The Five People You Meet In Heaven

“The Five People You Meet In Heaven” by Mitch Albom

For my book report I chose to read and critique Mitch Albom’s “The Fine People You Meet in Heaven”. Mitch Albom’s story is centered on a character named Eddie. Eddie is a grizzled war veteran who feels like he has led a nothing to show life, and blames most his problems on his father. Unlike most stories ours begins at the end with Eddie’s death. After dying Eddie goes on a journey through heaven and along the way he meets five people that teach him of the impact of things he has done during his life.

Eddie work for an ocean-side amusement park as the head of maintenance. He seems to have been sucked in and stuck at his job because of certain things that have happened in his life. Injured in World War 2, Eddie now walks with a limp. Eddie is 83 years old when he passes away by trying to save a small child from a cart falling on one of the rides at the park, and when he tries to move the child out of the way the cart falls killing him.

After he dies the next thing Eddie knows is he’s at the pier and no longer has any pain in his body but feels like a young man again. Eddie begins running around and testing this new body of his when he notices someone. The first person Eddie comes in contact with is the Blue Man. The Blue Man used to work as a “freak” at Ruby Pier. The Blue Man tells Eddie that he was responsible for his death, and Eddie denies that he was. Then the Blue Man tells Eddie how what he was younger he ran in front of the Blue Man’s car causing the Blue Man to have a panic attack that later caused him wreck his car and eventually killing him. Eddie apologizes frantically but the Blue Man then teaches Eddie the first lesson that he will learn on his journey. The lesson the Blue Man taught Eddie was that there are no random acts in life, and that all incidents are intertwined in some way. After learning the lesson that the Blue Man gave him Eddie is whisked away to the next part of his journey.

Eddie finds himself back on a war ground, which resembled the area he fought on during WWII. His body is no longer as loose and pain-free as it was before; instead his muscles were tight as if his body had aged years in seconds. On the battle ground he meets the second person on his journey; his old army captain.

During his tour in the Philippines were taken as prisoners. Eddie and his fellow soldiers were held captive for nearly half a year. After seeing one of the enemies trying to juggle some rocks Eddie gets an idea. Eddie starts to juggle to get the captors attention and after all the enemy soldiers are watching him he throws a rock a one. Then Eddie’s fellow soldiers jump the other captors killing them. Now free Eddie and the others torch the prison camp they were captive in. Eddie starts to torch this hut and after he set it ablaze he thought he saw a small body moving around in the hut. Almost certain there was someone in the fire Eddie runs in the hut to try and rescue the child but one of his army soldiers try to stop him. Determined to get inside the hut Eddie knocks down the soldier and runs in the hut. While in the hut he yells out for someone but no answer all the while he is being burned. Suddenly he feels a sharp pain in his leg and then wakes up in a vehicle and is told he was shot in the leg which is later the reason for his limp.

Back on the war ground Eddie is talking with the captain and the captain reveals that he was the one who shot him in the leg. Furious Eddie attacks then captain yelling for a reason why he did it. The captain then teaches Eddie the second lesson of sacrifice. The captain sacrificed Eddie’s leg for his life. He teaches Eddie of sacrifices that everyone makes in life. The captain said “Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you’re not really losing it. You’re just passing it on to someone else”. Shortly after, Eddie travels to meet the next person on his journey.

Eddie then finds himself in a mountain range,