Mitch Albom captured my attention in an unconventional
manner. I’ve had the book Tuesday’s With Morrie on the bookshelf at home for
years. I attempted to read the story in early middle school but didn’t quit
understand what was going on. It wasn’t until years later, after having to read 5 People You Meet in Heaven in an English class, that I decided to give the book
a second try. After reading 5 People You Meet in Heaven and beginning Tuesday’s
with Morrie I was deeply intrigued by not only the way Mitch Albom writes, but
the development of his characters and the importance of what they have to say.
Mitch Albom
writes about the changes and developments his characters go throughout and the
importance of things that they usually don’t realize without the help of
others. In 5 People You Meet in Heaven the main character Eddie doesn’t
realize the significance of many people and places in his life until it is over.
In “Tuesdays with Morrie” the main character Mitch doesn’t acknowledge the
importance of life and life’s lessons until after his meetings with Morrie.
Both of these books make me wonder if Mitch himself went through a life altering
time that made him want to begin writing. Although I have yet to finish Tuesdays with Morrie the book has already risen questions of life, life’s true meaning,
and whether or not it’s even important to know the answer to any those
questions. Mitch Albom has a brilliant way of making his readers feel both
happiness and sorrow from his books, and an even more brilliant way of teaching
us to except and appreciate both.
March 16, 2015
ReplyDeleteWhile reading Tuesday’s with Morrie the character of Morrie himself is the focal point of the story. He may not have been the narrator of the book, but is most definitely the storyteller throughout the memoir. Morrie’s incredible insight on life and the curve balls it throws our way are the exact characteristics that make him so wise, humble, and joyous. Progressively Morrie physically begins to disintegrate throughout the story, which in hindsight only strengthens his mental abilities. As Morrie knowingly approaches death he begins to focus more on what is worth living for then why and when he will die.
The amount of gratitude Morrie has towards the fact that he knows he is dying is mesmerizing. He has not just only come to terms with the sad truth. But, he has embraced this truth and chosen to thrive within it. He does so but mentally doing the activities he’s sickness has not stopped him for doing. He begins to do everything that he should have done more of before getting sick. He listens, he loves, he embraces, he feels, he become in touch with himself and those in his life. He strengthens in the qualities that he might have lack during the earlier years of his life. Morrie is a character that can easily be connected to due to his understanding and humbling qualities. He holds similitude to a lovely grandfather or comforting family member. He is the kind of man that makes you wish to be a better person. The type of people we should try more frequently to surround ourselves by.
Mitch Albom's style of writing may be considered extremely morbid to some of his readers. Death is a common theme through out Albom's book and the lessons that most do not learn until it is far too late. Albom's style of writing is almost always a story told in the first person point of view. His style of writing differs from most sophisticated authors because most of his stories are on the shorter side as well.
ReplyDeleteMy plants for my author study visual will be something on the more morbid side because that relates to my author and my question. My question was related to why Mitch Albom always writes about death and relates his stories to life lessons learned was close or passed that point of dying. This will include the plot of the stories I read by him as well. I plan to maybe make a fake grave with information on it about Mitch Albom. But, I am not 100% of my project quit yet.
ReplyDeleteThis author study project did not help me develop as a reader because I read two books in about two weeks and then continued reading my regular reading books. The cons of this project was that I did read a book that was out of my regular reading list because I do not typically read Mitch Albom's books and I might now. This project did not encourage me to communicate with anyone about my readings because all of the project was online or by ourselves at home producing the project.
ReplyDeleteThis project did help my learn more about Mitch Albom during the research aspect of the project. I learned a lot of things about his other jobs and works that I could not have learned from just reading his books. I do think it's important to learn more about an author you're reading especially if you intend to read more of their books. The pros of my organization skills during this project were that I had plenty of time in class to gather all of my information and necessary materials for the project. The cons were that we had an extremely long amount of time to do this project which just made me want to procrastinate even more.