THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN

HEAVEN
CRR 4
(NOVEL)

PART 1:

TITLE: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Mitchell David Albom (born May 23, 1958) is an American author, journalist, screenwriter,
dramatist, radio and television broadcaster, and musician. His books have sold over 35
million copies worldwide. Having achieved national recognition for sports writing in the
earlier part of his career, he is perhaps best known for the inspirational stories and themes
that weave through his books, plays, and films. Albom lives with his wife Janine Sabino in
Detroit, Michigan.

Albom thought that literature was not merely to gain financial success but a way to inspire
people and help other people. The literary work which I will be analyzing, “The five people
you meet in heaven” is a very significant work to the author for it was inspired by his real life
uncle, Eddie Beitchman, who was a World War II veteran, died at the age of 83. His uncle
thought that his life was useless after the said World War II, but Albom thought that there
should be a meaning to his uncle’s life although he cannot seem to see it. He decided to write
a book about his uncle’s life to partake to his audience that there is “meaning” to each and
every person’s life.

After the success of Tuesdays with Morrie, Albom's next foray was in fiction. His follow-up
book was The Five People You Meet in Heaven (Hyperion Books) published in September
2003. Although released six years after Tuesdays With Morrie, the book was a fast success
and again launched Albom onto the New York Times best-seller list. The Five People You
Meet in Heaven sold over 10 million copies in 38 territories and in 35 languages. In 2004, it
became a television movie for ABC, starring Jon Voight, Ellen Burstyn, Michael Imperioli,
and Jeff Daniels. Directed by Lloyd Kramer, the film was critically acclaimed and the most
watched TV movie of the year, with 18.7 million viewers.

LITERARY/HISTORICAL INFORMATION

World War II played a significant role in Eddie’s life; it is where he was shot in the leg,
which caused his life-long injury, and also where he killed Tala. WW II was a complex war
fought from 1939-1945 in Europe and from around 1937-1945 in Asia/Pacific. It was one of
the largest conflicts because it involved a majority of the world and it is also where the first
two atomic bombs were used.

WW II involved many civilian deaths and genocide by Germany, the Soviet Union and Japan.

The background and history of WW II is extremely involved and complicated; since Eddie
fought in the Philippines.

WWII was a very gruesome and traumatizing war for civilians and also the soldiers who
fought, such as Eddie. Eddie’s life was physically and mentally changed after WWII. He had
a permanent gunshot injury, which affected his physical activity for the remainder of his life;
he also suffered severe trauma after serving time in a prison camp. He would often wake up
in the middle of the night with terrifying nightmares. Unfortunately, this was fairly common
for soldiers who survived the war; though they had returned home, they had never mentally
left their experience of the war behind.

VOCABULARY WORDS:

Cacophony pg. 11- I think cacophony means a lot of random noise because in the book he is
surrounded by waves and kids meaning the noises combine.

Definition: noun- a discordant and meaningless mixture of sounds.

Imminent pg. 4- I think imminent means you can't keep it from happening because Eddie
says his death was imminent.

Definition: adj.- likely to occur at any moment; impending.

Ballyhoo pg. 30- I think ballyhoo means yell or announce because Eddie was talking about a
barker ballyhooing the oddity.

Definition: noun- a clamorous and vigorous attempt to win customers or advance

Illuminated pg. 35- I think illuminated means lit up or stands out because his life was
illuminated by others.

Definition: adj. - to supply or brighten with light; light up.

Relent pg. 55- I think relent means give in because Eddie and his brother, Joe, relent dancing
with each other.

Definition: verb- to soften in feeling, temper, or determination; become more

CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERIZATION:

Eddie: Eddie the Maintenance Man is the protagonist and main character around who the
story centers; at the start of the story, he is killed on his 83rd birthday. When he awakes in
heaven, he is taken on a journey to meet five people whose lives intertwined with his in many
ways which he never expected. As an adult he wanted to work as an engineer.

Marguerite: Eddie's wife who he met at Ruby Pier and married after returning from World
War II. Eddie would always remember "her waving over her shoulder, her dark hair falling
over one eye." Marguerite has "olive skin" and "dark coffee eyes." She dies at the age of
forty-seven of a brain tumor.

Joseph Corvelzchik, The Blue Man: Joseph's skin had been turned blue when he was a boy
because of repeated ingestion of silver nitrate, thought to be an effective medication at the
time. He had been given this medication to cure his "nervousness" and bed-wetting at a late
age, and Joseph simply attributed all the side effects to not ingesting enough. Handicapped by
this disfigurement, Joseph eventually made a life for himself at Ruby Pier.

