Tuesdays with Morrie makes it very clear that the world is absolutely saturated in all sorts of media. Mitch works for a newspaper (as well as television and radio), both he and Morrie read newspapers. And yet, the book’s depictions of media, with the exception of Morrie’s appearances in his Nightline interviews, are not at all positive. In fact, the media portrayed in the book is time and again connected with death: television focuses relentlessly on the OJ Simpson trial, while during his weekly travels from Detroit to West Newton Mitch reads about various fatal tragedies in the newspaper. Further, Mitch’s own life as a media celebrity is portrayed as full of speed and action, but devoid of meaning or fulfillment. And it is the absence of media, when Mitch's writers' union goes on strike and he suddenly finds himself with the time to visit Morrie weekly, that allows Mitch to reevaluate his life and make positive changes to his personal culture. Media, then, becomes a kind of representation of the unfulfilling and materialistic modern culture that Morrie criticizes.
Media Symbol Timeline in Tuesdays with Morrie
