The Five People You Meet In Heaven

The book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom is a book full of reflection, life lessons, and experiences of the joys and sorrows that accompany life. The Five People You Meet in Heaven is about an old man named Eddie who meets his death after an accident at a theme park. On his path to heaven, Eddie meets five people from his life who he had an impact on, or who impacted him. These people teach Eddie important lessons before he is ready to move on. In the portion of the book about Eddie’s 2nd person, his captain, Eddie learns more about his life at war. The movie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven is very similar to the book at this part. In the section about war, in both the book and the movie, Eddie relives his experiences

The first important event is day Eddie meets Marguerite, he learns about the love and happiness he can experience in life. Very early in the novel Eddie says “Every life has one true love snapshot” (p.9). For Eddie his snapshot is of a beautiful girl named Marguerite. “For the rest of his life,

Eddie steals a purse from an elderly lady. Manny was given a second chance by the black man. “In that instant of trying to call out to Eddie everything changed. It was like I’d seen my own fate.” (210) Manny said this because he realized that he is on the completely wrong path in life. Manny realizes that Eddie is starting to pick up character traits like his father and Manny cannot turn out to be like his own dad. Manny knows that he does not want to throw away his life so he turns it around because he knows what the outcome will be if he does not change.

The book The Five People You Meet In Heaven is about a kid named Eddie that strives to keep Ruby Pier a safe place to ride and who is also a crippled veteran. People used to call him Eddie maintenance because he had a tag that said maintenance. Eddie dies at the age of eighty-three. Eddie had an assistant who was named Dominguez who also help keep the rides safe. One day at Ruby Pier the ride Freddy’s Free Fall malfunctioned because a passenger lost their keys on ride which made the tilt over and hang off the track. Then when Eddie seen that the cart was hanging off the edge he tried to tell the people who work at the ride how to fix the ride but it was too late then the cart fell. Standing directly under the cart was a little girl and when

Eddie was born into a broken home without a strong father figure in Harlem on one of the worst streets in the town. There were already so many people judging him because of his race and where he was brought up. For a short time, Eddie chose to fulfill a more meaningful future instead of dwelling on his race, but ultimately, he decided to let the stereotypes of his race define him. As time went on at Exeter, Eddie learned firsthand what others thought of him and his race he quickly learned that “[w]hen you’re black, and you’re in a white prep school, control is the paramount thing in your life. You have to be in control - you can’t give anything away, especially how you are really feeling” (Anson 205).

After learning his lesson about forgiveness from Ruby, Eddie implements the teachings he received to work towards forgiving his father. Throughout his childhood, Eddie encounters abuse by his father’s hand, and during his battle with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, after returning from the war, and trying to cope with his leg injury, the only thing that Eddie’s father says to him is, “get up and get a job,” (Albom 108). Many other instances of physical, emotional, and psychological abuse take place throughout Eddie’s life, thus prompting the insightful passage of, “All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair,” (Albom 104). Eddie even goes to describe his relationship with his father as occurring in three stages throughout his lifetime; neglect, violence, and silence. Upon the event of his father’s death, Eddie feels obligated to quit his schooling, work at the Pier full-time, and look after his mother, who is completely lost in her grief in the aftermath of losing her husband. Later on in the novel, Eddie explains that all he wanted to do in life was get away from the Pier, but he uses his circumstance as a reason not to,

     Upon hearing this Eddie feels awful and asks why the blue man died instead of Eddie. The blue man assures him that it was okay and that everything happens for a reason. “There are no random acts. That we are all connected. That you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind” (Albom, 48). This was the first lesson for Eddie. That everything happens for a reason and that no life is a waste. “No life is a waste, the only time we waste is the time we spend thinking that we are alone.” (50)

The fourth person Eddie met in heaven was his wife, Marguerite. She had dark hair, dark eyes and was wearing a long lavender bridesmaids dress with a stitched straw hat. She was holding a basket filled with candy-covered almonds and looked to be in her 20s. Years ago at Ruby Pier Eddie met his "One true love snapshot," Marguerite. They shared a special love that was deep, quiet and irreplaceable. Marguerite always loved children but she was unable to bear them and always wanted to adopt a child. But one day while Marguerite was driving two male teenagers dropped a beer bottle on her car causing her windshield to break which created an even bigger and horrifying accident. She was then rushed to the hospital and the thought of adopting a child

