External Essay

A 12 Mitch Albom employment of emblemization to portray his sum. to exclusively plump feel Extended Essay Alisha Waldron IB 000-848-005 December 5, 2012 Abstract This essay is an examination of the newfangled Tuesdays with Morrie, written by Mitch Albom in the mid-1990 and published in 1997. The research enquiry that pull up stakes be spoke upon in this essay is How does Mitch Albom use symbolization to portray his message, to hardly make up feeling? There ar umteen instances where Mitch, has Morrie Portray the nucleotide to simply live actionspan.There are m either credits that support answer my head through come in this essay. Examples of symbols employ through the brisk are the pink hibiscus comprise, Morries Bed, and the Waves on the ocean. This is the thesis of the easy that impart avail answer How does Mitch Albom use symbolism to portray his message, to simply live life. Albom uses contrary symbols to show his message. For the pink hibiscus found, its life a symbol that is supposed(p) to imitate Morrie, the weaker Morrie leads the weaker the arrange becomes. He never gave up who he was and continued to do him.The waves on the ocean showed to never give up, because unmatchable time you commit both(prenominal) topic thusly it get out come true. He might as well dear live life to the fullest. Morrie go to fork out is the biggest symbol in the novel. He counts that erstwhile you lie in bed then(prenominal) you are dead. This shows foreshadowing. He avoids his bed through proscribed the whole tale, but up to nowtu aloney becomes too weak and gives up. This is where he took his last breath. Word Count 242 T satisfactory of Contents Introduction4 pink hibiscus plant6 Waves on the ocean7 Morries Bed8 Conclusion. . 11 Works Cited. 12 Introduction Authors use symbolism because it makes their readers actually think to the highest degree their themes. It is used to give the characters or the incidents a second meaning hidden behind the visible meaning so the books are non boring, but engaging for entertainment and seriousness and pushes your melodic theme to interact with the novel which makes it much interestinganother thing. Another apprehension for symbolism is to present ideas that the author is afraid to expose clearly.Saying one thing promptly as is, not bad(p) forward is totally dissimilar from describing what you mean, it marks vehemence in the plot and benefactor reading engage in the novel. symbolic representation will either be cornerstoneociated as an object, a mortalality, an action or a state of soulal business that gives a deeper message, rather than s rafttily blurting by the message. The author might use totally diverse matter, compare characters or things or will repeatedly use constant circumstances of affairs or object to express crucial plots, principal mood or way of thinking. Symbolism will either be refined or deliberate.It can even be used to some extent or significantly used through break the text. Authors use symbolism after they indirect request to convey their messages and feeling to their novel while not blurting it out directly typically this can be often be intrigued by story writers because it offers them enough area to express what they need to mention, persecute in less(prenominal) wrangle. Symbols are used all throughout the whole story to help Mitch basically get his point across in a to a greater extent than enjoyable manner for the reader. Symbols are significant to Tuesdays with Morrie, it gives the readers a since of suspense.This story takes the reader through various cadences as to how to d bearstairsstand life itself, and by reading Mitchs book one begins to reflect on their own life. In most cases people watch death as a sad time in a person life. If you went to the doctor and you were t sure-enough(a) that in that respect was no way that you would make it, that you notwithstanding had near 2 age to li ve, it would be a rough time for you and your family. The last two years of your life would be hard. Every day, of the last two years of you waking up would be full of sorrow and pain.Tuesdays with Morrie is the concluding lesson surrounded by a sociology professor at Brandeis University, and overly the main character, Morrie Schwartz, and one of his schoolchilds that he previously taught at his college out front the illness, which is additionally the author of the book, Mitch Albom. Mitch saw his professor in an interview on the broadcast Nightline, Mitch before long ringed of a promise he created sixteen years in the departed that he wouldnt forget him that he would continuously imprison a association with him.Morrie was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which is an illness of the nerve cells within the brain and uneasy structure that manages the voluntary muscle-builder movement. Symptoms usually do not discontinue until after age 50, but they can st art in junior people. A person with ALS slang a loss