Tuesdays with Morrie  Written by Mitch Albom (An American author. He works as a newspaper columnist and a broadcaster, and serves on numerous charitable boards.)

1. A brief introduction of the book

This is a true story. Morrie Schwartz was a sociology professor at Brandeis University and he was a great teacher and coach of Albom through out his college years. They had a very special student-teacher relationship. But after Mitch graduated, he didn’t keep in touch with his professor. He didn’t know what happened to his professor until one day he watched TV. There was a TV program about his professor. Then he knew his coach was sick. He determined to visit Morrie. Then the story started. The old man Morrie set the last class of his life in his house, once a week. And Mitch was the only student. The class met on Tuesdays. The subject was The Meaning of Life. The class lasted for 14 weeks. Each week had different topics. They talked about the world, felling sorry for yourself, regrets, death, family, emotions, the fear of aging, money, how love goes on, marriage, our culture, forgiveness, the perfect day. And the last lesson was say good bye. A funeral was held in lieu of graduation.

2. Character analysis

Morrie was a kind old man and also a wise and humorous professor. He had a very open-mined outlook toward life. He did what he likes. He liked dance, so he could dance with the young man in the public. Because of the disease, he gradually couldn’t take care of himself. He needed people to help to walk, to dress, to go to the toilet. In other words, he didn’t have the privacy any more. But he accepted it and thought it was an enjoyment because he could back to the life of being a baby. Faced the death, he was lost at the very beginning, and then he thought he should do something meaningful. He wanted to share his options and experience about life with different people.

Morrie’s sense of humor, wisdom, courage, being optimistic, had carried him on till the every end. He has given unconditional love and attention to those who are in need. He was compassionate, and took responsibility for each other. He had lived a joyful and unregretful life; he wanted to make a difference and live to the fullest before he passed away, and he did.
   Mitch used to be a boy with ideal. But after he left the college, faced the stress of life, he gradually lost his ideal and even didn’t think about the life any more until he met his professor again. While talking with his professor, he started to think life again. In their conversation, we can see that he was a wise person. And also we can find that he had a lot of doubts. At the end of the class, we could see that he grew up. I believe that he will still think about life in his later life even without his professor.

3 My reaction

This book contains a lot of meaningful thoughts. It tells us how to love and how to be loved. It tells us how to forgive, forgive ourselves, and forgive others. It lets us survey the life again. After reading the book, I was shocked by Morrie’s optimistic attitude to life. I respected him. And I found I have missed a lot of significant things in my life. We cannot undo what we have done, or relive a life that has already been history. But it was never too late to have changes, to live a better life.

At last I want to say that the book’s words are very simple. We can understand easily.