Joseph is a "middle-aged man with narrow, stooped shoulders, naked from the waist up. His
belly sagged over his belt. His hair was closely cropped. His lips were thin and his face was
long and drawn." He dies of a heart attack because of Eddie, when Eddie tried to get a ball off
the streets and causes him to swerve his car to avoid hitting Eddie.

The Captain: Eddie's commanding officer at war. He has a "full head of dark hair" and
looked to be "only in his 30s." The Captain saved Eddie's life by shooting him in the leg. He
died by stepping on a land mine while checking to ensure if there was a clear path ahead for
his men.

Ruby: A woman for whom Ruby Pier is named by her fiance Emile. Ruby's face was "gaunt,
with sagging cheeks, rose-colored lipstick, and tightly pulled-back white hair." She wore
"wire-rimmed spectacles over narrow blue eyes." She wore "a dress made of silk and chiffon
with a bib-like bodice stitched with white beads and topped with a velvet bow just below her
neck." Her skirt had "a rhinestone buckle and snaps and hooks up the side" while also holding
a "parasol with both hands." She was a widow in her fifties.

Emile: Ruby's husband, who also created the original Ruby Pier. He wore "a chalk-stripe suit
and a derby hat." He had neatly cut dark hair and a mustache that covered a constant smile.
Emile was known for "his heavy, confident laughter" and being "a spender and a risk taker."
He was injured in a big fire trying to save Ruby Pier from being destroyed.

Eddie's mother: Eddie's mother was known for her tenderness" towards Eddie and his
brother Joe. She lived in a daze after the death of Eddie's father.

Eddie's father: He abused Eddie his entire life. He smoked cigars and was a card player.
Eddie's father was remembered for his "discipline" or "violence"[ and "denial of affection" or
"silence." He dies at the age of fifty-six of pneumonia.

Mickey Shea: He is a family friend. He worked with Eddie's father "fixing rides at Ruby
Pier." Mickey is "fat, wears suspenders and is always singing Irish songs. Mickey attempted
to rape Eddie's mother because of loneliness and depression. Mickey and Eddie's father
fought, and Mickey was almost killed by Eddie's dad, but eventually, Eddie's dad ended up
saving Mickey from drowning in the ocean, causing the pneumonia that killed Eddie's
father".

Dominguez: He is Eddie's friend and co-worker at Ruby Pier. He is "a lanky, bony-cheeked
young man." He is planning to go to Mexico with his wife Theresa and eventually takes
Eddie's job as head of maintenance.

Willie: Willie works the Freddy's Free Fall at Ruby Pier.

Tala: Tala is a young girl Eddie sees in a burning hut. She is a Filipina, maybe five or six
years old with "a beautiful cinnamon complexion, hair the color of dark plum, a small flat
nose, full lips that spread joyfully over her gapped teeth, and the most arresting eyes."

Nicky: Nicky is a young man who visited Ruby Pier, and practically the reason why Eddie
died. He dropped his car keys in the Freddy's Free Fall ride, causing its gears to jam and its
cable to snap. Nicky claims to be Ruby's great-grandson.

All characters are Dynamic

Based from my analysis of the story, both the main and major characters are dynamic
for their ideals, beliefs, perceptions on things changed in the end of the story. For instance,
Eddie’s hate for his father was changed in the story as he meets the Ruby who told him of his
father’s life story, making him understand the reason why his father acted on a specific way.
It was in this line where I felt that Eddie comes to realize and accept the fact that he has to let
go of his anger: “You beat me. You shut me out. I didn’t understand. I still don’t understand.
Why did you do it? Why?” He drew in long painful breaths. “I didn’t know, OK? I didn’t
know your life, what happened. I didn’t know you. But you’re my father. I’ll let it go now,
all right? All right? Can we let it go?”. Another event was when Eddie met the Captain. It
was in this event where Eddie hated his Captain for having his leg injured. The injury which
Eddie got from the war started his long-life depression, making him work on the pier. In the
end, Eddie asks forgiveness from the Captain because he did not know that the Captain
sacrificed his life for his life: AW, JESUS,” EDDIE SAID, CLOSING HIS EYES, dropping
his head backward. ‘Aw, God. Aw, God! I had no idea, sir. It’s sick. It’s awful!” There were
sympathetic characters in the story–the five people Eddie meets in Heaven: The Blue Man,
the Captain, Ruby, Marguerite, and Tala because they helped Eddie realize some life lessons
clarifying that Eddie’s life was never useless.

