Morrie stresses this quote and theme throughout the novel. He feels that an abundance of love and compassion is the highest sense of fulfillment that one can experience. The expression of love and compassion is very important to Morrie, especially since he lacked such expression in his childhood. With the early death of his mother, and his busy father, Morrie did not feel a sense of love until Eva came into their home. Eva nurtured and cared for him as if he was her own child and Morrie carried this sense of love and compassion with him for the rest of his life. Because he was void of love at an early age, for the rest of his life he continuously offered his love and compassion to others.
Love is also important to Morrie as he is nearing the final days of
his life. He feels that without the care of those who love him, he would
perish. Morrie is not afraid of dying, as he so often tells us throughout
the novel, but he hangs on because he wants to share his story and his
lessons to Mitch and the rest of the world. Morrie lives long enough to
express the essence of his teachings to Mitch (love, compassion and acceptance);
he then allows himself to be released to death. He leaves Mitch and the
readers, with his message that love brings meaning to life and that without
it, we may as well be dead.
Throughout the novel Morrie, continuously talks about detaching himself
from his experience, especially when he suffers from violent coughing
spells. Morrie bases this theory of detachment, from a Buddhist philosophy.
He feels that no one should cling to anything, and that everything that
exists is impermanent. Through detaching himself, he is able to remove
himself from his surroundings into his own consciousness. This way he
is able to gain perspective in uncomfortable and stressful situations.
However, Morrie does not use this method to stop feeling or experiencing;
he actually wants to experience the situation fully. After he experiences
a certain feeling he is then able to let go and detach himself. He practices
this often during life threatening situations, such as his severe coughing
spells, because he does not want to die upset or scared. He detaches himself
so that he can accept these situations in his life and so that he will
be able to embrace his death easier since it is approaching.
Morrie's lessons also center around this theme that we should reject
pop-culture values and standards, to develop our own sense of values.
Morrie feels that pop-culture resembles a dictator under which we all
suffer. Throughout his life, Morrie has been successful at rejecting this
dictatorship and creating his own culture based on love, compassion, acceptance
and communication. Morrie feels that the media drives greed and violence,
which is then promoted by pop-culture. He was successful at reevaluating
his own life and what he feels is true fulfillment. We also see how unfulfilled
Mitch seems to be with his busy working life and material aspirations.
Through his lessons, Morrie was able to open Mitch's eyes to see what
really fulfills one in life.
The story is told in the first person, limited point of view. In the first
person, the narrator does participates in the action of the story; however,
it is important to note that since the narrator is taking part in the
action, he or she may not be telling the objective truth. The point of
view is also limited because Albom's knowledge is limited to only himself
and he is not all knowing or omniscient.
Clapsaddle, Diane. "TheBestNotes on A Long Way Gone".
TheBestNotes.com.
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