it can therefore make another’s life richer and better. This book has definitely changed my life. I keep referring to it from time to time and will read little bits of it just so that I can be reminded about the richness and wealth of living. I never take things for granted now.
List of Quotes and My Reactions
“..the idea of quitting did not occur to Morrie.” (Albom, 9)
This quote comes at a time in the novel when Professor Morrie has been diagnosed with the illness and is slowly losing some of the most treasured aspects of his existence such as privacy, the ability walk and independence. At this point, any person would have decided to just go home and retire. However, Morrie’s tenacity is quite amazing because he chooses to continue teaching even in this painful and difficult circumstance. To me, this illustrates that even though life may seem harder than usual, one must not throw in the towel so easily.
“After the funeral, my life changed, I felt as if time were suddenly precious..”(Albom, 15)
Here, the author is talking about one of the earliest experiences he had with death. His most favorite relative i.e. his uncle lost his life to pancreatic cancer. He watched as the latter struggled with the ailment. What hurt him the most was that this uncle was the one who he looked up to as a young life. He was also the same person who taught him the little things in life like football, driving and women. It was therefore understandable if the death of such an important person took a heavy toll on Mitch.
He reacted to this by changing his behavior and chasing after accomplishments. I felt that this reaction is something common to anyone who goes through a sudden negative occurrence in one’s life. Because the shock and the pain are often too much, many people will avoid that pain by looking for outlets. Conversely, some may believe that by doing things differently, they can shield or somehow stop a similar shocking experiences in the future. I believe Mitch experienced a change in attitude because he was engaging in this frantic endeavor.
“ Am I going to withdraw from life.. or am I going to live?” (Albom, 21)
Here, Morrie is in a TV interview when he was talking about the end of life. I was really struck by this statement because I realized that one must make a conscious decision to engage in life. It is this conscious decision that can assist an individual to make the most of one’s circumstances as Morrie did.
“There’s a big confusion in this country over what we want and what we need” (Albom, 126)
This was another profound statement uttered by Morrie when discussing the American culture with this former student. I was moved by this sentence because it occurred to me that whenever things appear to be going wrong; this is always a sign of a deeper problem underneath. People often error in terms of first principles because they misunderstand something. In this case, individuals in the US have forgotten the importance of needs and are now merely focusing on wants.
“Yes, after all, I get to be a baby one more time” (Albom, 49)
Here, Morrie was talking about becoming so sick that he cannot carry out normal toilet hygiene on his own and he would have to rely on another person to assist him in that task. This seemed like a very disturbing thought but what struck me was the immense positivity that Morrie had. Instead of throwing his hands up, he chooses to look at one of the most embarrassing situations in his life positively. This just showed me that if one tries hard enough, one can always find something good about a situation.
Analysis
“Am on the last great journey here and people want me to tell them what to pack” (Albom, 33)
As I read the book, I realized how interdependent humans are towards each other and this quote captures that essence quite well. Man is essentially uncertain about various elements about his life and is always on the lookout for some guidance. In other words, members of the society need each other.
However, when one looks at this keenly, one can also see an element of self interest here. Individuals often shower praises upon others calling them courageous and outstanding as they did with Morrie. But underneath those praises is a self seeking agenda from the concerned parties because they just want to get something that will help them.
“People were so hungry for love they were accepting substitutes” (Albom, 125)
The author has managed to put a serious context on the material culture that has taken over this society through this quote. It is often difficult to associate the frantic chase for material things with emotional matters. It is not that people who chase after material wealth do not need emotional satisfaction or love; it is simply that they are actually so desperate for it. Furthermore, one can see that a profound misunderstanding has occurred in terms of how to fill this void.
“This is how you get respect; by offering something you have.” (Albom, 127)
Society is always trying to demystify life’s purpose and they do this by trying to unlock the secret of happiness. Morrie is able to throw some light on this matter by asserting that this is all about give and take. When one can make a change in someone else’s life, then that automatically adds meaning. Essentially, the book shows why looking for money cannot add meaning to life. Instead of giving to one’s community, the search for money only takes it away; no wonder so many people are still miserable in their wealth.
“… Then I’d like to go for a walk in a garden with some trees..” (Albom, 176)
Morrie was describing his perfect day if he was able to recover all his senses and all the other things that made him normal. Instead of making these insane wishes about visiting the Bahamas, Morrie’s idea of a perfect day was a walk in the park, visiting friends and the like. Although these might appear like very simple things, yet it is those things that actually add meaning to life. Through the book, one can learn that treasuring those moments and finding perfection in every single thing one does is the key to contentment.
