Introduction
Tuesdays with Morrie is a personal memoir by Mitch Albom, the author of several bestselling books about the life lessons he has learned. Although he has been a sports writer for much of his career, Mitch first sketched this story in 1985, knowing it was something "very much worth sharing." His subsequent rediscovery of Morrie happened while he was caught up in the "gigantic" negotiation of contracts; yet the letters he continued to receive from Morrie's former students snapped him back to reality and to his promises. The time Mitch had spent with Morrie was the highlight of his college days. In the book, these events take place in Morrie's own home, within his own mind, where Mitch visited each Tuesday. Morrie was suffering from ALS and, as they met, was losing control of his body. "For every practical purpose," he was already bedridden. Another health-threatening condition would emerge in his lungs, and Mitch knew that his time with Morrie was these two ailing men's last. They spent time discussing a wide variety of topics, from existential themes to childhood and love.
Mitch Albom thus begins what will become six of the most important lessons of his life. When you turn these pages, meanwhile, reflect upon the impact of Morrie's words. "These teachings are—like the process of death—a part of life," says Mitch. But the reader will be opened to new mindsets and enriched with these "emotional vitamins." In so many ways, this book is a self-help and spiritual text. Morrie Schwartz was dying of the insidious disease. The profound musings on death and life in the last chapters were written with a perspective from illness, surrounded by overwhelming love, and suffering more than the reader could bear. In the last six chapters, Albom and Schwartz celebrated life and love. Schwartz's last years of life were, in one sense, "a partly exuberant culmination" of his existence. Running comprises so much of his life's most vital principles.
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Summary of the Last 6 Chapters
The last six chapters focus on the conversations between Morrie and Albom, held on Tuesdays, and show Morrie’s constantly declining health. In the first of the last six chapters, Morrie can no longer speak as he used to, and he is jeopardized by cramps. The man is short of breath, and he cannot eat or walk to the bathroom without a significant amount of help. Despite his situation, Morrie can still use terms such as 'sweetheart' and 'dear' and show genuine emotions. Morrie still tries to joke with Albom, saying that maybe there is an afterlife where corpses come back to life with new bodies that can walk, speak, and have a full head of hair.
A Reminder focuses on the maintenance of the fundamental elements of what makes us human. It is important to keep one’s culture in one's life, to always be kind, loving, and say what is on our mind. Living with Dying, Morrie talks about how people die. It reads like a letter to Albom and looks back on the sixteenth of December, when Morrie could no longer walk, and how every day after that, he has felt more and more limited in what he can do. He can afford none of the treatments that could currently extend his life by a week, but rather than feeling defeated by it, he reads being close to death as a gesture of his freedom—because he’s okay. In the next conversation, The Professor, Morrie flashes the reader back to a time before he started teaching the new class about life and death, to the dying ceremony with his family in nineteen ninety-one. His ex-wife and two sons, who never agreed on how to get on with Morrie’s illness, agreed to a put-it-all-on-the-table talk about his upcoming death, so Morrie rented a place for a pre-funeral: "Make me as comfortable as you can," he told them. "Say all the things you need to say to me. I want to hear your stories. I want to feel everyone’s presence. I want to appreciate everyone while I can."
Themes and Motifs Explored in the Final Chapters
At its heart, "Tuesdays with Morrie" is a book about the human experience. Two of the final chapters explore this concept through the lenses of love and human connection, emphasizing the beauty of these two facets that help define the human experience. This integration is not innately tied to happiness either. Morrie and the reader alike acknowledge that love ultimately leads to pain and affliction as death approaches them. Even so, it is emphasized that despite potential cynicism, life is meaningless without its love. It is precisely because of pain that love matters. These final chapters discuss life and thus the human experience as meaningless in the face of death. This concept is presented to be neither exactly positive nor negative, despite cultural norms condemning the topic. Instead, it is accepted in a neutral light. Death commands readers to reflect on their relationships with life and love so that they may be at peace before its arrival. It is reiterated that money and occupation have no bearing on someone else’s life. Rather, in the last analysis, the greatest significance is that of one’s character; the quality of a person’s heart.