Throughout his life, Eddie is racked with guilt due to the unknown shadow figure he saw in the burning building, whilst trying to escape the prisoner of war camp. When faced by Tala in heaven, he is confronted with the conformation of her death “You burn me. You make me fire.” (199). Once aware of the consequences of his actions, Eddie immediately asks Tala for her forgiveness, “I killed you, I KILLED YOU…forgive me” (201). I am able to relate to this through my own experiences of asking for forgiveness from other people. Eddie was faced with the need for forgiveness due to him causing the death of a young girl; my lesser experience of this comes through my behaviour of bullying other people throughout my primary school education. Through understanding the impacts this may have had on other people and the remorse felt due to my actions, I was able to apologise and ask for their forgiveness. Through the forgiveness of Tala and telling Eddie “You make good for me”(204), he is able to begin to also forgive himself for his behaviour, which ultimately lead to the death of the young girl. I connect to this through others’ forgiveness of me for my behaviour and therefore allowing me to move on from my mistakes and

God tells him that he needs to pick his personal heaven as well as what age he wants to be, so Eddie chooses to be 33 years old again and back at his and Marguerite’s apartment as if to redo all the mistakes he’s made during that time. Next, God tells him the rules saying that he can’t change his heaven but he can change his age, he can leave to visit others but he can’t stay their long, and when he has to teach and share his story with someone he is not allowed to tell them how/when the died or who their next person is. Also, God tells him that he still isn’t done growing, their are still people he can learn from and people he can teach, so he has Eddie explore other people’s heaven. Adding this onto the story will help show that the even after death you can still influence people while the people you’ve influenced in the past go off a influence someone else. Furthermore, that is one way to enhance the ending as well as the

Then comes Marguerite, the love of Eddies life. She gave him a purpose. He found meaning to life within her. One day she tragically, but quite dully, passes away. Eddie is crushed, not only for his loss of his wife, but the loss of life’s meaning itself. He feels he amounted to nothing in his time on Earth, and is determined to make a name for himself. Unfortunately, it is too late in his life to start over, so he spends the rest of his days alone and miserable at Ruby Pier Park. This section touched upon love, loss, and life’s meaning. Eddie spent his whole life dedicated to loving his wife, and for what? So, she can just up and die. It almost feels as if there really wasn’t meaning to his life, that is until he met Tala.

“The Five People You Meet In Heaven” by Mitch Albom is a heartfelt story of a war veteran named Eddie who works at the Ruby Pier. On his 83rd birthday, Eddie is killed trying to save a little girl from the falling cart of a ride that malfunctioned. When Eddie goes to heaven, he meets five people that tell him different things about his life and teach him lessons. Within the book, there are many important symbols. The Ferris wheel and the ocean are two of these symbols that help contribute to a deeper meaning of the story.

Eddie is an old war veteran who works as a maintenance man at Ruby Pier, a seaside amusement park. On his birthday, Eddie goes through his everyday routine, checking up on the rides and day dreaming about his late wife Marguerite until he dies trying to save a little girl from a falling ride cart. The last thing Eddie remembers before going to Heaven is small hands in his hands. When Eddie wakes he finds himself back in Ruby Peir. The only difference is that he feels like a child again. While running around the pier, Eddie meets The Blue Man. The Blue Man tells Eddie about his life as a carnival attraction and how he dies. He learns that he accidentally killed the Blue Man when he was a child by running in front of his car. Eddie has to go

In the book ‘’The Five People You meet in Heaven’’ by Mitch Albom. Eddies learned five lessons from five different people. The first lesson Eddie learned was from The Blue Man; Joseph Corvelzchik. Eddie learns that every life has a purpose even if the purpose doesn't come after death “fairness does not govern your life”(48). If it did people would die young. The second lesson Eddie learned was from The Captain; life is about sacrifice. Third lesson was from Ruby he learned the importance of forgiveness. Fourth lesson was from Marguerite Eddie's wife she died young from cancer. She teaches Eddie love is not lost after death. The last person Eddie meets is Tala the little girl that died from the fire during the war. She teaches Eddie that his

At the beginning of the play, Eddie is portrayed as a sensible and smart character. Eddie and the girls (Catherine and Beatrice) all have a requited respect for each other – Beatrice: “Mmm! You’re an angel! God’ll bless you” – and there are no problems as such, even when the immigrants first come. He is also respected by the community – Alfieri: “He was good a man as he had to be in life that was.” But this dominant respect that he gains is what he is very used to and the slight changes where Catherine finds another man in her life and Beatrice also looks after the two immigrants (Rodolpho and Marco) effects Eddie hugely. The respect that he becomes used to is now shared by the women in his life between the men in his house and he craves for more attention. This can be considered one of his flaws that lead to his downfall. He is also shown caring for Catherine in the beginning of the play. He can be seen as a normal uncle or father – Beatrice: “She’s got a job.” Eddie: “What job? She’s gonna finish school.” He is also very proud of Catherine – “Sure she’s the best… You look like a