of muscle strength and coordination that eventually gets worse and makes it impossible to do routine tasks such as going up a flight of stairs, acquiring up, out of a chair, swallowing, including juice and food, or in Morries case, Whip his own ass. Breathing or swallowing muscles may be the first muscles affected.As the disease gets worse, more muscle groups develop problems. This does not affect the senses (sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch). It altogether rarely affects vesica or bowel function, eye movement,or a persons ability to think or reason. He soon prepares that the disease is fixing up to him swiftly, and that he unavoidably to share his perception on The Meaning of Life with the ground before his time on earth ends. His time to be on this earth as a living human world is dependent and Mitch becomes responsive to this situation. Mitch leaves Michigan to travel to Massachusetts to show Morrie a higgle aft er the viewing the show.Previously after having this one fantastic visit, Mitch had a liking to go to Morries place in one case per week. Clearly this one random day was a Tuesday. Ever single Tuesday Mitch went back to see his old professor. Hebdomadally till Morries death. Every week they spoke on a few totally different topics. separately topic that was tell had to do with life, things that occur in ones life. Death, love, civilization, regret and also the world we have a tendency to board, among several other themes, were all enclosed in the content during this book to portray Mitch Alboms message to straightforwardly live life.The reader feels several emotions whereas reading this book, starting from merriment to unhappiness, most equivalently essay to hold back the tears once reached the end of the book. Although it takes Morrie a significant amount of time to eventually conk out away, this offers the book some suspense and provides readers to engage within the plot. I t makes the reader believe their own life and be a sign of on getting old, mercy, people, sympathy, and mentors in life, even as Mitch Albom will throughout the novel. Mitch Albom will use the symbols hibiscus plant, the waves of the ocean, and Morries bed to portray the theme to simply live life.Pink hibiscus plant An character of a symbol used in the book is the pink hibiscus plant As Morries body continues to expire at the same time as the disease is attacking Morries body, eating away, weakening his muscles, the condition of the hibiscus plant continues to die as well. The plant represents to decay of Morries insides within his body. The plants pink petals began to modify out, and wrinkle up. The petals eventually origin off the plant go forth the plant Old, dried out, and plain. Meanwhile, Morries disease continues to get worse spreading to different parts of his body.He then has no choice but to come more dependent of his me medical assistants and on the oxygen tubes he ha s to be institutionalize on. Morrie can no longer live alone, but has to be back up with just about anything he does. As his death approaches, just discipline around the corner, the pink hibiscus plant Morrie is becoming deceased. The death of the plant is quick occurring just like how Morries body is dying. The plant is constantly mentioned in reference of Morries life and for life in general. comparable the plant, humans, Morrie in particular, welcome a natural life cycle, this unavoidably ends in death.Morrie essential accommodate this anticipated outcome, and Mitch must do the same. Take my condition. The things I am supposed to be embarrassed about now not being able to walk, not being able to wipe my ass, waking up some mornings wanting to cry there is nothing innately embarrassing about them. Its the same for women not being thin enough, or men not being rich enough. Its just what our culture would have you believe. Dont believe it. The words above are spoken to Mitch as some words of advice, by Morrie during one of their normal Tuesday visits. During this visit they specifically speak upon society.Slowly but surely, Morrie has pornographic to rent his physical inability, in the same way he has liberal to accept his awaiting death. He complains that the society is wrong to believe in cut-and-dry physical needs as a social embarrassment, and as a result he will not believe that he being handicap is discreditable. In rejecting the values of the population, Morrie creates his own society, which accommodates the physical shortcomings people in todays society are faced with each and any day, that others find disgraceful and embarrassing. As Morrie sees it, popular culture is a potentate under which the human community must suffer.Morrie feels as though he has suffered enough already from his disease and do not understand see why he should search for social acceptance if it is not change to to his personal happiness. Through the novel, so ciety is portrayed as an enormous gimmick that removes