TYPES OF CONFLICT:

1. Man vs. Self

When Eddie was young he never had the desire to work at Ruby Pier like his father
did. After Eddie returned from the war, he was very depressed and angry at what he
had done with the remainder of his life. He never had another career aside from Ruby
Pier and he eventually moved back into the same apartment building, where he grew
up, to take care of his mother. We can tell that Eddie internally stores a lot of regret,
hatred and anger about his life. This conflict is resolved when he meets Tala in
heaven. She helps him realize that his life did have a purpose, which was keeping the
children safe at the pier.
 Eddie dies believing that his life was not worth anything. However, he realizes how
much he meant to his loved ones (and people he never even knew) over the course of
the novel with the help of his "Five People."

2. Man vs. Man

Eddie and his Father - One conflict in the story is between Eddie and his father. The
silent, unloving relationship between Eddie and his father left a huge impact on his
life. Eddie's father never gave Eddie the love that he wanted, even as a little boy. As a
result, Eddie always strove to gain his father's approval and acceptance, and was often
neglected. Eddie feels that his father damaged him in three ways: neglect, violence
and silence. Eddie's father mistook Eddie's post-war depression as laziness and
criticized Eddie more. After an incident that left Eddie and his father on non-speaking
terms, Eddie's father was brought into a long battle with pneumonia. Eddie's father
shared the same hospital room with Ruby's husband, Emile, which allowed Ruby to
explain Eddie's father's last moments with Eddie. Eddie is able to finally forgive his
father after Ruby shows him that to move forward into heaven, he had to forgive his
father, and that holding in hatred, bitterness, and anger would get him nowhere. The
conflict is resolved in Ruby's heaven, where Eddie sees his father drinking coffee in a
diner; although Eddie's father seems not to notice Eddie, Eddie forgives his father and
is able to move on in heaven.

THEME

There are various themes in the book, with the overall theme of "there are no random acts in
life" and every life has a purpose.

The theme of the book changes as Eddie progresses through heaven, each theme being the
lesson Eddie learns from each of the people he meets in heaven:

Blue Man: Everything happens for a reason. There are no random events in life. All lives and
experiences are interconnected in some way, and even the little things you do can affect other
people's lives and experiences dramatically. The Blue Man states "... the human spirit knows,
deep down, that all lives intersect"

The Captain: Sacrifices are a part of life. Everyone makes these sacrifices. Some sacrifices
are big, and others are day-to-day small sacrifices, but they all make an impact in other
people's lives.

Ruby: The importance of releasing anger and granting forgiveness. There is always more than
one side to a story.
Marguerite: The power of love, even after death. There are multiple forms of love, some
stronger than others. Lost love is the strongest kind of love, the kind that can be felt even
across enormous distances.

Tala: There's always a purpose for your life. You live for a reason the same way that people
die for a reason. Where you are today is a combination of all your past actions, decisions, and
the way the people around you have affected you.

LANGUAGE AND STYLE:

The book itself was written very simplistically. Mitch Albom used no complex language, no
major tangents by the author, just straight and to the point. I thought this writing style worked
best for the book because it allowed the reader to figure out what the message was before it
was stated. Each of the lessons Eddie learned came with a back-story and included moments
in his life that had helped shape him in into the man he was. This was one of my favorite
aspects of the book. The book's saturated with the idea of there being no shame in living an
ordinary life, in fact, the very idea that there's no such thing as an ordinary life rings loudly at
the book's end. Despite Eddie's simple life, as a reader you're encouraged to take a certain
pride in him and the work he does. It would be so easy to feel sorry for Eddie, but Albom
does not let you. That's not what this story's about. We're not here to pity anyone, merely to
learn from them and the life they've lead. Even though the simplistic writing style made it a
quick read, the book still left me with life-long messages. The characters, Eddie in particular,
are well written. I am sure we would all recognise people like them in the real world. Albom
has a lovely turn of phrase, and there is a great bit where he describes children like glasses
and how all parents damage their children some just smudge the glass, others crack and
others destroy it totally. The story included flashbacks; there were flashbacks in every
consecutive chapters. It was explicitly stated by the first sentences of each chapter, this then
gave me the idea of what had happened in the life of Eddie before he died since the story
immediately started with the death of Eddie.

PLOT

EXPOSITION
In the first chapter we are introduced to Eddie on his 83rd birthday. We learn that Eddie is the
maintenance man at Ruby Pier and that he tests the amusement rides to ensure their safety.
We also learn that Eddie dies from a falling amusement cart and journeys to heaven where
the remainder of the story takes place. In the first chapter, we are also introduced to the little
girl who Eddie tries to save from the falling amusement. At this point it is safe to infer that
Eddie will wonder throughout his journey if he did save the little girl’s life.