“Here’s what I mean by building your subculture…but these things; those you ,must choose for yourself” (Albom, 155)
This book illustrates how we need not accept everything our society presents to us as acceptable. Although society advocates for a material culture, one has the right to reject this because it clearly has a lot of flaws. This is book is therefore empowering because it shows people the freedom they have to curve out their own identities by choosing the right values.
Works Cited
Albom, M. Tuesdays with Morrie. NY: Random house publishers
The generation gap is a persistent problem that prevents the younger generation from learning and finding their way in life. Tuesdays with Morrie by Albom is an explicit example of how accepting the authority of an older person can help the younger generation to deal with their emotional issues and set their priorities. Before spending fourteen weeks with his professor, Mitch was unable to engage in his life and relationships due to the inability to deal with his emotions. At the same, communication between generations is also vital for the elderly, since it brings peace and a sense of purpose to their lives. The analysis of the plot, characters, and themes of Tuesdays with Morrie leads to the understanding that today’s society prevents younger adults from learning from the elderly.
Plot Summary
Tuesdays with Morrie is a novel written in the form of memoirs about the meetings of Mitch Albom and his college professor, Morrie Schwartz, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The action takes place in the nineties, during the O. J. Simpson trial, when Mitch accidentally finds out that his college professor, who was once very dear to him, is terminally ill. Mitch recalls that he once promised to keep in touch with his professor, but failed to do so. Albom decides to visit Morrie and finds him slowly losing control of his body due to the illness. After the first meeting, during which the professor and his student discuss the importance of love, Mitch decides to visit Morrie every Tuesday and talk about life.
During the following fourteen weeks, the narrator witnesses the gradual decline of Morrie’s life while taking essential lessons from him. Every week the two characters focus on a specific topic, and Mitch records the conversation. The novel describes how Morrie teaches to deal with regrets, self-pity, and the fear of aging. The professor preaches the importance of love and family while criticizing American culture and greed. Throughout the meetings, Morrie tries to accept his fate and find a piece with his illness slowly moving to identify himself with his spirit rather than the body. Shortly after the fourteenth meeting, Morrie passes away, and Albom writes the memoir to help pay for his professor’s extensive medical bills and passing the wisdom to further generations.
Analysis
Characters
The has two main characters, Mitch Albom, the narrator, and Morrie Schwartz, the interviewee. Mitch is a middle-aged man who has given up his dream of becoming a pianist to afford a living. He is a successful journalist who is financially prosperous but unhappy. According to Michau and Louw, Albom seeks assistance in personal life to become a successful person, since he was already successful professionally (140). He struggles from being emotionally handicapped since he does not know how to express his feelings in front of others. Even though in his articles, Albom writes about the misfortunes and hardships of others, he does not feel sympathetic and remains emotionally detached from the problems of others. The fourteen weeks spent with his mentor help Mitch learn life’s true values, one of which is learning to love and deal with emotions. In short, the narrator accepts the authority of the older generation, which helps him to learn vital life lessons and become a more successful man.
Morrie Schwartz is a sociology professor in his seventies battling ALS with his friends and family. He enjoys the company of his student and admits that it brings the meaning to his final days since he can share his knowledge. He is grateful to his fate for having the time to reflect upon what is important to him. Morrie believes that “the most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in” (Albom 16). He points out that most people are confused about their priorities since they seek money and material comfort. According to Verhaeghen and Hertzog, Morrie is a wise man since he knows how to deal with uncertainty and has a clear set of values (257). In brief, Morrie finds his purpose in being able to spread the knowledge and communicate with people dear to him.
Themes
The central theme of the novel is death and how it affects the individual and the environment. Morrie is given time to prepare for his death, which is crucial for the majority of people, according to Meier et al. (262). Morrie’s death is juxtaposed with the death of O. J. Simpson’s family, an abrupt, violent end of life with no possibility to make peace with dying. The novel shows the irony of death, since “everyone knows they’re going to die, but nobody believes it” (Albom 23). At the same time, Morrie treats death as a part of life and claims that when people learn how to die, they also learn how to live. The thought of death is shown as a purifier to a person’s mind since it helps people to focus on the true values and discard all the unnecessary things in life.