everything from the minds of the public, and replacing the natural kindheartedness they gain at birth with a brutal greed and selfish focus. Waves on the ocean Another symbol that is used in Tuesdays with Morrie is the waves on the ocean. I believe Mitch Albom chooses for Morrie to remember this story about the ocean to connect the waves with life itself.Morrie comprehend about a llttle wave. except seeing the waves in front of him collide on the shore, departing into nothing made the little wave seems more significant than just a wave. He is suddenly make full with fear upon the realization that he also will soon crash on the shore and, die as the wave fears he will. There becomes two waves that seems to contradict each other. Its like one wave have confidence, or is just by his side to give him the strength to say you will not crash, or turn in to nothing but will instead interpret to become a small part of the larger oce an.This story gives Morrie a relief. This small wave is symbolic of Morrie, as he too is on the brink of crashing into a theoretical shore, a symbolic personification of his death. Like the wave, Morrie is comforted by the knowledge that he will soon present to something larger in the afterlife. Morries resemblance for the parable denotes his belief in a form of reincarnation, which he understands as fundamental part of the natural life cycle. You see You close your eyes. That was the difference. Sometimes you cannot believe what you see you have to believe what you feel.And if you are ever going to have people self-confidence you, you must feel that you can affirm them, too even when youre in the dark, even when youre falling. These words are spoken to his class while in a flash back on one of the Tuesdays. His class was asked to demonstrate a trust fall exercise this is when one student falls in to the arms of another student where that student must catch the student fallin. T his shows if the student trusts the other student. One student will fall straight backwards and must rely on another student to catch them. NO one can really trust anyone until on play off finnaly does the exercise without nervousness. Morrie notices that the student that completed this exercise had her eyes shut, and says that this exercise serves as a metaphor for the secret to trust in relationships sometimes it takes one to close there eyes, to be blind to a situation to trust lonesome(prenominal) relying on their emotions to direct them in their last decision. The exercise was used to explain how two people in a relationship trust eachother and the two partners take risks in letting them hold their heart. There is no getting around this risk, it is required.Morrie teaches his students that trust is blind one can merely judge whether or not to trust another based on an instinctive feeling, not because of any rational judgment or regularity of thinking. Trusting someone onl y takes for one to shut their eyes fall back, having faith in that person to catch them. Morries Bed Morries bed is a symbol that is used in the story. Morries cliche is, When youre in bed, youre dead. Ironically, his saying in the end happens. During Morries struggle with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), he didnt want to be in his bed, since his perception of the bed is so harsh.He believes the bed is a form of surrender. He feels he is being disappointed the more time that he spends in the bed and instead, he decides to calm on his chair located in his study. Every heard of the construction Live Life to the Fullest? Morrie has every intention to live his last bracing of days to the fullest, but he knows that if he stays in his bed, he will be giving himself up to death by surrendering the simpleton happiness he gets from lounging around in his study. Morrie refuses to let his disease pommel him. There where many memories in that were all around him in his study, like fri ends and loved ones pictures and books.In his study he can peek out the window. level off thiough he cannot go outside, the beauty of mother nature makes him happy. During Morries final days he laid in his bed after he had accepted the fact that it was his time to go, and he prepared himself for the death that wait him. The media is continually portrayed inTuesdays with Morrieas being fundamentally unholy, suck Mitch dry, literally, of his passion and ambition, and feeding the public stories of murder and hatred that have all wrecked the goodness of the worlds general community.Even though Morrie agrees to do the show and put his story in the paper, it is clam up draining the little bit of verve that he do have. I feel like he is trying to prove to everyone that, even though on the edge of death, he is still alive and he will continue to simply live life. Mitch, who is out of work due to a utilized strike at the Detroit newspaper he writes for, continually notices the horrif ic events reported by the media he for a