In the novel The Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom, Eddie the boardwalk maintenance man struggles as he learns the meaning of his life from the people he meets in Heaven. As his time on Earth is explained to him, he becomes confident and humble once he discovers that his life was not a waste after all. In the exposition, Eddie is described as a squat, white-haired old man who has devoted his life to Ruby Pier, a seaside amusement park. Eddie is lonely, and he feels his non important life will go on forever the same way, fixing the attractions. War changes him, and his damaged leg and terrible memories of the battlefield haunt him relentlessly and prevent him from pursuing another career. On the day of his death, he is going about …show more content…
As he meets his five people, he must fight with himself to realize that every story has a reason. His first person is a man from the freak show. He had blue skin. When Eddie was five years old, he ran into the street to catch a ball and was nearly hit by the Blue Man driving a car. The Blue Man’s heart pumped furiously from the fright until he fainted and died. Eddie is overcome with guilt upon hearing this. He is forgiven and Eddy can progress to his next person. There, he meets his army sergeant, whom he forgives for shooting his leg to stop him from running into the fire during the war after he saw a child-like shadow in the flames. After that he meets Ruby, the woman for whom the park was named. She tells him about how she briefly knew his father. Ruby’s husband was next to his father in the hospital, and she heard his dying words about how much he loved his family despite the years of abuse and silence he gave them. This was the same man who refused to talk to him for more than thirty years after Eddie refused to be beaten any longer. In the end, he must find peace between himself and his dad to move on and meet the fourth person. That person is his wife, and they reflect on his life and death as well as hers when she died at age forty-seven from cancer. Meeting the first four people help Eddie understand important parts of his life that had previously gone