Specifically, these final chapters reflect the pain and beauty associated with regret. Morrie is credited with possessing wisdom in excess of his years and experience, to the extent that it can be applied universally and warrants great change at an existential level. The regrets in life are richer and emphasize disconnectedness from the world. Morrie himself is exempt from embodying regret, feeling that his accomplishments in life are somewhat encompassed by those to whom he leaves his teachings. Forgiveness permeates these final chapters also. The notion of Morrie’s illness being a double-edged sword suggested in the early chapters is absolutely aligned with a discussion of regret as it further connects to the lessons learned. The forgiving individual is contrasted now with the “yelling, hitting, spitting” journal-writing individual of his time with Morrie. There’s a halt in time here, again trademarks of these final chapters. An “actual soul” is present here. It is apparent that the soul was not actual then, because he was not yet a man. Like a full-circle fact, Morrie forgives also, as old people are also wont to bury the hatchet. Full circle, one is given one more book with Morrie before the end. The final chapters are characterized by reflective, melancholic acceptance and the notion of forgiveness. The motif of ‘one more book’ ties these final chapters and, therefore, the experience of the whole narrative, together.
Character Development and Relationships
Morrie Schwartz teaches the reader life lessons in the remaining chapters. Even at his most vulnerable, Morrie continues to embody an endearing resilience, steadfastly offering words of wisdom and laughter in the face of his illness. "Learning to say we’re sorry" and to "laugh at yourself" are chief among the touching wisdom teachings that pepper his final days. Mitch becomes not only a humble student of "Coach," but also a friend. Morrie and Mitch sit knee-to-knee and share an emotional moment of confession and connection—the student's affection and regret contrast the mentor's already present sense of peace and wisdom. Morrie's powerful spirit is so captivating to Mitch that he marvels at the form of "rebirth" he glimpses, imbued with a "spiritual significance." "What connects two people to each other?" Morrie asks, pensive. "The answers to that kind of question are never war and power."
Morrie has now entered the final stage of dying. As Morrie shrinks and fails, he is in increasing discomfort. Mitch diligently accompanies Charlotte in caring for Morrie, ready to offer his support in "that small space of time." The memoir concludes with Morrie’s death. Mitch feels empty, but notices the feel of Morrie’s face—cold and hard—is still a familiar comfort to him. The death of his role model is difficult for Mitch to accept, though he reconciles himself with the realization that their class has "recessed" rather than ended. As long as Morrie remains within him, Coach still has a student and a classroom.
Impact and Legacy
In many respects, the book has become bigger than a bestseller. Published in the mid-1990s, the memoir has gained self-perpetuating power because it's not just a book that people read; it's a book that readers buy for others. Most often, they share it with friends and family who are at the end of their lives, who are in their 80s or, increasingly, who are in their 20s or 30s. This is the time in their lives when they are increasingly concerned with what they are doing and why, with the knowledge that death is nearer than their adolescence. It's the perfect time for them to be reminded that life is short and that love and time are precious. So, the aura has created an evergreen backlist classic that preaches the gospel of crossover publishing and appeals to all ages. In the last 20 years, the book has been reprinted 150 times and has 15 million print copies in use in this country.
In life, it has inspired the Work of Heart Foundation, which promotes the use of reading groups in hospice care and other health care settings, and a youth-initiated incentive that in its two years of existence has collected more than $36,000 toward ALS research. In death, Morrie Schwartz has become a freelance speechwriter, with taking on the late professor's speaking engagements, putting appearance and speaking fees into a scholarship fund that bears Morrie's name and is being administered by Edgewood College in Wisconsin. Twelve college students at that school, where Morrie worked as a visiting instructor, were awarded scholarships in the first four years of the fund. Also contributes $500 to the fund in Morrie's memory for every speech given. Like Morrie, the fund isn't focused on SAT scores and GPAs. That was intentional. It's about Morrie. Humbly, it adds, it's not making a big impact – which is precisely what Morrie would've wanted.
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