long time has been a part of.He reads about homicides, torture,theft, and a twelve other frightening crimes that serve to contrast the evil of the popular culture with the goodness of the world Morrie has created for himself. The O. J. Simpson murder trial also makes multiple appearances throughout the book, and provides Mitch with evidence to supporthis claim that the general heavily population has become dependent on, and somewhat addicted to, media coverage of relatively meaningless stories, stories that extend nothing to personal development or goodness as a human being.These stories are used within the Novel as motifs to abide by the evil that is surrounded around Morrie. This shows, in my opinion, how steadfast, mentally, Morrie really is. Even though Morrie is not as strong physically he is still strong mentally. He ignores all of the ignorance that is going on around him. He only focuses on one thing, which is to simply live life T he truth is . . . once you learn how to die, you learn how to live. Morrie says this on one of the Tuesdays to respond to Mitchs question how one can prepare for death. His response was that every day, a person must ask the backer on his shoulder if today will be m day, my last breathes and my last words. His thinking serves as a symbol for his aware(p)ness that his death may come at any moment. The angel itself is symbolic of Morries awareness that his death is quickly arriving, and he needs to be prepared to accept it when it finally arrives. He hopes that Mitch will realize that this angel is on every persons shoulder during every inute of their lives, regardless of how childly or old that person might be. When he tells Mitch that one must know how to die before one can know how to live, in other words he means that one must accept the likelihood of ones own death before he can actually appreciate what he has on earth, it will all be out of reach, giving the urge to apprecia te and value what a person 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 angel sings its last note.In his quest to accept his awaiting, death, Morrie deliberately detaches himself from the experience when he suffers his untamed coughing spells, all of which come loaded with the possibility of his last breath. Morrie looks past the fact that his death date is quickly approaching. Morrie knows that the time is coming. He is aware of his deceasing body, as his famous statement I will eventually have to whip my own ass. Morrie derives his method of detachment from the Buddhist school of thought that one should not attach themselves to things, as everything that exists is temporary. In detaching, Morrie is able to step out of his tangible surroundings and into his own state of consciousness, namely for the interest of gaining perspective and composure in a stressful situation. Morrie does not depute to stop feeling or experiencing in his detachment, but instead, wants to experience wholly, for it is only then that he is able to let go, to detach from a unsafe experience which renders him fearful and tense. He tries to look past the fact that he has been diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and simply live life.He makes little changes to his life after the new was delivered to him. He does not want to die feeling upset, and in these frightening moments, detaches himself so that he may accept the impermanence of his life and embrace his death, which he knows may come at any moment. As you grow, you learn more. If you stayed as ignorant as you were at twenty- two, youd always be twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, you know. Its growth. Its more than the negative that youre going to die, its the prescribed that you understandyoure going to die, and that you live a better life because of it. Each of Morries lessons contributes to a larger, all-encompassing message that ea ch individual, Mitch especially, should reject societys values, but develop his own. As Morrie sees it, society is a dictator under which the human community must suffer. In his own life, Morrie has fled this socirty dictatorship in favor of creating his own culture founded on love, acceptance, and open communication. He develops his own culture as a revolt against the media-driven greed, violence and superficiality which has tarnished the mores promoted by popular culture.Morrie encourages Mitch to freehimself of this corrupt, dictatorial culture in favor of his own, and it is only when he does that he begins to reassess his life and rediscover fulfillment. Morrie readsa quoteby one of his favorite poets, W. H. Auden, to include one of his important lessons to Mitch in the absence of love, there is a void that can be filled only by loving human relationships. When love gathers, Morrie says, a person can experience no higher sense of fulfillment. During all xiv Tuesday visits less ons with Mitch, Morrie tells him that love is the essence of every person, and every