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Did your opinion about Mitch change as
the book went on? In what way?
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Who do you think got more out of their
Tuesday meetings, Mitch or Morrie? In what ways? How do you think
each would answer this question?
-
Do you think Mitch would have come back
to Morrie’s house the second time if hadn’t been semi-idled by
the newspaper strike?
-
Discuss Morrie’s criticisms of Mitch
throughout the book. Do you think Morrie should have been tougher on
him? Easier?
-
Do you think Mitch would have listened
if Morrie hadn’t been dying? Does impending death automatically
make one's voice able to penetrate where it couldn’t before?
-
Does this book make Morrie’s death a
public event? If so, how is it similar to our public deaths we’ve
experienced as a society? How is it different?
-
Most of us have read of people
discussing the way they’d like to die, or, perhaps, have been a
part of that conversation. One common thought is that it would be
best to live a long, healthy life and the die suddenly in one’s
sleep. After reading this book, what do you think about that? Given
a choice, would Morrie have taken that route instead of the path he
traveled?
-
On “Nightline,” Morrie spoke to Ted
Koppel of the pain he still felt about his mother’s death seventy
years prior to the interview. Is your experience with loss similar
or different? Does what you’ve read in this book help ease any of
that pain?
-
Morrie was seventy-eight years old when
diagnosed with ALS. How might he have reacted if he’d contracted
the disease when he was Mitch’s age? Would Morrie have come to the
same conclusions? The same peace and acceptance? Or is his
experience also a function of his age?
-
Mitch made a list of topics about which
he wanted Morrie’s insight and clarity. In what ways would your
list be the same or different?
-
Are college students today missing out
because they don’t have the meaningful experiences that students
in the 1960s had? Do you think Morrie thought they were?
-
Morrie said, “If you’ve found
meaning in your life, you don’t want to go back. You want to
forward”(p.118). I s this true in your experience?
-
Was Morrie making a judgment on people
who choose not to have kids with statement: “If you want the
experience of having complete responsibility for another human
being, and to how to love and bond in the deepest way, then you
should have children”(p. 93)? Whether or not he was, do you agree?
-
Mitch wrote, “Perhaps this is one
reason I was drawn to Morrie. He let me be where my brother would
not”(p. 97). Discuss Mitch’s relationship with Peter.
-
Discuss the practical side of Morrie’s
advice: “Only an open heart will allow you to float equally
between everyone”(p.128). How could this advice be useful the next
time you’re in a social or other situation where you feel out of
place or uncomfortable?
-
Morrie said that in marriage, “Your
values must be alike”(p.149). In what ways do you agree or
disagree?
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Would Morrie’s lessons have carried less weight if
Mitch and Peter hadn’t resumed contact by book’s end?