Another theme developed in the novel is mentorship and the importance of passing the knowledge between generations. According to Michau and Louw, the book is a vivid example of how a relationship between a mentor and a mentee should develop (134). Indeed, both Morrie and Mitch find comfort in the conversations, and the student is helped to find his way in life. Even though the book touches upon various motives, the two themes mentioned above are the basis for the development of characters.
Personal Opinion
In my opinion, Tuesdays with Morrie is a reflection of how modern society treats the elderly. In the majority of mass media, the older generation is shown negatively. Most young people, similar to Mitch, believe that they know better about how to deal with their lives. However, after several trials and failures, they turn to the wisdom of the older generation to help them find life’s meaning. Albom was lucky enough to get the knowledge from the older generation before it was too late. However, the majority of people realize that they need help when their parents and loved ones are already dead, and the relationships with them are broken. Therefore, the novel describes the need to change the priorities and start respecting the older generation to become valuable members of society.
Conclusion
The book reveals the problems of younger and older adults and how communication between generations can help to address these issues. For the younger generation, it is crucial to get the knowledge to become more successful in their lives. The older generation may find comfort and purpose of being in being able to share their wisdom and receive gratitude. However, the values of modern society abstract such communication, and most of the time, it is possible only accompanied by extraordinary events, such as a terminal disease.
Works Cited
Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson. Doubleday, 1997.
Michau, Abrie, and Willa Louw. “Tuesdays with an Open and Distance Learning Mentor.” Africa Education Review, vol. 11, no. 2, 2014, pp. 133-145.
Meier, Emily A., et al. “Defining a Good Death (Successful Dying): Literature Review and a Call for Research and Public Dialogue.” The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol. 24, no. 4, 2016, pp. 261-271.
Verhaeghen, Paul, and Christopher K. Hertzog. The Oxford Handbook of Emotion, Social Cognition, and Problem Solving in Adulthood. Oxford University Press, 2014.
Nowadays, a lot of people are chasing their dreams. There is nothing wrong with it, except for the fact that they are paying the price with their lives, giving up on their close ones and things that might be the true meaning of their lives. Mitch is a perfect example of an individual who got lost into materialistic stuff and forgot what his true values were. He eventually decides to meet his teacher, Morrie, when he finds out that the latter is going to die soon (Albom 18).
All of Morrie’s lessons deliver a superior memo that each person should discard prevalent cultural values, and, as a replacement for them, develop his or her own. For Morrie, popular culture is a tyrant that is the reason for the human community to grieve. Morrie himself has escaped this cultural despotism all for creating his own culture based on love and acceptance. He develops his individual culture as a rebellion against the greediness, ferocity, and triviality popularized by media, which has discolored the values promoted by popular culture. Morrie inspires Mitch to free himself of this immoral, tyrannical culture in support of his own, and when he does that he starts to reconsider his life and re-experience contentment.
Analysis
One of the most profound messages elaborated by Morrie is that we are all waves in a boundless ocean, but we should not be afraid of crashing into the shore. Instead, we should embrace our inner self and focus on understanding that we are a part of the ocean as a whole and not just a little helpless wave. Another beautiful idea developed by Morrie establishes that people bury themselves in work, money, and ambition, but they never stand back and ask themselves if that was what they wanted. People get lost in routine and have a hard time coming back, that’s why Morrie cries out to Mitch, knowing he is afraid of showing or receiving love and worries about mistaken things that, in fact, are not that important.
The most important message delivered by Morrie is a lovely story about an imaginary bird. You put it on your shoulder and ask it every day whether your day has come and you can die peacefully. Every other day you ask yourself if you are the person you want to be. The moral of the story is that if we accept the fact that we can die at any time, we will lead our lives differently. If you have a bird on your shoulder, you will not put off the things closest to your heart. If you have found meaning in your life, you don’t want to go back, because you are eager to go forward. Morrie questions the importance of spirituality and the ability of a person to love and be loved. He, in reality, sees the meaning of life in love:
On condition that we can love each other, and reminisce about the feeling of love we had, we can pass away without ever actually passing away. All the love you gave still exists. All the reminiscences are still out there. You live on in the hearts of every person you have affected and encouraged while you were here (Albom 174).
It is all about the sense of warmth you get when you remember your loved ones (Wolfe 36). Just like Wolfe, Morrie relies on empathy and compassion in each aspect of his life, praising the humanity and ability to love in an individual. He proves to Mitch that spiritual values are more important than materialistic stuff, and it is never too late to understand it.
