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Mahrukh Gardezi
ENG4U
Ms Tran
27 August 2012

To what extent does Morrie's struggle in a complex world that reveal values of society in Tuesdays
with Morrie by Mitch Albom.

Morrie's fantastic ideas and struggle for survival has inspired many readers through Albom's
account of Morrie's last thoughts and philosophies. He did not see anything wrong with being number two,
instead of number one. He had no shame, as he became ill, to have someone maintain his most private
ordeals. Morrie a professor,was completely against conformity to society when it came to death, illness and
culture.

Probably one of the most profound views of death that has ever been made known was that of
Morrie Schwartz in Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. Morrie believed that Once you learn how to
die, you learn how to live. Many think about this but few actually live through it. The Buddhist philosophy
Morrie shares about asking the bird on his shoulder if today is the day he will die serves as a metaphor for
his awareness that he may die at any moment. It is evident that Morrie had in fact learned how to die and
because of it he was allowed to live his life to the fullest, something I think many people fail to do resulting
in a feeling of inadequacy and dissatisfaction with the life they have lived leading to the desire to end their
life. Everyone has heard the old scenario of how if we could pinpoint when and how we were going to die,
what would we do between now and then? Morrie explains to Mitch that one must know how to die before
one can know how to live, he means that one must accept the possibility of one's own death before he can

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truly appreciate what he has on earth, as the sobering awareness that one day, it will all be out of reach,
prompts the urge to appreciate and value what one can have only for a limited period of time, and to use
every moment of that time doing something that one will not regret when the bird sings its last note.

Morrie viewed his illness as a chance to surround himself with the people whom he loved and
who loved him. He never stopped living even though he knew he was rapidly dying. Albom writes in the
book of how up to the very time of his death Morrie was always giving of himself, always trying to better
others before himself believing that giving, not taking is what makes us feel alive. Morrie felt as though he
still had meaning to his life. The stance on dying taken by Morrie is most definitely an individual value.
How many people actually think of others rather than themselves after being diagnosed with a fatal illness?
Although Morrie did not claim to accept any one of a large number of religious doctrines, his views on
death and dying had a strong spiritual connection.

Morrie also chooses to react against popular cultural norms in his acceptance of his own
debilitating disease and imminent death. He has lived and loved to his fullest extent, and is intent on
continuing to do so as he dies. Having always lived as a fiercely independent man, it is difficult for him to
rely on others for all of his basic needs, though he refuses to be embarrassed by his physical shortcomings,
and tries in earnest to enjoy "being a baby again." In his childhood, he has been deprived of love and
attention, and now that he is once again reliant on others as he was in his infancy, he thrives on the love and
physical affection provided by his friends and family. Each of Morrie's lessons contributes to a larger, allencompassing message that each individual, Mitch especially, should reject popular cultural values, and
instead develop his own. As Morrie sees it, popular culture is a dictator under which the human community
must suffer. In his own life, Morrie has fled this cultural dictatorship in favor of creating his own culture
founded on love, acceptance, and open communication.

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People go through life fearing something that they cannot prevent, it is an inevitable occurrence. Life as we
know it will come to an end for every person at some point. Morrie develops his own values as a revolt
against the media-driven greed, violence and superficiality which has tarnished the mores promoted by
popular culture. In doing so, Morrie encourages Mitch to free himself of this corrupt, dictatorial values of
life in favor of his own, and it is only when he does that he begins to reassess his life and rediscover
fulfillment.