review on the novel Tuesdays with Morrie

Tuesdays with Morrie

Some movie analysts had critiqued that Mitchell Albom or Mitch could have got all the life long learning that he could use from self help books from book store and still could have done remarkable result of writing a story like this effortlessly, given his journalism talent is made known on ESPN as a commentator and a top sports columnist. But what the analysts had missed to notice is that they would not be as open eyed as Mitch did because they never valued someone like Morrie Schwartz in their life or even if they do met someone like Morrie, their heart must have been too cold to be touched by such a story. Coming back to business, the movie Tuesdays with Morrie is basically a movie that is meant to touch peoples’ heart to make them stop for a minute and start to think of others instead of themselves. Here in this review I would like to ponder my sincere admiration towards Morrie Schwartz in terms of his wisdom, his sincere heart, his strong acceptance on what fate has given to him and his strength to embrace his own disabilities but this review is not just about Morrie. It is on how Morrie’s point of view relates to the issue that we are facing in our education right now which are the contentment of life, the pressure of the society, the role of money in parenting and also the competition to survive.

Because of the book that Mitch had written, which is from where the movie was adapted, Albom had introduced the world Morrie Schwartz, his old college professor which later became the world most sociable person recognized even by those who never met or knew him during his life. The book was sold millions of copies, inspiring millions of people all over the world and had changed a lot perspective on modern style of self help book, through a real story of a real person who had wanted the world to love one another. Retrieved from a website, Morrie Schwartz or “Morrie” as what he had asked Ted Koppel to address him on an American famous talk show was born in Chicago and raised in New York City. He earned his bachelor's degree from City College and went on to earn a fellowship to study sociology at the University of Chicago, where he earned both a master's degree and Ph.D. In 1959, he began teaching sociology at Brandeis University and continued there until his retirement. No doubt that his experience had mould him in becoming such a person who valued life and death equally and believed that there is no such thing as one people should think they are better than the others. Some said that Morrie was lucky to have the experience he had that later he learnt to appreciate life more than anyone does before. He had learnt not to be drawn by all the melancholic drama but to live life in a meaningful and rewarding way and not just that, he wanted others to join him too.

In a form of a book, Mitch wrote a thesis on a lesson on life comprising all the most important values and life issues; the world, feeling sorry for yourself, regrets, death, family, emotions, the fear of aging, money, how love goes on, marriage, culture, forgiveness, the perfect day and how should we say good bye, which he had processed during the last days with his professor, Morrie every Tuesdays they met each other for fourteen weeks. Of course the question is why after sixteen years, Mitch finally came to his old professor’s knees and found comfort there. Why not he felt happy with his life and his achievement after all effort he had given to his career? The answer is fairly simple; No matter how high we go in our life, we will never feel happy until we feel contented with whatever that we had. The chase of achievement had made people sleep restlessly at night so that they can say they achieved a lot. Morrie had once questioned his students what is wrong with being number two. Well, there is nothing wrong with number two. People were just brought up and shaped by the society with the notion that not being number one means it is a lost to the person regardless of what he or she had learnt through the process.

This is exactly how our society is building the coming generation year by year and the product goes on bringing up their children with the belief that they will be doomed if they are not the best. We can take Singapore’s plight few years back as an example when they had problems with youth suicide because of the constant worry the children had to endure from their parents whom put it on them to be excellent at school. A report in Singapore Medical, 2003 stated that “A peak in suicides in the young was found for June and October, and a trough for November and December. Parasuicide is extremely rare in children under 10 years of age. There was a peak in the months of October and November in the student population, corresponding to the examination months”. More often than not they chose to jump from heights just to escape life stress caused by their own parents. Morrie was right when he said people nowadays bought whatever the society sell to them. These children had not deserved to be stressed out but the pressure to have a better life had caused their parents to burden their children with pressure. At the age of 10 to 14, what can they understand about life expectation? Yet parents and teachers keep on pushing them to the extent of them having to commit suicide to escape. Is this what we wanted for our society? Are we any different to the pressing Singaporean parents? Do we want to become like them and compete between life and death just because we cannot stand the second place? Malaysians children deserved to be treated like children and what the government had come out recently with the proposal of abolishing UPSR partly is because of the problem. The government wants the children to enjoy their youth and to learn experientially with their peers instead of becoming a book worm and not knowing how to lead a well rounded life except for memorizing word by word to be regurgitated during examination. Pen and paper test is good to know if they master how to read, write and count but to perform like tertiary level candidates is unfair for their experience in growing up. It is like when you change a fairy tale for bedtime stories into an inspiring story of prime ministers or inventors. The same concept applies when you want a child to cope with examination stress and put on the pressure for them to get flying color results.