The implementation of Morrie’s values in our day to day living seems to be nearly impossible. We are affected by the fast life and a different set of values, imposed on us by the media and surroundings (Findlay 342). Society learned to be misanthropic and cynical. The virtue is ridiculed by society and is considered to be a manifestation of the softness of the character. The nowadays meaning of life turned out to be a commercialized attempt to sell us distorted values wrapped in a bright cover.
The probability of old values revival is rather small, but if you gather like-minded people and help others to believe that we are not lost yet, the chance for a comeback still remains. A quiet and hasteless meeting seems to be the best means of discussing the issue and finding out other people’s opinions on the topic. Such conversations would help understand how people feel about it and what they are craving to be changed or, at least, brought to the attention of the majority. Any online discussions would not do justice to the issue, exposing it to the attacks of those, whose opinion differs radically from what is proposed.
Conclusion
To sum up, the author agrees with Morrie and accepts his set of values. The meaning of life is to be in harmony with yourself. This can only be achieved by learning to love yourself and those who surround you. By showing your love, you leave a mark in the lives of others and live on even after death.
Works Cited
Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man and Life’s Greatest Lesson. New York: Random House Large Print, 2010. Print.
Findlay, J. N. Values and Intentions: A Study in Value-Theory and Philosophy of Mind. London: Allen & Unwin, 2014. Print.
Wolfe, Thomas. Of Time and the River; A Legend of Man’s Hunger in His Youth. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1935. Print.
Tuesdays with Morrie is a true-life narrative about Mitch Albom and his friendship with his adviser and professor, Morrie Schwartz, in the last few months before passing away. The description that Albom gives about Morrie’s incredible ideas and fight for continued existence has motivated many readers. Besides being a professor, Morrie had remarkable skills in writing and motivational speaking before his health deteriorated and deterred him from proceeding with his passion. Albom’s narration is full of vital lessons that one can learn in his or her life.
Mitch Albom discovered that his professor had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). From then, Albom was by Morrie’s side each Tuesday for six months. He spent each of these days learning important lessons that he could get nowhere else.
Albom had developed the tradition of visiting Morrie with the hope of getting support on his thesis paper. He went back to Morrie with the same anticipation but ended up getting essential skills from Morrie’s deathbed. As a community, we are supposed to visit the old and the sick, not as a show of pity, but as a golden chance to learn from their past rich experiences. Those who have been privileged to reach this state ought to be enthusiastic to pass their knowledge to the upcoming philosophers.
Despite the constant changes in humankind, life has to go on. In this situation, a major conversion of self is only possible when one perceives that death is inevitable. People who have experienced the reality of death are capable of fully comprehending the significance of life in this world. Morrie always said, “Learn how to die, and you will learn how to live” (83). The certainty of the mystery of this life is properly fathomed in one realizing that this life is short-lived.
Morrie told Albom that “… when you most need it, neither money nor power will give you the feeling you’re looking for…” (125). This is one of the key concepts that has influenced my life while reading this book. Neither money nor power is capable of making one happy in this life. Many of us spend our whole lives desperately hunting for peace of mind, material needs, or unfulfilled love relationships. Morrie teaches us to be contented with whatever we have and live within our means.
“He smiled,…because if you’ve found meaning in your life…you want to go forward…you’re always battling against getting older…it will happen anyhow.” (118). Here Morrie is advising his long time student to live his life to the fullest. These words, as expressed by him, make more sense to me than if they were to be expressed by my father. At his deathbed, Morrie critically reflects on his experiences in life, he encourages me to develop a trust for his enlightened advice.
Morrie teaches Albom about the notion that his culture depicts and the way none of us should deem as appropriate what the culture entails. “It’s the same for women not being thin… It is just what our culture would have you believe. Don’t believe it” (155).
Regardless of his deteriorating health, Morrie did not give up lecturing Albom. If we could emulate Morrie in suffering long for the good of others, our world would now be a more pleasant place to live in. Tuesday’s with Morrie is a lesson for us all that illustrates the beauty of living a life well.
Work Cited
Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie. New York : Random House, 1997. Print.
Many societies are recording an increasing number of elderly citizens. This fact explains why nurses should be ready to support these elderly citizens. The novel “Tuesdays with Morrie” gives the story of Schwartz and Mitch. This essay offers meaningful discussions that can support the needs of many nurses and elderly patients.
