2sdayswithmorrie

The following is a study guide that I used with my students at Greenwood High on the novel TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE by Mitch Albom.
Feel free to use it for your own personal study of the novel or for classroom use. For the answer key, please write me from your school
address and I will gladly e-mail it to you. Happy Reading!!!

STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS:

1.        What is the significance of the titles of the chapters in the novel?
2.        Why does the novel go back and forth between the past and present?
3.        In what tense is the novel written? Why?
4.        Is the story told in 1st or 3rd person? Why?
5.        What is the setting of the novel?
6.        Why was the day Morrie gave up dancing a milestone?
7.        In what did Morrie earn his doctorate?
8.        When did Morrie develop Asthma?
9.        What disease did Morrie have and what does it entail?
10.        How long does A.L.S. it take from beginning to end?
11.        What is a “Living Funeral”?
12.        What was Mitch’s first “real” job?
13.        What caught Mitch’s ear?
14.        What are some of the “bite sized philosophies about living in death’s shadow”?
15.        What question did Mitch hear that made him go numb?
16.        Why did so many people want to spend time with Morrie?
17.        Why are so many people that come to visit with Morrie?
18.        What “breathing thing” does Morrie do to prove to Mitch that he is dying?
19.        Which side wins in the tension of opposites?
20.        Why does Mitch think of Morrie whenever he reads anything silly or mindless?
21.        What things did Morrie do to develop his own culture?
22.        What event gave Mitch the time to go visit Morrie?
23.        What did Mitch bring to Morrie because he remembered Morrie’s fondness for it?
24.        What was Morrie referring to when he told Ted Koppel he was soon going to have someone else do for him? Why was that important to him?
25.        Does Morrie see crying as a sign of weakness or strength? Why?
26.        What is the “only rational act”?
27.        Why does Morrie say he is lucky to be dying the way he is?
28.        What was the artificial ear that Mitch took to Morrie’s house?
29.        What did Morrie want Mitch to hear in the 3rd Tuesday?
30.        What was Morrie more healthy than Mitch?
31.        What kinds of faces did Mitch see at the Logan Airport terminal?
32.        What was Morrie doing to Ted Koppel at the beginning of “The Audiovisual”?
33.        There are days that Morrie is depressed about losing one thing in particular. What is it and why?
34.        What did Morrie say his friend Maurie Stein and he would do if they lost their ability to speak to each other or hear the other speaking?
35.        What does Morrie still feel pain from that happened more than seventy years ago?
36.        How old was Morrie when “he felt as if the weight of a mountain were on his shoulders”?
37.        What did Morrie wait on like a “puppy waits on milk”?
38.        What was the only evidence that Morrie had of his mother?
39.        Pick one of your favorite teachers here at school. How did they choose to become a teacher?
40.        What did Mitch hate the idea of that happened to Morrie (in 4th Tuesday)?
41.        What does Morrie say will cause you to become more involved in your life?
42.        Why does Morrie say it is so hard to think about dying?
43.        What “slightest” thing brought Morrie immediate joy?
44.        What thing does Morrie appreciate more than Mitch?
45.        Who do you think the little bird is that sits on Morrie’s shoulder?
46.        Why did Morrie enjoy the joke his son told so much?
47.        What does Morrie say is supremely important in the beginning of the Fifth Tuesday?
48.        What is the most painful price that Morrie says he will have to pay when he does?
49.        What was Mitch referring to when he said “It’s supposed to be me.”?
50.        What is giving Morrie a good “sense of purpose” in the Sixth Tuesday?
51.        What lesson does he teach Mitch in the Sixth Tuesday?
52.        How does Morrie want to die?
53.        About what does Morrie lose his “battle”?
54.        What does Morrie realize about that battle?
55.        What does Morrie realize about losing this battle and what it means in terms of his “age”?
56.        Why doesn’t Morrie “buy” the emphasis on youth?
57.        Of what is Morrie envious?
58.        How does Morrie keep from being envious of others?
59.        What does Morrie say we are put our values in?
60.        What has Morrie always been taken with?
61.        Describe an example of an average person who is so fogged up by “More is good” that they have no perspective on what is really important.
62.        By what physical things are you “obsessed”? Why? How will they help cure your hunger for love?
63.        What does Morrie say is “not a substitute for tenderness”?
64.        What does Morrie tell Mitch give great satisfaction in life?
65.        How does Morrie say one starts to get respect?
66.        What does Morrie tell Mitch to devote his life to doing?
67.        What does Morrie tell Mitch about “showing off”?
68.        What did Gandhi mean when he said “Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.”
69.        What was ironic about the Kentucky story at the beginning of the Ninth Tuesday?
70.        How does Morrie say you can be remembered even after you die?
71.        What did Morrie do when he was “with you”?
72.        What lesson did Mitch remember Morrie taught in college that he now realizes was more important than anything else that he learned?
73.        What gesture did Morrie make to people that cut him off in traffic?
74.        How did Morrie’s father die?
75.        Who did Mitch finally bring to visit Morrie on the Tenth Tuesday?
76.        What does Mitch say about his wife’s singing?
77.        How long has Morrie been married?
78.        What is the key to a successful marriage according to Morrie?
79.        What was Morrie’s “surrender spot?
80.        How does Mitch begin to change in the Eleventh Tuesday?
81.        Morrie believes in the inherent _______________ of people.
82.        What does Morrie say makes people mean?
83.        What does Morrie say is the best investment?
84.        Morrie says that in the beginning we need others to survive, and in the end we need others to survive. What is the secret about the middle?
85.        Morrie succeeds in coaxing compassion out of who/what at the beginning of The Audiovisual, Part Three?
86.        What are the three lessons Morrie leave with the world on Nightline?
87.        What does Morrie admit at the end of the segment with Koppel that Mitch has never heard him admit?
88.        What does Morrie admit he regrets in his life at the beginning of the Twelfth Tuesday?
89.        What had Morrie’s friend sculpted into the bust of Morrie, as well as just his likeness?
90.        What “sin” did Morrie commit concerning his friend Norman?
91.        What did he have to learn to do about it?
92.        What does Morrie say to Mitch at the end of the chapter that touches Mitch more than anything?
93.        What was Mitch more afraid of than anything else?
94.        Where did Morrie want to be buried and why?
95.        What was Morrie more able to joke about as he got closer to death in the Thirteenth Tuesday?
96.        What does Morrie say that humans see themselves as “above” that they are not above?
97.        Morrie says, “Death ends a _________, not a _________.”
98.        Why did Morrie find perfection in an average day?
99.        What does Morrie tell Mitch he will “find his way back to” and why?
100.        How did Morrie and Mitch say good-bye?
101.        Why did Morrie smile at the end of the Fourteenth Tuesday?
102.        Why is the final chapter entitled The Graduation?