RISING ACTION

The Rising Action is the events that build from the conflict. There are several conflicts in this
story occurring simultaneously: Eddie vs. himself and Eddie vs. his father. We learn that
throughout Eddie’s life he has constantly been battling to gain his father’s approval. When
Eddie and his father stop speaking to each other, this causes the conflict to become more
severe. After Eddie’s father dies, Eddie is still angry with him for those things he did to hurt
him while he was still alive, and now for making Eddie feel like he had to take over his job at
the pier.

Eddie was also in a state of conflict with himself after he returned from the war. His injury
caused him great depression and lack of motivation to do much with his life. He continuously
questioned his purpose in life and how it would have been different had he left Ruby Pier.
The action of the story takes place from Eddie’s death and through his journey in heaven. The
action continues to rise as Eddie meets each person, in heaven, and even through the
flashbacks to Eddie’s previous birthdays where we see how the conflicts developed through
Eddie’s life on earth.

CLIMAX

The climax happens towards the end of the novel when Eddie meets Tala and she says
"You burn me. You make me fire" (188). Eddie breaks down at this moment, having to
reconcile with the internal dread that has followed him around for most of his life. This is the
climax because throughout the novel we see that Eddie has been tormented his entire life,
after the war, not knowing if he had killed an innocent child in the burning hut. He has
experienced many nightmares and could never seem to get that scene out of his mind. It is
here that Eddie sees he did kill an innocent child in the war and that he was not hallucinating
as the other soldiers had thought. After Eddie learns this about Tala, he is able to wash her
skin of the burns and she leads him to the outcome and resolution of the story.

FALLING ACTION

The Falling Action is the events occurring after the climax, which close the story and lead to
the resolution. After Tala tells Eddie that he burned her, the incident which Eddie questioned
his entire life is answered. The action falls as we see that it was Tala who Eddie killed in the
fire back in the war.

RESOLUTION (DENOUMENT)
The resolution is the outcome of all the events in the story. It can be argued that there are two
resolutions to this novel, a major and minor resolution. The first occurs in the diner when
Eddie tells his father, “It’s fixed”. Here we see Eddie resolve the conflict that he’s had with
his father for his entire life.

The main resolution of the story takes place as the events of the falling action unfold, after
Eddie learns that he burned Tala. Here Eddie realizes that it was not his imagination and he
did burn an innocent child in the hut during the war. This instance had haunted Eddie ever
since he returned from the war. During the final lesson Tala teaches Eddie that his life did
have a purpose. This understanding resolves the major conflict Eddie had with himself. The
outcome of the novel is that Eddie realizes his life had a purpose which was keeping the
children safe at the pier.

PART 2:

POINT OF VIEW

3rd Person point of view: The story is told in the 3rd person point of view. There was a
narrator in the story who tried viewing it on a bird’s eye view. In the story, the reader can
generally see and feel every character’s ideas and thoughts. The first lines of the story
indicate the point of view of the story: “THIS IS A STORY ABOUT A MAN named Eddie
and it begins at the end, with Eddie dying in the sun. It might seem strange to start a story
with an ending. But all endings are also beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time.”

Influence of the POV to the story: The POV who is an unknown narrator influenced the story
in a way that the reader gets the impression that the story is seen in a bird’s eye view. There
was not a single part of the story which focused merely on the deep thoughts of the
characters. If the story would be told in a first person point of view, specifically Eddie’s point
of view, then the story would focus merely on the grudges that Eddie is feeling. It would be
in a way beneficial since the reader would be able to further connect and relate with the
character who is speaking therefore making the reader more attached to the story.

SYMBOLS

RUBY PIER - Ruby Pier is the amusement park on the ocean where Eddie works in
maintenance for most of his life. A place of both great celebration and great pain for Eddie
and others, the park represents the variety of experience in Eddie’s life. Ruby Pier, like
Eddie’s life, is full of rides that bring joy and excitement, as well as dangerous risks and
losses. At first the park stands only as a symbol of Eddie’s sense of failure, as throughout his
life, Eddie has failed to achieve his goal of leaving Ruby Pier to create a better life for
himself elsewhere. In heaven, however, Eddie learns from the little girl Tala that he was
meant to be at Ruby Pier. His work at the park allowed him to save countless children from
danger, thus giving him a chance to redeem himself for unknowingly killing Tala during the
war.

COLOR AND DARKNESS - After his death, Eddie travels through endlessly changing
colors in between the phases of heaven. As stated directly during the final pages of the novel,
Eddie discovers that these colors represent the ever-changing “emotions of his life.” No one
color is more prominent than another, and they are all described in beautiful, specific
language. Likewise, Eddie’s emotions are all equally important and add beauty and detail to
his experiences in life. Colors also bring Eddie’s memories to life: he remembers the dark
brown of Marguerite’s hair, the whiteness of the ribbons she wrapped around bags of taffy on
his birthdays, and the blackness of the coal mines where he was held captive during the war.
Eddie’s depression and struggle to feel emotion after the war is described as the “darkness.”