Initial Reaction
I sympathized with Schwartz after reading the story “Tuesdays with Morrie”. I also sympathized with Albom because he was focusing on the wrong dreams in his life (Albom, 2002). According to the story, Mitch decides to reunite with his former professor. Mitch brings him food to eat. He also gains powerful lessons from Morrie Schwartz. A strong relationship develops between these two individuals. Morrie Schwartz is also suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
However, I have gained new lessons after rereading the story. For instance, Morrie Schwartz advises Mitch to work hard in order to create his own culture (Albom, 2002). Towards the end of the story, Mitch reunites with his ailing brother. Albom also continues to conduct silent conversations with his professor. This practice continues even after Schwartz’s death. I have felt reborn after reading the story. The story has equipped me with new ideas that can make me a better person. I will always support and help more people in society.
Touch and Intimacy
Intimacy and touch can offer the elderly a sense of well-being. The elderly in many societies suffer from touch deprivation. This is the case because many elderly citizens lack the needed care, support, and attention. Sometimes they are left unattended. This malpractice has affected the experiences of the elderly. Morrie Schwartz also appears to suffer from touch deprivation (Albom, 2002). Morrie begins a new life after Mitch visits him. The aged have been unable to lead normal lives because of this situation.
Our modern society has contributed a lot to this problem. A new culture has emerged whereby the elderly are treated poorly. Such individuals are usually taken to different Nursing Homes (NHs) in order to get the required care. Such individuals lack the required attention from their loved ones. Certain malpractices such as selfishness and enmity continue to affect the relationships established by different individuals. Such values have affected the elderly in society (Tabloski, 2013). Nurses can therefore enhance touch for these individuals. Caregivers should offer evidence-based support to the elderly. They should use their competencies to interact, mentor, empower, and fulfill the social needs of the elderly.
Spiritual Journey
Tabloski (2013) believes that nursing should always be an evidence-based art. According to many people, aging is a powerful spiritual journey whereby one connects with the transcendent self. This path should eventually result in spiritual growth. Nurses should be ready to help the elderly. Such nurses should use the best values to support these citizens. Some of these values include compassion, sympathy, empathy, love, trust, and respect. Nurses should promote the best intrapersonal relationships with their elderly patients. They should also offer culturally-competent care to achieve the targeted outcomes.
The above argument promotes “the concept of being fully present with an individual” (Tabloski, 2013, p. 28). Caregivers should always interact with their elderly patients. This process will result in a mutual relationship whereby the targeted citizens empower one another. The individuals will “fulfill their physical, emotional, emotional, and spiritual needs” (Tabloski, 2013, p. 72). These concepts can ensure every elderly citizen finds new meaning in his or her life. I can empower the elderly to focus on their spiritual goals. I can also ensure such individuals embrace the best values such as love and trust. The elderly can also encourage me to embrace new values such as empathy and compassion. I can also acquire new competencies from the elderly.
Analysis of the Quote
The quote “learn how to die and you learn how to live means that every person should be aware of the impossibility of death (Albom, 2002, p. 82). This knowledge will make it possible for many individuals to appreciate their lives. This fact shows that we all have limited time on earth. This knowledge will ensure more people focus on the best goals in life. This knowledge will eventually promote the best practices in every person’s life (Tabloski, 2013). The process will eventually produce a fulfilling life.
Morrie also tells Mitch that aging is a form of growth (Albom, 2002). According to this quote, every day presents new lessons. Such lessons are acquired throughout a person’s life. Such lessons can eventually promote personal growth and fulfillment (Albom, 2002). This quote encourages Mitch to focus on his little time on earth. Mitch creates a new culture instead of focusing on unnecessary things. These two quotes present powerful insights that can guide many people today.
Conclusion
This exercise has encouraged me to focus on specific values such as acceptance, love, and goodness. Morrie teaches Mitch to denounce popular values such as selfishness, greed, and superficiality. The outstanding lesson from this story is that “human beings should always accept aging and death” (Tabloski, 2013, p. 53). Nurses should therefore be ready to support the elderly using their culturally-competent skills.
Reference List
Albom, M. (2002). Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson. New York, NY: Broadway Books.