JOURNALS: Write at least 1 full page on the following journals - Choose and complete At Least 10.

1.         Draw how YOU see Morrie and Mitch.
2.         Describe the events that “will occur” in the last 30 minutes of your life.
3.         In your opinion, is the comfort of Heaven similar to the safest place on Earth? Why or why not? What do you think is the safest place on Earth?
4.         Morrie claims that a Death Sentence can be a beginning. How can that be?
5.        Name someone that has deeply affected your life that probably does not know they have done so and describe how/when they did so in detail.
6.         “All parents Damage their children.” Discuss how your parents have “damaged” you. Consider: Is “damage always physical?
Is “damage” always negative?
7.         What do you want your coworkers or family to remember about you after you die? What changes can you make right now to begin the process of
becoming the person you want them to remember?
8.         Describe a time where your actions effected someone else adversely, even though you did not realize it until later. What things have you done
recently that might effect someone else adversely? Did you think about those effects before you did it? Why or why not? What do you think about
the treatment now?
9.         What would you do with your time if there were no T.V., Videos, DVDs, or Internet? Plan out a day and a week in detail.
10.         Morrie does not make a lot of money and his illness eats through most of his savings and retirement, yet it does not matter to him because he
wants to be remembered for the giving of himself, not of his assets. What things in life are more important than money? Discuss the ways in which
you are rich, even now.
11.         Why is eating with someone else important to us? What is the effect of silence on human relationships? Why are we embarrassed by silence?
What comfort do we find in noise?
12.         What MAKES a teacher teach? Are teachers life-long learners? Why and How do they connect with others? Relate this to Mitch and Morrie.
Is Morrie teaching himself in the future by teaching Mitch?
13.         Would you rather be ugly and kind or beautiful and nasty? Why? Why does our society have a shortage of Compassion?
14.         Are you self-motivated or do you require someone to motivate you? By what are you motivated?
15.         What if today were your last day on Earth? What would you do, think about, plan, eat? Where would you go? Who would you say goodbye to?
How would you say goodbye?
16.         Do you take care of others or take care of your “inner child”? Why? Do you hold traditional values or reject tradition as useless? Why?
Do you Just Say No, or do you Just Do It? Why?
17.         What thing in your life creates tension in your life and pulls you in more than one direction at once? Discuss how you think you can resolve the
tension successfully - think it out on paper.
18.         Those of you that have lost someone in your life through death or otherwise: Do you see an ending to the pain or do you think it will go on
forever? Is it OK to feel the pain and embrace it? Why or why not?
19.         Do we have to be taught to care for others? Why?
20.         Who are Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Angela Davis and why did they have a great effect on the 1960's?
21.         Do the discussions of other cultural beliefs about death and reincarnation strike a chord with you? Why? In what way? Do they make you think?
About what?
22.         Why is reverting to childhood be appealing to us? If you could chose to go back to that time, would you? Why? How much does Human Touch
have to do with it?
23.         Find at least 5 pictorial examples of “Beautiful People” that are NOT from ads, magazines, movies, etc. Why are they beautiful?
24.         What things have you done to be “beautiful” that turned out to just be an ad? What meaning have you found in life that will help you avoid that
pitfall again?
25.         Read a poem from W.H. Auden, Morrie favorite poet, and analyze it.
26.         What have you sworn that you would do differently or the same as your parents? Why? How will you succeed with your children?
27.         Are your parents’ divorced? Do you expect to get a divorce? How can it be avoided? Realistically, what do you want in a spouse?
28.         Morrie said “Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others.” How can YOU do this? What do you have to forgive yourself for?
For what do you have to forgive others?
29.         Do you believe that Morrie’s statement that after he died he could still listen when Mitch talked to him is a pipe dream we have about our own death
or the death of others? Why?

ESSAY QUESTIONS: Write at least ½ page about each - these are not optional.

1.        Describe what you want put on your tombstone and explain why.
2.        Mitch learns many valuable lessons from Morrie. Discuss the one that effected you the most deeply and why it did so.
3.        Mitch realized that we all need teachers in our lives. Who is your “teacher” and what has that person taught you about life?
4.        Name 10 important things in life that you want clarity about and discuss why.
5.        Why is it so hard to show love through simply helping someone else? How can we make that connection?
6.        Why do kids think they will never die? When did you realize that death is forever? How do you know that it is?
7.        What would you want to be reincarnated as if you were reincarnated? Why?
8.        Why would you NOT want to be 10 again?
9.        Find a famous person’s statement of death and analyze the way Morrie would, OR, interview your parents or grandparents about their views
about death.
10.        What meaning can we take from the “Little Wave” story that Morrie tells? Explain.