Tuesdays with Morrie: The Eleventh Tuesday Summary & Analysis

Morrie is lying in bed, dressed in pajama bottoms, and Mitch is helping Morrie’s physical therapist pound on Morrie’s back to loosen the phlegm in his lungs. This has to be done regularly. On this Tuesday, Morrie’s therapist is visiting earlier than usual, and rather than excuse himself as he usually does, Mitch decides he’d like to be there. Mitch says he’s increasingly less self-conscious about the physical embarrassment, which isn’t like him, but he notes that much of what goes on at Morrie’s house isn’t normal for him.

As Mitch works on Morrie’s back, he notices how small Morrie is now, and how pale and limp Morrie’s body is. Mitch thinks about how much time people spend working out and trying to shape bodies, only to end life like Morrie. Mitch says the truth is that he was pounding Morrie’s back when he’d rather be hitting walls.

Later that day, Mitch and Morrie are discussing culture. Morrie says that people are only mean when they’re threatened, and the structure of modern culture threatens most everyone, which is why he doesn’t buy into it.

Mitch and Morrie are holding hands, and Mitch squeezes Morrie’s hand. Mitch tells the reader that they hold hands regularly now, and things like Morrie’s catheter bag and the smell of the room after Morrie uses the bathroom no longer bother or embarrass him.

Continuing their discussion, Morrie expands on his idea of building his personal culture. He says he follows basic rules of the community, like traffic signals, but he chooses what he values and how he thinks rather than letting the culture dictate them. He says there’s nothing inherently shameful about his condition, for example, although the culture says there is.

Mitch asks Morrie why he didn’t move to a place where people are less selfish. Morrie replies that every society has its own problems and running away wouldn’t work. He continues, saying that people don’t believe how alike they truly are, and if people saw each other as being more alike, many of the world’s problems would be fixed. Morrie has one final piece of wisdom: as infants we need others to survive, and at the end of life we need others to survive as well, but the secret is that we need others in between as well.

Later in the afternoon, Connie and Mitch go into a bedroom to watch the verdict of the O.J. Simpson trial. It’s a tense scene, and when the foreman reads that Simpson has been found not guilty, Connie shrieks. The TV shows black people celebrating outside the courthouse, and the decision is called momentous. Connie leaves the room, having seen enough. Mitch continues to watch, thinking that everyone in the world is also watching, and hears from the other room Morrie being lifted onto the toilet. The thought makes Mitch smile.

In a flashback to 1979, Morrie is at a basketball game at Brandeis, where the team is doing very well. The Brandeis students began to chant “we’re number one!”, which perplexes Morrie. He finally stands up and yells, “what’s wrong with being number two?” The students stop chanting, and Morrie is triumphant.