Tabloski, P. (2013). Gerontological Nursing. Upper-Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Although regularly undermined, the social life of human beings is very important not only during a lifetime but also during the process of death. Social interaction and social support systems are very important in the lives of human beings. Scientific medication in healthcare centers may sometimes prove irrelevant if sick persons are not getting enough social support during the dying process. Nobody wishes to die, nobody wants to hear about death, and nobody wishes to be reminded about his or her soon demise or that of a blood relative or friend. Perhaps the reason behind the provision of palliative care for people suffering from deadly ailments is to strengthen their faith and resilience against traumatizing situations. The end-of-life process is a painful moment that requires humorous surroundings and enough social support. During death, social support from family and friends may prove exceptionally significant in easing grief due to impending death. Therefore, this essay offers a sociological perspective of Morrie’s interview and the Dakota documentary with a view-enhancing the understating of the process of death and grief.
Morrie’s Interview
Morrie Schwartz suffered Eaton-Lambert Syndrome (ELS), an ailment that leaves Morrie weak in soul and losses morals of life. Morrie appears in television interviews and talks almost confidently about his illness and the meaning of life. Morrie speaks about his inability to continue being a dancer and his most painful sorrow in the manner in which his health condition forces him to surrender dancing, being his favorite hobby. Although at this moment his confidence and attitude towards the ailment were still positive. In succeeding interviews, a couple of months later Morrie seemed weaker than earlier and revealed challenges of his sickness. At this stage of sickness, Morrie could barely speak as his health had deteriorated very much. Morrie developed an individual culture in which he believed in love, acceptance, and human righteousness. Through the social support system of his family and friends, especially his wife Charlotte, and his friend, Mitch, provided rejuvenated Morrie to live longer than anticipated.
Morrie seems very confident and somewhat optimistic about his life despite the underway ailment that is seriously affecting his health condition. This case reflects the five stages of death grieving. Despite the ailment being the cause of surrendering dancing as his much-loved hobby, there is a lot of hopefulness in Morrie’s first television interview. Based on the five stages of grieving according to psychologists, Morrie was undergoing the first stage of grieving and at that juncture, the heart rather than his logical reasoning was in control of his belief. Morrie was in the denial, anger, and bargain stages because his heart and feelings were ruling his personal attitudes towards his ailing condition. A spark of hope was accompanying his emotions and made him live in fantasies. Anger and questions about the possibility of recovering were apparent in his behaviors. The denial, anger, and bargain stages were evident as Morrie finds possible means to keep him busy and jovial through the television programs to forget the ailment stress.
Subsequently, the television interviews and conversations with Morrie reveal that after a couple of months, Morrie seems to remove the burden of living in denial, anger, bargain stages, and he admittedly reveals that his health was in trouble. From the first three stages of denial, anger, and bargain, Morrie enters the fourth and fifth stage of grieving, where aspects of depression and acceptance become apparent. Close relations involving his family, especially the wife, his friends, Brandeis and Mitch, must have played a crucial role in providing Morrie with the deserved social support. Most important is to understand how his personal ego could barely assist him to live positively with the ailment. Social support systems prove to be indispensable when Morrie enters the stages of depression and acceptance, where personal ego fades away and individuals become hopeless. Acceptance is making peace with a condition. Social support makes affected people understand that loss of a relationship or a dying process, is a lifetime process and humans must adjust.
Dakota Documentary
It is worse to be alone and feel alienated from the community, but it is even worse to reason, just like a multitude of many others in society. Dakota 38 is a documentary, whose main theme is to demonstrate the way cultural norms influence the lives of individuals. The documentary movie explains the worst human execution in American history where 38 worriers from Dakota faced merciless death through a single hanging in Mankato. Owing to cultural beliefs, people involved in this execution died in poverty and refused to live to improve their lives, even though they had chances of improving their lives. This explains how populism or the culture of the majority affects our individual capacities to make autonomous decisions in life. The first aspect of living in denial in the stages of human grieving appear in this case, with the community members struggling to uphold their cultural norms, and failing to survive through their individual culture.
The scenario of the Dakota documentary reflects my personal experience where certain cultural norms and beliefs affect our social interaction with ailing people. Sociologists believe that the process of ailing due to a deadly disease is very painful to both victims and people around them. After the doctors informed them about his duration of living that they initially assumed would be approximately three months, a cultural fear to reveal the secret behind the death of the uncle appears. It is evident from my experience that caregivers to people in the dying process feel much concerned about the death of loved ones as they consider the process to be a painful experience. Socially, people tend to keep the fact that the quality of life is paramount and any dying person should receive dignified treatment during his or her end-of-life process. Just the way the people of Dakota respected and fought for their culture, the same happens when people respect the dying process of their beloved ones.