BIRTHDAY AND CELEBRATION - The novel flashes back and forth between Eddie’s
passage through heaven and the retelling of his life story, using birthdays to mark each
episode of Eddie’s life. Birthdays and other celebrations thus represent the passage of time,
and they add importance to each milestone in Eddie’s life. When Marguerite is alive, Eddie
feels enough joy and meaning to celebrate with her—they celebrate their wedding, birthdays,
and they hold a farewell party before she dies. Celebrations highlight relationships and
connections, and add meaning to the ordinary routine of life. After Marguerite’s death, Eddie
no longer feels like life is worth celebrating.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

The story is about the life of Eddie who thought for himself that his life was useless. After his
death, he was given the chance to meet five people in heaven who teaches him lessons about
his life. In the end, Eddie realizes that his life is not useless at all because he found out,
through the fifth person he meets in heaven that his life had a purpose. The story reflects the
value of life to each and every person who is living–there are times when people seem to
think that their lives are pointless yet what the story tells us is that all lives have meanings
and purposes.

For this story, leave us several things to realize: (1) “All lives and acts are interconnected;
there are no random acts”, (2) the value of “Sacrifice”, (3) the value of “forgiveness”, (4) the
power love, (5) “life always has a purpose”.

“All lives and acts are interconnected; there are no random acts.”

“Each affects the other, and the other affects the next, and the world is full of stories, but the
stories are all one.”(The Five People You Meet in Heaven)

First, the blue man tells his story of his death, and it was actually Eddie who’s indirectly
responsible for it. Second, Eddie’s death was caused by a young man who lost his key at the
amusement park which then caused some cables of the ride to break. Third, Eddie’s life are
related to his wounded leg which he gained from the war, and his father’s death which
aggravated to an “unpleasant” and “unfulfilled” life of Eddie at the Ruby pier.

Everything happens for a reason. Lives and experiences are interconnected in some way in a
manner that everything you do, no matter how small it is, these can drastically affect other
people’s lives.

“Sacrifice”

“Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you’re not really losing it. You’re just
passing it on to someone else.” (The Five People You Meet in Heaven)

First, in a general sense, young men or soldiers sacrifice their lives for their country. Second,
the Captain whom Eddie meets in heaven saved other soldiers’ lives including his own life. In
the book, the captain started out by revealing that he was the one who caused the injury on
Eddie’s leg which made Eddie really angry. But in the end, the Captain revealed that he died
in order to save Eddie and the other soldiers. Third, Eddie’s life was sacrificed to save a girl
from a falling car.

At first, sacrifices may seem really painful and useless. But what we forget and take for
granted is the fact that everyone make sacrifices, big or small, and these give impact on other
people’s lives.

“Forgiveness”

“Holding anger is a poison…It eats you from inside…We think that by hating someone we
hurt them…But hatred is a curved blade…and the harm we do to others…we also do to
ourselves.” (The Five People You Meet in Heaven)
Eddie felt that he has been “damaged” by his father’s neglect, violence, and silence. But
through Ruby, he knew about the story behind his father’s pain and his loyalty to his friend,
Mickey Shea. From this revelation, Eddie learned how to forgive his father.

We must learn to let go of our anger towards a person if we are in search of real peace. It is
not always about how we feel because there is always more than one side of the story.

“Power of love: Love is never lost”

“Love like rain, can nourish from above, drenching couples with soaking joy. But sometimes,
under the angry heat of life, love dries on the surface and must nourish from below, tending
to its roots, keeping itself alive.” (The Five People You Meet in Heaven)

Eddie met his wife as Marguerite. He was very happy to see her again but was very anxious
about losing her once more. His wife then reminds him that even if they are separated, their
love does not disappear.

Love is all power and encompasses even death.

“Life always has a purpose”

“Scenery without solace is meaningless.” (The Five People You Meet in Heaven)

Eddie’s purpose in life which he failed to see is “keeping kids safe”. When Eddie meets Tala,
she tells him that Eddie burned her and caused her death. Eddie was devastated and asked for
God’s forgiveness. Tala tells Eddie that it all happened for a reason. Eddie worked for the
amusement park to keep children safe, until the end of his life, he still saved a little girl.

Your life always has a purpose. No matter how useless you think your life is, it will always
be meaningful to other people. Where and what you are today are the total of what happened
in the past.