Tuesday's with Morrie

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Tuesday’s with Morrie essay In Tuesday’s with Morrie, Mitch albom uses symbolism to relate to the theme of life through the use of a pink hibiscus plant. The pink hibiscus is a metaphor for Morrie’s life at a time when he is dying from ALS. Morrie’s body slowly falls apart and so does the hibiscus plant. This use of symbolism is an effective way for the author to express the deterioration of morries life. Every day that morrie slowly deteriorates so does the hibiscus plant. The hibiscus plant is very delicate and needs to be taken care off just like Morrie after he gets ALS. In the book in order to explain the similarity between Morrie and the hibiscus plant the narrator Mitch explains it further. “The last class of my old professor’s life took place once a week in his house by the window in the study where he could watch a small hibiscus plant shed its pink leaves”. (Albom pg 1). The quote is expressing hibiscus plant slowly dying. The hibiscus slowly dying symbolizes Morrie’s body slowly deteriorating and getting closer to the stage of his last moments. Every Tuesday that Mitch and Morrie spend together they spend it having their last classes until the end comes. The hibiscus plant is not just something Morrie likes to look at it is Morrie metaphorically speaking. This process where Morrie is connected to the hibiscus plant is explained by Mitch. “the closer he got to the end, the more he saw it(his body) as a mere shell, a container of the soul, it was withering to useless skin and bones anyhow which made it easier to let go”.(Albom pg171) This quote is referring to how Morrie was withering away similar to the hibiscus plant losing its leaves. Morrie is like a shell because he is exactly like the pot that holds the hibiscus plant. His flesh and body protects his soul his inner human and the pot is what holds the plant together in the soul to keep

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