Dying is a lonely and sorrowful process that many dying people find it uneasy to accept, especially when the ailment is distressing. Keeping in mind that life contains an aspect of familial friendship and affection, pain bestows caregivers, and people surrounding the dying person the courage to provide effective social support. During the process of dying, the uncle managed to survive for three months beyond the earlier assumed period. Based on the theory of five stages of death and grieving, it is inevitable that depression and acceptance are the last stages of a dying or ailing person after denial, anger, and bargaining stages. During the dying process, and especially in the depression process where victims become helpless and adjust to the condition, social support seems to be a critical source of faith and hope. The strengthened social support must have come right at the depressive moment when the uncle was accepting and adapting to the inescapable face of diversity.
The uncle managed to regain his happiness when he saw his children around him. It happened that after receiving social support from parents and relatives, the uncle lived for six months, which is quite a long when compared to the anticipated three months. Strong social support boosted the hope of the dying uncle and made him survive the depression stage with a sense of acceptance and compassion towards the situation. This simply depicts that when dying people are at their crucial stage of death, such as depression, they need love and empathy to increase their hope towards life and view dying differently. Social support removes the sadness in dying persons and brings new perceptions about their condition. The social support systems are the reason why the uncle managed to increase the anticipated dying period from three months, which the doctors had previously anticipated, to six months.
Conclusion
It is still abnormal to tell dying persons openly that they would soon depart from this world of excitement and valuable social relationships. It is unethical to tell or remind people about their impending deaths. Caregivers and relatives of the ailing persons feel that the dying process is a sorrowful and painful experience that requires social support of friends and relatives. From the assessment of the two cases above, it is evitable that the dying process involves five crucial stages of grieving that include denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Providing dying people with the required social support system during their dying process is very important as it eases depression and encourages the acceptance death, and thus elongates the period of living. The dying people need love and empathy during their dying process.
Tuesdays with Morrie is a television film that was produced by Mick Jackson in 1999. It is based on a memoir of Mitch Albom, an American author and main character of this story. The film describes the series of Tuesday meetings of Albom with his former professor of sociology. Morrie Schwartz suffers from a fatal disease. The lessons of life that Morrie gives to Mitch lie at the core of the film.
Summary
Mitch Albom is a young man; he lives in Detroit and works as a sports journalist. He is under constant deadline pressure, always on the telephone, and has to do multiple things simultaneously. He loves his partner, Janine, but cannot give her enough attention due to his busyness, and he is afraid to marry as he supposes that any marriage leads to divorce. One day, Mitch sees on TV his former professor of sociology, Morrie Schwartz. Morrie used to be a cheerful man who loved to dance, enjoyed life, and inspired his students. However, he developed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and is currently dying. Mitch decides to visit his professor and travels to Massachusetts. Morrie is excited to see his former student after sixteen years; he asks Mitch about his life, passion for music, marriage, and family. He notices that Mitch is not satisfied with his life and wants to meet with him every week to give him life lessons before death. Albom reacts skeptically; however, later, he feels that he needs to clarify his life and agrees to visit Morrie.
During their second meeting, Morrie, or Coach as he was called in a university, talks about age; he praises it as growth, not decay. He asks Mitch to come every Tuesday, and the next Tuesday, he remembers his family; Morrie’s mother has died, and his father married again. Being with Morrie, Mitch gradually learns how to postpone work, show emotions, and focus on important things in life. During the next meeting, Albom reveals that Janine left him because of his constant busyness and asks Morrie’s advice on how to fix this relationship. Morrie underlines that for people, there should be nothing more significant than love. Mitch writes a letter for Janine and gives her an engagement ring, they travel together to Morrie’s house, and Janine is enchanted by Coach and sings for him. Next time, Morrie speaks about the importance of forgiveness and love to each other. During their last meeting, Morrie describes his simple but ideal day if he gets a magic wand to have one day being healthy again, and Mitch finally cries. Morrie peacefully dies on Saturday, surrounded by his family as he always wanted.
