John Steinbeck's The Five People You Meet In Heaven

The novel the Five People You Meet in Heaven tells a story about an old man who worked at Ruby Pier and was 83 years old. The novel begins stating that it is starting with and end, the end of Eddie's life. But in all reality, it's not only an end, its beginning too; the beginning of Eddie's "life" in Heaven. When Eddie gets to Heaven, he meets 5 people, who all teach him a lesson. Those five people were: The Blue Man, his old captain from war, Ruby, Marguerite, and then Tala. The Blue Man is the first person that Eddie met in heaven. He recognized the Blue man from the pier. He was an attraction at the pier because his skin was a shade of blue. The blue man died because he was trying not to run Eddie over in his car. The car was wrecked and the Blue Man died of a heart attack. His lesson was that we are all connected in someway.
The captain talks about Eddie getting shot in the leg and that his lesson is sacrifice, where when we sacrifice something we gain something too. The third person he met was Ruby. Ruby is the wife of the original owner of Ruby Pier. Ruby tells Eddie how his father died saving a friend from drowning. She teaches him the third lesson. Forgiveness. Eddie must forgive his father. The fourth person Eddie meets is his wife Marguerite. She has chosen a wedding place to stay in heaven. Eddie meets her being young as she was when they got married. She teaches him the fourth lesson; love does not have an end. When people die, love takes a different form, that's all.
The final person Eddie meets is Tala. Eddie meets her in a stream where other children are playing. She is the girl that Eddie killed during the war. Tala teaches Eddie that everyone has a purpose to life that not only affects their own lives but unknowingly touches the lives of others. Tala was the person that brought Eddie to heaven. She also tells him that he saved the girl from the falling amusement park