Saturday, March 29, 2008

Aphorisms

Throughout the novel Morrie will say several aphorisms. Aphorisms are defined as having some general truthful advice or being a stated observation. Using these statements found in the novel, discuss their meaning. Why are these statements more or less important? What examples from the book point this out?

18 comments:

Rachael D said...

One of my favorite aphrisms from "Tuesdays With Morrie" is "Accept what you are able to do and what you are not able to do." This aphorism makes alot of sense to me because while there are many things that some people cannot do, someone can always do something.
Also, I see this aphorism as a little bit of forshadowing. As Morrie's disease grows, he can do less and less things. However, he always seems to focus on those good things that he can do. But he never forgets what he cannot do. When he needs a minute to realize, he cries and weeps for himself. But then he also knows and sees all of the good he's doing. Even in his illness.

Austin said...

I think that they are right in the way that you should live your life the way you want to live your life. i think that is the best of them at all.

Alyssa said...

Morrie has a lot of good aphorisms he uses. One of my favorites is "Learn to forgive yourselfs, and others." I believe this is important because you should not dwell on the past. I believe this means don't beat yourself up to hard, and forgive others for their mistakes so you can move forward. This could be used when Mitch tells Morrie how his brother and him don't talk anymore.

Haley said...

My favorite aphorism from this book is "accept the past as the past without denying it or discarding it" i think that this means that the past is the past no matter if you try to forget it or deny it. so you should just except it and move on. and take it for what it is.

KROSE said...

I loved Morrie's one that said "when you are in bed, you're dead." I think that it is so true. I mean when you are in bed sleeping or what not you are missing the sun shine and getting tan and swimming and such. Or you are missing all the parties and life is just one big party when you are with your friends!!! =) i love life and i mean i love sleeping but still, i am very social and i like being out all the time! so sleep is dumb.. even though i tend to do it a lot lately, still.

Rowan K. said...

One of Morries aphorisms I like is "once you learn how to die,you learn how to live." you have to relize that humans are not infincable as individuals. You can learn with age or with an accident that life is valubale. All of Morries aphorisms are important in there own way. They have effected many people and opened there eyes, just a little.

NickM said...

My favorite aphorism is, "learn to forgive yourself, and others." this one means that you have to forgine people, life is too short to hate.

Walker said...

One of my favorite aphorisms from the many in this novel is "when your in bed, you are dead." I like this one because i understand what morrie means. Because when you are in bed you are just laying there thinking. And that is what morrie has to accept is that he has to just lay there and think, so basically its like he's dead.

Tia C said...

My favorite aphorism is "If you learn how to die, then you learn how to live." I believe this full heartedly. If you dont know how to die and you cant accept the fact that it will happen, then you spend a life not lived to the fullest. Morrie has accepted the fact that he will pass soon so he has decided to help out as many poeple as he can. This in my opinion is a life well spent.

Tia C said...

My favorite aphorism is "If you learn how to die, then you learn how to live." I believe this full heartedly. If you dont know how to die and you cant accept the fact that it will happen, then you spend a life not lived to the fullest. Morrie has accepted the fact that he will pass soon so he has decided to help out as many poeple as he can. This in my opinion is a life well spent.

Frankie P said...

I agree with Alyssa i like that aphorism!

Mike G said...

"accept the past as the past without denying it or discarding it" This aphorism is my favorite. It explains, the matter that you can not change something that you need to leave the past in the past, but don't act like it never happened.

Rachael D said...

I agree with Walker about that aphorism. It's very true. I also agree with NickM. So many things are being missed out on when you are just laying in bed.

NickD said...

"when you sleep you die when your awake your alive" its common sense

Corey M. said...

The aphorism that i find intersting is the one that says once you learn how to die, you lear how to live, this is true because many people will just coast through life not doing anything they had dreamed of as little kids, when you finally wake up and realize it, in most cases it is too late. When you see how short life is you will realize that you need to stop worrying about pleasing everybody else, and start having fun with your life, and take more risks.

Levi said...

i agree with nickm's response

dErEk said...

when your in bed your dead.... thats pretty good.

Ashley S. said...

Honestly i really think that one about "When your in bed your dead". Even though i LOVE to sleep i also like to be social and out doing things and i hate just being stuck at home doing nothing.