the fivepeople you meet in heaven analysis

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What is an end? Philosophers such as Aristotle began to define an end in itself as essentially when happiness has been reached, and The Five People You Meet in Heaven ends exactly in this manner; the end is also a beginning. The novel The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a story of a man named Eddie and his journey through heaven. After serving his country in war, Eddie took his father’s job at the local amusement park called Ruby Pier.  This is the first turning point in the novel, and Eddie begins to feel worthless, living a life of insignificance. After a fatal accident at the pier, Eddie begins his journey to find the purpose of his life. All beginnings start with an ending and Eddie’s journey begins with a death. Throughout the novel Eddie is reminded of his past as he goes through the five stages of heaven. In Albom’s insightful novel The Five People You Meet in Heaven, a thorough explanation of life is developed.  Mitch Albom explains that no story or life sits by itself, true love never dies, and that all endings are new beginnings.

When taking one story viewed from two different angles, or two involved perspectives, this creates two different stories, or two completely separate lives. These stories are essentially linked together, as is every life on earth. Furthermore, in the novel Albom proves this concept true in each stage of heaven.

The first person Eddie meets in heaven is the Blue Man. Upon arrival, Eddie is unsure of who this man is and of what particular importance he is to his own life. The Blue Man informs Eddie that he is more than just a freak Eddie once saw at Ruby Pier, but explains that Eddie was the cause of his death. What Eddie was completely unaware of at the time, changed the Blue Man’s life for eternity, and made the earth one adult less, or in essence, one child more. On the day of the Blue Man’s death Eddie was a child, outside playing ball with his friends. The ball accidently flew over Eddie’s head, and instinctively Eddie ran out to the street to retrieve it. The child was lucky to dodge the car, with noting more than a small shriek, and in his mind, the accident is avoided, and he can nevertheless, return to his game with ever more enthusiasm. When Albom describes the Blue Man’s death he writes:


“A man is behind the wheel of a Ford Model A… suddenly a baseball bounces across the street, and a boy comes racing after it. The driver slams on the breaks and yanks at the wheel… The man regains control… The jolt of adrenaline has forced his heart to pump furiously… The man feels dizzy and his head drops momentarily. His automobile nearly collided with another…the man veers again…then turns down an alley… it collides with the rear of a parked truck… His forehead bleeds…His arm throbs. His chest hurts… the blood from his coronary arteries no longer flows to his heart… The cause of death is listed as “heart attack”… In a city morgue… one worker calls another over to marvel at the blue skin of the newest arrival.” (Albom, page 43-44)

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This clearly shows that while Eddie has never met “the man”, as his title shows no relevance to Eddie; the Blue Man impacted his life forever, as Eddie did to his.

In Eddie’s fifth stage in heaven he learns that yet again he lived in the place of someone else. The fifth person Eddie meets is a small Asian girl named Tala. In Tala’s heaven of a shallow lake with other young kids, she explains that Eddie had been the one to cause her death. Tala explains that many years ago while Eddie was in the war, ...

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