The Five People You Meet in Heaven

The Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom, is a book about the journey of an old man, as he figures out what he lived for, after his death. The book shows how any life can be connected to another by one small event, althought they do not necessarily have to directly know each other during their lifetime. The five People You Meet in Heaven is the story of a recently passed maintenance worker at a carnival who spends his afterlife meeting five people who each teach him a different lesson about the importance of his life.

The book begins with the main character, Eddie, and his last day on earth. After a horrifying accident involving a new 'free-fall' ride at Ruby Pier, Eddie loses his life attempting to save a houng girl in the way of the fall. The rest of the book is every stage of how Eddie learns about the importance of his life. The first lesson is taught by a Blue Man from the Ruby Pier of Eddie's childhood. In order to preserve Eddie's life, the Blue Man died in a car crash, which could have killed Eddie as a child.

The second lesson was taught by Eddie's captain in the war, who shot him in the leg to stop him from stubbornly walking into a fire. The lesson was about sacrifice; the sacrifice of Eddie's leg to keep his life. Because of the shot in his leg, Eddie could not walk as a normal young man anymore, and was stuck to work at Ruby Pier for the rest of his life.

The Third lesson was taught by a woman who Eddie did not recognize to be directly part of his life (and that was because she was not), but she did directly influence Eddie's life, because she was the reason Ruby Pier was built; she was Ruby and her husband built it for her love. The lesson she taught Eddie was about forgiveness, by showing him that the explaination to the greatest grudge he held throughout his life; the grudge he held against his father. After seeing why everything hapened the way it did in his life and in his father's life, Eddie broke down in tears and yelped his forgiveness to his father because he now understood the reason's for his father's behaviors.

Next, in Heaven, Eddie meets the person he has most been waiting for, both in his life and