Tuesdays With Morrie Vs. A Walk To Remember

It’s about noon. It’s that part of your day where you’re relaxing in your

worn-in recliner thinking about what you have to be grateful for today. Or maybe you’re in 5th period English class, the sunlight is tearing into the classroom distracting you and you start thinking about that very same thing. Are you grateful for laughter? Are you grateful for tears? Once you’ve asked yourself enough of these questions you start to see the big picture. The number one answer…you realize you grateful for all of it.

Okay, okay so maybe the synopsis above doesn’t sound like the typical setting for most of us, but for Morrie Schwartz and Jamie Sullivan it was. Morrie and Jamie were grateful for life in its entirety, even as short as it was going to be for them. In Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom and A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks, both characters Morrie and Jamie are diagnosed with fatal diseases. The number one standing similarity between these two heart-wrenching stories was that Morrie and Jamie saw every component of the life they had, to be a blessing. “Morrie had always been a dancer but the music didn’t matter. Rock and roll, big band, the blues. He loved the

eye. That twinkle that you know occasionally still wishes he could dream of going on rocket ships to the moon. As for Jamie she is young, a teenager. But she is a very innocent teenager. She isn’t exposed to any immoral or “bad” acts that typical teenagers occasionally involves themselves in. Her father is a minister. Jamie is a kind, sweet, and extremely trusting girl. Morrie and Jamie give off a parallel aspect in their nature. You almost feel like one of the books could be an added on chapter about the grandchild Morrie never knew he had.

All together I’d say my favorite book between the two was Tuesdays With Morrie. Besides the whole realistic concept to enjoying a book, I have other reasons. Before I began to read the book I had a feeling it was going to be sort of a bore. My mom and dad had both told me it was a good book. And I needed to get an independent book to read for school anyway so I decided to give it a go. As I read on I couldn’t stop reading it. Usually I enjoy writing much more than I do reading…but with this book, I just couldn’t put it down. I don’t get that feeling a lot with books and I liked it.

Maybe the reason I didn’t pick A Walk as my favorite was because even though Sparks put us in the moment…he “puts” us there in a very familiar way. “I was love, and the feeling was even more wonderful than I ever imagined it could be.” (page 183) I mean I always enjoy a good book that will make you feel like you’re where the characters are…with most good books I feel this way. We’re supposed to feel that way. However, with Tuesdays it was a different type of book. It was unique and took me away from the regular story line feeling like in A Walk. The concept that we could use Tuesdays as almost a guidebook for life, interested me significantly. Of course I’m still very young and won’t have to deal with the chapters that were on fears of aging and marriage. But there were many chapters in which I felt I could relate to Morrie or at least look up to him. The chapters on regrets, feeling sorry for yourself, family, emotions, how love goes on, and forgiveness were some that I feel everyone no matter what stage in life can relate to. And we all would like to hear on how it can be simplified or perhaps “figured out” in a sense. Did these chapters make us feel like we were in the room with Morrie? Maybe not, but they definitely made us wish we were. We wish we could be in the same

Some topics in this essay:
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