During the fourteen Tuesdays they had together, Morrie had successfully stopped Mitch from running back and forth in his adult life without any time spared to consider on his own personal life. Morrie had made Mitch realized that if he took a break from his job, the world would still goes on the way it always did without feeling a hint of lost. That is the issue that our people had today. Mitch said he traded lots of dream for a bigger paycheck, and he never even realized he was doing it, and even Janine herself asked him why must it be so hard for him to make time for some one that important to him. Mitch is not the only man nowadays who barely have time for themselves what’s more to be spared to some one else, more and more people are having the same problem regardless they make a lot of money or not, they spend so much time chasing it. They are the parents, the parents nowadays whom think that without money they cannot raise their children perfectly. These kind of parents thought that they can replace their absence during the time their children grow up by supplying any kind of need that they can but can they? Can the materials replace their attention? Who should we blame when these children made wrong choices in their life and there is no one to explain it to them? The world never stops to pick up where we left. We need to rush not to be left out. Sometimes the bigger question is that whatever the parents are chasing out there, they are doing it for the sake of their children but is the time sacrificed worth it? Taken from a website called Principle of parenting, “Children who don’t get enough positive attention may try to get it in ways that irritate their parents by throwing tantrums, whining, and clinging. It may be hard for adults to understand, but to young children, the attention of their parents is so important that even the attention of an angry parent is preferable to not being noticed at all. That is why sometimes they do things to get the attention they seek from their busy parents so that at least if they cannot get the attention positively, they can get it anyhow. The lacks of attention not just ruin the young ones but the young adult as well. A lot of cases have been reported on how these young adults becoming juveniles for the sake of seeking some attention, be it in the foreign countries or in Malaysia itself. Society had trained people to think that more is good. They keep repeating it until they believe it whole-heartedly. Janine tried to have Mitch’s attention when he is having a two more minutes to deadline, we can see that the communication is no longer there when two people have different intention. Janine wants to have a passionate relationship while Mitch wants to secure the relationship by making more money. They love each other but with no attention given to the problem, the problem could not be solved. Same concept applies to the busy and could not care less parents. If they are not busy looking for more, which they thought is better for them, their children may not have to sleep with the maid reading bed-time stories to them and ended up making a decision to be a delinquent. Morrie is right when he said, “people were embracing material things and expecting a sort of a hug back. But it never works. You can’t substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for a sense of comradeship” and “when you most need it, neither money nor power will give you the feeling you’re looking for”. When a child has already decided that he or she means no more than the money his or her parents are looking for, then no money will be enough to change that thought.

Before Mitch graduated from Brandeis University, he had a dream on becoming a musician but later he totally put aside as he performed better in sports commentating where the payment seems to be more promising. Mitch is not the only person who needs to put away their interest and talents for the better pay. More and more parents are designing their own ambition for their children. There is no use of career test anymore. When academic results cannot help, money can be the step stone. Ask any students at school these days what they want to be when they grow up. Collect some answers and do not forget to ask them why as well. During the days of my practicum, the most popular answer that I get is doctor, engineer and businessman. One of the students is bold enough to tell me that he would be happy to do anything to make him rich. Money is everything now. Money is now the motivation to the young ones. They become doctors to make more money, because that is what society embeds in their mind. Remember what Morrie says, people keep repeating that owning is good. More property is good. More commercialism is good. That is how the society shapes people these days that they forget about the community. If they want to donate, they make sure that the whole world knows about it. If they build a trust fund, they ask what’s in it for them first. That is precisely the way we are raising the students nowadays. Everyone forget to serve the community before themselves. They give away the leftovers as a generous gift to the needy and they said they have done enough. They told their children to do so too. Parents are not the only one to do that. Teachers do the same thing as well. Every time they have friendly competition or a match, the motivation is to take down the opponent, not the spirit of the sports itself. The interest is not in making the world a better place anymore, it is to make the world a more profitable place where human will have to race to win a better place. Dreams in today’s lesson is not about what interest you or what makes you happy but to what makes more money. Success is not measured on what have you done for the society but how high you can be in the society. Mitch said he gave music when he grew up, as to what the interpretation can be; Mitch gave up the thing that does not make enough money for him. The culture expects us to compete and perform, that is the only way to improve.

School organizes sports tournament to enhance humanity, friendship, healthy competition but the training trained the competition that its all about winning, and not winning means losing. The Modern Olympic creed expressed by its founder Pierre de Coubertin, “The most important thing . . . is not winning but taking part” are typical expressions of this sentiment but how many of us still hold to this? People fight after a football game and hurt each other. Is this the right way of culturing the society? Even in the movie itself, we can see that human forgets humanity when it comes to competition or sometimes survival. Remember the scene when Mitch was knocked down with other reporters when they are chasing down an athlete star? No one there had offered an apology or at least a hand for him to get up on his knees. Come to think about how civilized we are now and things like that still happen until today. People said that they did their best for the society but still they are buried in works and money as inspiration. Morrie asked the audience at a match what is wrong with being number two and intended to discuss the issue there and then. Why do you think is the issue so important to him? That is because there is nothing wrong with being number two. Society shapes people in a way they cannot accept being number two. Number two means losing and having to accept losing makes people nervous. Parents send their children to extra classes night and day to ensure that they will not be number two, plus they can escape the time of having to take care of the children. They want the children to be at their best all the time they forget the importance of a child being a children anymore. Year and year, the age of maturity keeps going less and less. Do these kids really mature? Do they actually shows their maturity through their examination results? They were forced to be mature at a very young age and were not given any chance to enjoy their childhood because their parents do not think they have time for that. For them, childhood is a waste of time. They need to grow faster so that they can perform better than the others at school and compete to show that they are the best. This is what expected of the society.

From my own point of view where my reflection defines what I understand of the movie along with the book, Morrie Schwartz had touched a lot of life issues and inspired a lot people in the whole world. People shed tears for the book and the movie, not because of Morrie had finally died in the end, but most of the people can relate on what Morrie talks about. Morrie’s words touched a lot of hearts, regardless of the age. Morrie’s intention is to make the world take a break and have a rest, see the world as a place to live as a community instead of an individual.