Analysis of the Film
Main Themes of the Film
All main themes of the film are included in Morrie’s lessons he gives Mitch every Tuesday. He is talking about the importance of giving and take, not only material things but time, love, emotions, and experience. He admits that to accept love and care, to be dependent on someone is not shameful, he encourages Mitch not to be afraid of touches and tears to express feelings, and forgive everyone, every time, and for everything (“Tuesdays with Morrie,” 1999). Morrie says that time, compassion, and emotions are highly significant and priceless things to give.
The essential part of Morrie’s lessons is dedicated to life and death. Morrie knows that he will die soon, but he says that only life that does not find the meaning is afraid of death, and “when you know how to die, you know how to live” (“Tuesdays with Morrie,” 1999). He teaches Mitch that he should imagine a bird sitting on his shoulder, and every day he should ask it whether it will be his last day, and he wants it to be like this (“Tuesdays with Morrie,” 1999). Every day of life should be valued as it may be the last one.
Love is probably the main subject of Morrie and Mitch’s conversations. Morrie states that love is the most important and reasonable thing in the world that never ends, even after death. He notices that Mitch, like most people, is afraid of love and describes his father’s life. He emotionally narrates that his father was afraid of love, and he did not let Morrie remember his mother. Morrie had a grievance against him for this; however, at the end of his life, he starts to understand his father’s fears, forgives him, and feels upset that he did not tell him before how much he loved him. Morrie admits that instead of love for each other, people focus on wrong values like money and work that uses and degrades people.
Visual Expressions of Film’s Main Themes
Morrie’s great lessons of life and their importance are intensified by the director through the way how Morrie’s life and Mitch’s life are demonstrated. The time when Mitch visits Morrie, and they talk with each other is nearly always filled with warm light, yellow and orange colors of nature, pleasant music, singing, and benevolent, compassionate people. And by contrast, Mitch’s life and work are shown through cold, blue colors, constant noise, and vanity, arrogant or aggressive people. The director emphasizes the rightness of Morrie’s words and his way of life and opposes Mitch’s focus on wring things.
Nature, loved and praised by Morrie, is used in the film to show the end of his life. When Mitch meets his professor for the first time, there is a lot of sunshine and warmth. However, the weather is changing along with the deterioration in Morrie’s condition. Rains begin, and at the end of the film, when Mitch visits Coach for the last time, snow is falling (“Tuesdays with Morrie,” 1999). Here the death of nature symbolizes the death of the person.
Actors
Actors chosen for the roles of Mitch Albom and Morrie Schwartz have done their job on the highest level of professionalism. Jack Lemmon (Morrie Schwartz) conveys all emotions of his character; he shows that despite all his cheerfulness and optimism, Morrie is suffering and struggling with reality. Morrie looks as if he had accepted his state; he takes pleasure in any minute of his life, jokes, smiles, though suddenly his eyes fill with tears when he starts to remember and talk about the past, his mother, or nature.
Hank Azaria (Mitch Albom) excellently plays the role of Mitch Albom as well. Moreover, this actor has a suitable appearance and kind eyes as it is highly essential for this role. Although Mitch devotes all his time to work and follows the wrong values, he is not a cynical and heartless man. He loves music and his woman; he is ready to show his compassion and affection to others. The conversations with Morrie help him to remember who he actually is, reconsider his life, and focus on the right things.
Personal Opinion
This film is highly impressive, and it makes me start thinking about my own life. I started to reconsider it and evaluate how much time I give to significant things in life, like family and love. Unfortunately, modern culture promotes wrong values, and people start to put money and career in the first place, they forget that the time spent with friends, life partners, and families is priceless, and it may be missed and never returned back as life is short.
I like the main heroes of the movie; Mitch Albom creates a positive impression from the beginning of the story. The way how he loves Janine and the fact that he decides to visit his professor, whom he saw last time sixteen years ago, show that he is a good person who probably lost the right way in life due to his fear of many things. Morrie teaches him not to be afraid to express his emotions, he encourages Mitch not to feel the shame of touches and tears, and it was highly satisfying to watch this transformation of a young man. The death of Morrie cannot leave any person indifferent, and the scene of Morrie and Mitch’s last meeting when Mitch cries provokes strong emotions. I would recommend this film to all people and hope it will help many of them to change their life.
Conclusion
Tuesdays with Morrie is a highly impressive film that describes the conversations of a sports journalist with his former professor, who gives him his last life lessons. He teaches his student that to love and forgive each other, share positive emotions and experiences, and appreciate every moment of life is priceless. This film makes a significant number of people worldwide understand themselves better and reevaluate their ambitions.