Five People You Meet in Heaven: Eddie’s Journey from Grief to Relief

In the Bible, Moses describes heaven as a physical space of one’s own choice within which the body can adapt to fit someone’s consciousness. It is similar to the heavenly world created in Mitch Albom’s novel, Five People You Meet in Heaven. This novel conveys a story of a maintenance worker named Eddie, who dies and goes to heaven. In heaven, he finds himself in five different settings with five people who have impacted him. One by one, they teach Eddie the value of self-sacrifice; how to be at peace with himself by forgiving his father, and by being reassured that the love he shared with his late wife is eternal. In Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom, Eddie’s meeting with different characters allows him to change his prejudices and realize that the regrettable events in his life have hidden meanings that make his life better. Eddie’s encounters with the five people in heaven and their conversations on sacrifice, forgiveness, and love lead him to define a new meaning of life, freeing himself from the hatred he carries. For starters, one sacrifices one’s life by saving others means transferring one’s life to another person, and a person who makes a sacrifice for himself shows losing something personal to create a hopeful future. Eddie encounters his captain during the war, whose life passes on to his four soldiers by sacrificing himself, and his encouraging spirit of sacrifice also plays a role in motivating his teammates. To show Eddie the value of dedication, the captain explains: “‘When you sacrifice something precious, you’re not losing it. You’re just passing it on to someone else’” (Albom 94). By risking his own life, the captain provides his soldiers a chance to survive. In addition, as a leader, he has the responsibility to show the spirit of sacrifice to other soldiers. Even though the captain has died, his life continues to have a positive influence on his soldiers’ well-being. During the war, Eddie loses his leg but he gains the opportunity to continue living his life. It is a loss that the captain forces him to accept, as he tells Eddie, “‘I shot you, all right, and you lost something, but you gained something as well. You just don’t know it yet’” (Albom 94). Eddie leaves his family and his true love to join the army to show his bravery. Upon arriving at the battlefield, however, he is arrested by enemy soldiers. In there he must dig coal all day and night to help the enemy. The war brings him a shameful experience, turning love and friendship into ashes, like the forbidden fruit, which breeds innumerable evils, obscuring light and reason in Eddie’s heart. In that situation, if no one shoots Eddie’s leg, he will run into the fire and lose his life. Ultimately, he immolates a good leg for another chance at life and more time with the people he loves. Through the captain’s actions and his own, Eddie learns that sacrifice is worth pursuing. Secondly, the only way to release the soul is through forgiveness and letting go. Eddie learns about forgiveness through Ruby, a lady who was present at the time of his father’s death. She shows him that despite his father's anger towards one’s bad behaviour, he still chooses to rescue him from the sea: “‘Your father acted on impulse, too, and while his first impulse was to kill, his final impulse was to keep a man alive’” (Albom 138). If his father’s friend, Mickey dies, Eddie’s father will regret not saving him forever. When his father chooses to forgive, he has put down the heavy boulder in his heart and can face his future life calmly. By seeing his father’s action, Eddie realizes that life is not all about hatred and that he can always choose forgiveness. Eddie’s life is based on his father’s life. Eddie's father's death forces him to follow in his father’s footsteps, but he is dissatisfied with his work because of his disgust for his father. He says, “‘When he died, he took a part of me with him. I was stuck after that’” (Albom 142). When he recalls his life carefully, he discovers that if his father never asked him to find a job, he would have been depressed for the rest of his life. This makes Eddie realize that his peaceful life is because of his father’s existence. At that time, Eddie sees that his father’s influence on his life, which he believes to be destructive, actually has a positive effect. This leads him to forgive his father, which then causes these dissatisfactions to go away. The forgiveness eventually helps him find peace within himself. Through learning the importance of forgiveness from these disappointing events, Eddie finally dispels years of detestation and learns contentment. Furthermore, love is like the four seasons: spring is falling in love; summer is marrying and starting a happy family; autumn is when difficulties and gaps come, and winter is when the relationship ends. Through the seasons, they show how love broadens the horizons of both partners. Eddie’s wife, Marguerite, gets into a car accident on the way to the racetrack to find Eddie, and their love is cracked as a result. The author uses a simile to indicate that “Love, like rain, can nourish from above, drenching couples with a 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” (Albom 164). The car accident is this “angry heat of life”, but their love for each other can nourish their relationship, and soak them with joy. Eddie stops betting on horses and gives more attention to his wife. Meanwhile, Marguerite does not talk about the accident with Eddie because she understands his remorse. From the accident, Eddie learns the importance of understanding and compassion in love. Love does not disappear because of death. To dispel Eddie’s prejudice against her untimely death, Marguerite says tenderly; "‘Lost love is still love, Eddie. It takes a different form, that’s all. [. . . ] Memory becomes your partner. You nurture it. You hold it. You dance with it’" (Albom 173). Indeed, their love still exists, it is shown in the wayMargaret chooses their wedding night as her resting place in heaven; she wants to remind Eddie of their best memories together. Eddie realizes that love is like magic; it may exist in a different form, but it still has a tremendous power to sustain a relationship during hardships. All in all, Eddie's five encounters in heaven illustrate various life philosophies on sacrifice, forgiveness, and love. Eddie lets go of his anger and recognizes the meaning of his life in the end: everyone deserves to be loved, and the life he thought to be meaningless is truly valuable. The captain explains to Eddie that sacrifice is a meaningful thing. Ruby teaches him that forgiveness can free oneself and his wife shows him eternal love. In society today, where people live in such a hurry that they forget to think about the true meaning of life, this novel reminds readers of the joys and sorrows in life. It gives them a wonderful spiritual journey that feels like a rainbow after rain.