You do not have to answer every question nor do you have to go in this exact order. Use this as a guide if you are stuck.
How to Start:
- Pick your chapter and re-read it.
I picked “The Classroom.”
- Next, brainstorm ideas of what you could discuss relevant to your chapter:
My Topics:
- Life as a classroom (Life teaches you all the important stuff, and what is important to you. Could talk about Mitch’s life and how it taught him what really mattered.)
- Every classroom needs a “Coach” and a “Player.” (In life, you need to find your coach and you need to be a willing player.)
- Mitch reunites with Morrie to remember and try to get back to the person he was when he was Mitch’s student.
- In this chapter, as they are talking, Mitch realizes that he has forgotten the lessons that Morrie taught him.
- Morrie suggests that we are teaching the “wrong things.” What are the right things?
- What are some of your favorite parts of the chapter?
Favorite Lines from the Chapter:
“Have you found someone to share your heart with?” he asked.
“Are you giving to your community? “Are you at peace with yourself?
“Are you trying to be as human as you can be?”
I squirmed, wanting to show I had been grappling deeply with such questions.
What happened to me?
I once promised myself I would never work for money, that I would join the Peace Corps, that I would live in beautiful, inspirational places.
“Coach,” I said suddenly, remembering the nickname.
Morrie beamed. “That’s me. I’m still your coach.”
He closed his eyes, shook his head. “My tank is almost empty.”
I tapped my thighs nervously. That was enough for one afternoon.
“Come back and see your old professor,” Morrie said when I hugged him good-bye.
I promised I would, and I tried not to think about the last time I promised this.
“Have I told you about the tension of opposites?” he says. The tension of opposites?
“Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn’t. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted.
“A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle. “
Sounds like a wrestling match, I say.
“A wrestling match.” He laughs. “Yes, you could describe life that way.”
So which side wins, I ask? “Which side wins?”
He smiles at me, the crinkled eyes, the crooked teeth.
“Love wins. Love always wins.”
- Start with the introduction.
Possibilities for your introduction:
What is the story about? Who is Morrie? Who is Mitch? What is your chapter about?
DO NOT DO A PLOT SUMMARY! Only include enough information for the reader to know the topic.
- Tell why your chapter is important. Pull in quotes when you can to validate your points.
- Discuss how it relates to the overall novel.
- Discuss how it relates to you, the world, your family, or something else.
- Write your conclusion. What do you learn about the story? Why was the story written? How does the story end? Why is the story important?
Amanda Sherfey
“The Classroom” – A Metaphor for life
ENG IV – Mrs. Sherfey
May 15, 2014
“The Classroom” – A Metaphor for life
The chapter of “The Classroom” is early on in the novel, Tuesdays WithMorrie. Mitch has recently seen Morrie on television and longs to reconnect with not only his college professor, but the person that he was those many years ago. Mitch has grown materialistic and work-obsessed. When he sees his old professor’s face, he is reacquainted with the youthful enthusiasm he had for life.
This chapter is a special one for several reasons. First of all, it portrays the loving relationship between the teacher and student, or as they say “Coach” and “Player.” It also represents Mitch’s search for what he once was. Furthermore, it suggests that life is a classroom: as the seasons, or courses, go, we get closer to the “final exam.”
“The Classroom” begins with Mitch and Morrie quietly sitting and talking with the sun beaming in through the dining room window. As the phone rings again and again, Morrie has Connie, his nurse, take messages. “I’m visiting with my old pal now,” he announces. “Let them call back.” It is apparent in this chapter, and in the one previous (“The Orientation”) that Mitch is ashamed of the person he has become. In the sixteen years since Mitch has seen Morrie, Mitch hasn’t lived by the lessons that Morrie taught him. He hasn’t followed his dreams. He hasn’t helped out his community. He isn’t “at peace with himself.” He isn’t as Morrie says, “trying to as human as you can be.” When talking with Morrie during this chapter about these very things, Mitch thinks to himself, What happened to me? Several times as Morrie talks, he asks himself that question. What happened to me? And he answers himself back I was busy.
It’s a great beginning to the story. It wraps the reader up in the man too busy for someone who loved him so much. Too busy to marry and have a family. To busy for his dreams. It forces the reader to compare Mitch’s life with their own and that is what makes this story so special. Everyone can compare themselves to Mitch. As life progresses we all want to be great people, but sometimes, life itself gets in the way, much as it did for Mitch.
Mitch is on a search for the person he used to be. He is ashamed that he isn’t the person that Morrie remembers. When Morrie looks at him, he does so with love. He sees him as someone who deserves love. Morrie loves Mitch so much, that he makes him his final project. You can say that Mitch was helping Morrie. He gave him something to look forward to when he need inspiration the most. But Morrie was Mitch’s salvation. He got Morrie back on track and it all started in “The Classroom.” Mitch can see that Morrie is confused and lost in life and he helps bring him back to the person that he aspires to be.
At the end of the chapter, Mitch flashes back to a day in college when he complained to Morrie about the “confusion of my age,” as in, “what is expected of [him] versus what [he] wants for [him]self.”
Morrie responds back in his expected way, a story. It is his way to tell a story or aphorism to help Mitch rather than tell him the right thing to do forthright. It is though stories that he passes on his wisdom.
“Have I told you about the tension of opposites?” Morrie says. … “Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn’t. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted. A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle. “
Sounds like a wrestling match, Mitch replies.
“A wrestling match.” He laughs. “Yes, you could describe life that way.”
So which side wins? Mitch asks. “Which side wins?”
He smiles at me, the crinkled eyes, the crooked teeth.
“Love wins. Love always wins,” he says.
As you read the rest of Tuesdays With Morrie you learn that love really does win. Ultimately, Morrie makes a lasting impression in Mitch’s life. In the chapter, “The Classroom” Mitch makes a promise to come back to visit, and feels guilty because he remembers the last promise he made to come visit, sixteen years previously. After Morrie passes, Mitch returns to talk to him.