relationship, and that to live without it, as Auden says, is to live with nothing. The appreciation of love, in Morries eyes, in particular, as he is abiut to decease, for without the vigilant care of those he loves, and who love him, he would perish. Morrie has one wish before he isnt on this earth anymore, and that is to share his story with Mitch so the world can hear it.Morrie fights for his life long enough to polish off telling Mitch all the storys, and lessons to Mitch so he can share them to the world. in short as he has completed his dying wish he surrenders and faces death, leaving Mitch to tell the world that love brings meaning to experience, and that without it, one may as well be dead. Conclusion In conclusion with examining the Novel Tuesdays with Morrie I have found a lot of evidence from the novel that helps support my question to how does Albom use symbolism to portray his mess age to simply live life? Morrie and his disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis didnt not stop him from doing the things is had a passion for. When diagnosed he taught his students until he was weak. He didnt just give up on life, even though he knew, soon to come, he was going to die. I have never heard of someone being happy to die. As you can see there were many symbol used throughout the novel to promote the theme to simply live life. The plant was basically Morrie through the novel. The weaker Morrie became the more weak the plant became.The waves on the ocean seem to stand out to me because it is a connection between the two and the wave. Mitch realizes that one day he will be a wave. He will eventually crash and vanish in to nothing. Meaning his time to die off just like every one of us is approaching and just like that, he will be gone. This symbol is important to me because it shows that everyones time will come, some sooner than others. No matter your condition, health, or your actions. When its your time, then its you time, no changing.Mitch begins to realize that by the end of the waves of the ocean store ends. The most important symbol used in Novel and in the essay is Morries bed. Its funny how the author uses foreshadowing in the novel this gave anyone a little hit of where Morrie would eventually die. Morrie believed that his bed was the evil that believed he had given up. Once you have lied in the bed then you are died. Morrie basically refused to lie in his bed simply because he didnt want to feel defeated. To conclude the whole examination, after examining deep into this book Morrie is not a quitter.At the end you goes down, everyone saw it coming, But he dont go down without a fight. I have proved the Mitch Albom uses symbols in Tuesdays with Morrie to portray his message to simply live life through The Bed, The Ocean, and the plant. Word Count 3,656 Works Cited Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie An Old Man, a Young Man, and Lifes greatest Lesson. New York Doubleday, 1997. Print. Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie. Grand Haven, MI Brilliance, 1997. Print. Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie. Rockland, MA wheelwright Pub. , 1998. Print. Board, A. D. A. M. Editorial. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. U. S. National depository library of Medicine, 18 Nov. 2012. Web. 18 Dec. 2012. Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie. Tuesdays with Morrie. N. p. , n. d. Web. 11 Dec. 2012. Tuesdays with Morrie. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Dec. 2012. Web. 19 Dec. 2012. Tuesdays With Morrie Mitchalbom. com. Tuesdays With Morrie Mitchalbom. com. N. p. , n. d. Web. 19 Dec. 2012. Board, A. D. A. M. Editorial. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. U. S. National Library of Medicine, n. . Web. 11 Dec. 2012. 1 . Board, A. D. A. M. Editorial. Tuesdays With Morrie. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. U. S. National Library of Medicine, n. d. Web. 10 Dec. 2012. 2 . Board, A. D. A. M. Edit orial. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. U. S. National Library of Medicine, 18 Nov. 2012. Web. 18 Dec. 2012. 3 . Board, A. D. A. M. Editorial. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. U. S. National Library of Medicine, n. d. Web. 11 Dec. 2012. 4 .Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays With Morrie. Tuesdays With Morrie. N. p. , n. d. Web. 11 Dec. 2012. 5 . Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie. Rockland, MA Wheeler Pub. , 1998. Print. 6 . Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie. Grand Haven, MI Brilliance, 1997. Print. 7 . Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie. Rockland, MA Wheeler Pub. , 1998. Print. 8 . Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie An Old Man, a Young Man, and Lifes Greatest Lesson. New York Doubleday, 1997. Print. 9 . Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie. Grand Haven, MI Brilliance, 1997. Print.