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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter mainly discusses four main things about Mitch Albom’s novel, Tuesdays with Morrie. They are the Background of the Study, the
Objective of the study, the Problem Formulation and the Definition of Terms. The Background of the Study deals with the reason why Mitch Albom’s
novel Tuesdays with Morrie is selected as the facilitating data of this study. The Objective of the Study is limited by only dealing with the problems, which are
found in the Problem Formulations. At the end of this chapter the Definition of Terms is presented. It is concerning with special words and their explanation used
in this study to avoid the readers’ misunderstanding towards the certain words.
1.1 Background of the Study
Human are created with different personalities. They are blessed with strength and weakness. Each of them is special because, he or she has her or his
own way of thinking, dressing, talking and other characteristics. Something that will lead us to know what sort of person they are, is by the way they communicate
with other people. Communication is the basic thing of a relationship, because it is a way to
build relationship. We will be able to know someone’s personality through the communication. The personality of someone can be seen from the way he or she
dresses, the way she or he talks and the way she or he acts, but those are not the
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only ways, the best way to know someone’s personality is through communication. The way people talk and what people say will lead us to know
what sort person he or she is. Buscaglia says that communication is the art of talking with each other,
saying what we feel and mean, saying it clearly; listening to what the other says and asks making sure that we are hearing accurately 84. Communication is
something easy to say but sometimes it is hard to do, for instance, there are some cases where a daughter cannot talk to her mother, father cannot talk to his son and
wife cannot talk to her husband. Those situations happen because not everyone can be a good listener and not everyone can be a good person to talk to. There has
to be closeness between them. The story of Tuesdays with Morrie tells us about the friendship between a
lecturer and his student. A friendship between Mitch Albom, the author of Tuesdays with Morrie and his lecturer, Morrie Schwartz from the time that they
met in the sociology class to the time that Morrie was dying because of an unforgiving illness he suffered. He teaches people that life is such a precious thing
to waste. We never know “how and when our life will end.” In the novel Morrie is described as a dying man who never gives up his
faith fighting against his illness. He does not drown himself into deep regret of suffering the illness. He tells everyone that he is dying and that he has less time to
live but he shows people that dying does not mean that he has to stay in bed until he dies. He invites people to come to him and share his or her problems, not to
come for him and grieve over him. Morrie’s toughness was tested when he
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claimed that he was dying of an unforgiving illness called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. He did not much mourn on that bad news because he thought that it
would not change anything. Although he is dying, he does not lose his spirit to go on with life.
He exercises his wisdom to the entire things that happens in his life and his past life strengthens his step. He does not want to look back on his past life which
would remind him of losing people he loved. Until the day he finds Mitch, one of his students in Brandeis University. With Mitch, he can be so open to share his
ideas about many things in life. There is something in Mitch that reminds him of his past life. He said that Mitch was like him when he was young. Someone who
will talk to no one when there is a problem. When Morrie says “I hope that one day you will think of me as your
friend” Morrie is suggesting that he like to make friends. He wants to get along with people or friends. He sometimes spends his time joining young people on the
dance floor without worrying about his age and status. There are so many moral factors in this novel that we can learn. One of
them is about his attitude when he was dying and the way he dealt with it. The other that makes this novel special is the way Morrie shares his views about the
topics in life. When he talks to Mitch about death, we can see his wisdom in facing the most dangerous moment in his life. He tells us that death is not
something to be afraid of because life will only end someone’s life in this world but he will start a new life in a new world which nobody knows.
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Morrie was nine years old when he lost his mother so that he had to take care of his sick brother and father. He always wished that his father would talk to
them or kiss them good night to ease their loneliness. Morrie always wanted that his father could be someone he and his brother could count on after their mother
died. In fact he had to stand on his own feet and carry the burden himself to take care of himself and his brother.
In Morrie’s childhood Morrie did not feel the way other children felt when they were kids. Morrie had many words to say to his father but it seemed to
be hard to say them. For all Morrie’s life Morrie had never been talked so openly to anyone like when he talks to Mitch. He starts to like Mitch because he thinks
that Mitch is the one that he can share all his thoughts with. On Mitch’s graduation day Morrie sheds a tear, he thought that it would be
his very last time to see Mitch and there would not be a time for them to share their views and there would be nobody to ease his loneliness anymore. On that
day Mitch promised Morrie to keep in touch, but Mitch did not make it until he found out that Morrie was dying. He had to take the medication to lengthen his
life and to ease his pain. This study reveals some parts about Morrie Schwartz, the main character
in this novel according to my opinion. Morrie grows old in the shadow of his past. He felt so much suffering in his past life that haunts him for all his life, losing
father and mother, earning the family to live and having to face the life without anybody around him to watch over him.
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1.2 Objective of the Study
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