Social Roles In Tuesday's With Morrie By Mitch Albom

‘Tuesday’s with Morrie’ by Mitch Albom is a great book that easily ropes in a reader. The book starts with the setting on Mitch in college and his favorite professor being Morrie. Mitch and Morrie had more than a normal professor-student relationship; they were friends. Graduation time came around and Morrie told Mitch not to be a stranger and make sure he visits. This didn’t happen until sixteen years later when Mitch found out that Morrie has ALS and felt the need to reconnect with his old professor. The book continues with their journey as they become closer after their reconnection, and as Morrie is becoming weaker, more dependent, and drawing close to the end of his life. Both Morrie, however mainly Mitch starts to express his emotions …show more content…
Men are supposed to mow the lawn, work to make a living for the family, and do handy work around the house. These are examples of the second reason we don’t express our emotions; social roles. In one of the tuesdays that Morrie and Mitch have their meeting on, Morrie says proof of social roles that are in place in society today. “The truth is, when our mothers held us, rocked us, stroked our heads -- none of us ever got enough of that.” (Albom 116). This is an example of the role that mothers are supposed to take care of the children. This is also an example of why this role is a reason we don’t express our emotions, because referring to the quote when it talks about that nobody ever got enough of the holds, rocks, or head strokes; if there wasn’t this role the man of the house could also participate in doing this with the children. A second example of social roles in ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ is that it’s everyone 's role in life to grow, succeed, and help others as much as one can. “As you grow, you learn more. If you stayed at twenty-two, you’d always be as ignorant as you were at twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, you know. It’s growth.” During the meetings every tuesday, Morrie teaches Mitch about his purpose in life and why it is important to become older and wiser. Morrie is a perfect example of someone who grows, becomes wiser, and helps others. And Morrie is trying to help Mitch become like that as …show more content…
Morrie is shown as someone who can easily understand his emotions and tells Mitch about how everyone is oblivious to their emotions. “We’re so wrapped up with egotistical things, career, family, having enough money, meeting the mortgage, getting a new car, fixing the radiator when it breaks -- we’re involved in trillions of little acts just to keep going.” (Albom 64-65.) This is just one way that Morrie is explaining to Mitch that everyone’s daily thoughts overpower the ability to recognize your emotions. He is also trying to explain that those things should not be so important that we no longer pay attention to how we are actually feeling. Also that we are just doing these things to keep us preoccupied from our emotions, and as people we just add more little unimportant things to avoid our emotions. Morrie then goes on to saying another example of how we don’t realize our emotions to Mitch. “Most of us all walk around as if we are sleepwalking. We really don’t experience the world fully, because we’re half asleep, doing what we think we automatically do.” (Album 83). Morrie is explaining to Mitch that we don’t take the time to realize how we actually feel because we are too busy doing other things, and feel that routine is more important than recognizing our emotions. Morrie tries to say that this is not how it should be because our emotions are important and we need to step outside of what