Essay On The Five People You Meet In Heaven

The novel The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom recounts the life of the main character, Eddie, and his realization of the impact, no matter the size, that each person has on every other person. Eddie dashing in the street to retrieve his ball, the Captain shooting Eddie’s leg and stepping on the landmine, and the boys on the overpass throwing whiskey bottles onto the highway below show that every life is connected and that there are no random acts in life. Eddie first meets the Blue Man in Heaven, who gives him the lesson that there are no random acts and that all lives are connected. Throughout his life, Eddie never realized that a man died on his account; however, when he enters Heaven, Eddie realizes that one seemingly trivial
If Eddie had not been a member of the Captain’s unit, then they might not have escaped confinement until the end of the war, or they may have been killed as captives. Eddie’s ability to juggle ultimately lead to the escape of him and his unit. Eddie distracted the guards by juggling rocks, and proceeded to use those rocks to kill the guards and flee from their captivity. Before Eddie and his unit escaped the village where they were held captive, they set all the huts on fire. Eddie thought he saw a little child in a burning building and tried to save her, but the Captain shot Eddie’s leg because he would have died in the fire along with the child. Eddie’s troops brought him to the car and drove from the village. Once they reached the woods, the Captain walked ahead of the car and eventually stepped on a landmine, which killed him but spared the lives of his unit. None of the events leading up to the Captain’s death were mistakes, and the Captain died heroically, having fulfilled his mission on Earth. Just as the Captain and Eddie’s meeting happened for a reason, so did the unspoken interaction between Marguerite and the careless teenage boys who caused her to crash her