Life After Death Analysis

The title caught my eyes in the list of recommendations which she sent me, as the idea of heaven and what happens after death has always been of interest to me. I am not religious nor would I say I’m atheist, as I do not believe nor disbelieve in ‘god’, and so religion and heaven are topics which struck me with fascination. In the end The Five People You Meet in Heaven ended up being beyond my expectations. I had expected Eddie to meet five angels or godly figures, but the novel took me by surprise in having Eddie rather encounter five people, whose lives at some point intersected with his which I think, made for a better

1.Point of View: Blue man shows Eddie his point of view from the day he died

Between those three, the least important was the one taught by the Blue Man. Although his lesson was very important it wasn’t the greatest of the three. All of the people who Eddie meets relate to his past in some way, even if he doesn’t know them. By talking to the Blue Man, Eddie learned that

If Eddie did something to affect blue man it would eventually affect the rest of the for people yet to teach him a lesson. During this blue man dies because of Eddie he said he got a heart attack after being scared from trying to avoid hitting Eddie as he ran onto the street as a little boy. This now leads one connection between Eddie and the blue man meaning that they are all connected due to their stories. But this one rather important because Eddie basically killed someone. But of course more lesson have yet to come and some even more emotional and severe.

For example, when Eddie first enters Heaven and meets the Blue Man he has no idea, other than the fact that he was in a freak show at Ruby Pier, who the Blue Man was or how he was connected to him. The Blue Man tries to make Eddie understand that he is the reason that he is in Heaven. "Take a moment when that ball flies over Eddie's head and out into the street. Eddie, wearing tawny pants and a wool cap, chases after it, and runs in front of an automobile, a Ford Model A. The car screeches, veers, and just misses him." (Albom 42-43). Eddie is the little boy in this quote while the Blue Man is the driver of the Ford Model A. When Eddie jumps out in front of the vehicle, the Blue Man is taken by surprise and swerves the car to avoid hitting him. The adrenaline that the Blue Man has after nearly killing a child is so high that it causes him to have a heart attack. After some explaining, the Blue Man manages to make Eddie comprehend that he was indirectly responsible for his

Eddie is an old war veteran who works as a maintenance man at Ruby Pier, a seaside amusement park. On his birthday, Eddie goes through his everyday routine, checking up on the rides and day dreaming about his late wife Marguerite until he dies trying to save a little girl from a falling ride cart. The last thing Eddie remembers before going to Heaven is small hands in his hands. When Eddie wakes he finds himself back in Ruby Peir. The only difference is that he feels like a child again. While running around the pier, Eddie meets The Blue Man. The Blue Man tells Eddie about his life as a carnival attraction and how he dies. He learns that he accidentally killed the Blue Man when he was a child by running in front of his car. Eddie has to go

Eddie is a wounded war veteran, who believes he has lived an uninspired life. He works at a seaside amusement park fixing broken rides. On his 83rd birthday, he is killed when he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. When he awakes in the afterlife, he learns that heaven is not a destination. It's a place where your life is explained to you by five people, some of whom you knew, others who are strangers. From childhood to soldier to old age, Eddie's five people revisit their connections to him on earth, illuminating the mysteries of his "meaningless" life. The first person he meets is The Blue Man. The Blue Man informs Eddie that he is going to meet five people in heaven whose lives he has somehow affected. The Blue Man was a sideshow worker at Ruby Pier when Eddie was a child. He was killed as a result of Eddie running in the street

The “Blue Man”, whose Heaven was Ruby Pier, taught Eddie how every one person's story is somehow tied to someone else's life in one way or another. For example how the blue man died. Eddie was a young boy playing catch in his yard when the ball made its way into the street, Eddie ran after it and dodged the grill of a truck. While Eddie may have been lucky to survive we now turn to the driver who had to pull into an alleyway having a heart attack. Or, Eddie's death. Death at an amusement park from a tragic accident? How so? A boy goes into the park planning for a night of fun, Once he is done there he goes to the parking lot to load up and head out. He searches his pockets for a key and comes up empty. Weeks later the news of a broken belt on the .

Each of the people that he meets in heaven show him this quality through the telling of their stories, and how they learned to accept their own fate. The first instance occurs when Eddie meets the Blue Man, who explains that Eddie is the cause of his death, where he says to “take one story, viewed from two different angles. It is the same day, the same moment, but one angle ends up happily. . .and the other ends badly, in a city morgue” (Albom 44). Just like each of the others that Eddie meets, the Blue man had learned to accept his death through the people that he had met in heaven, much like Eddie does throughout meeting each of his five people. This story teaches him that many of life’s events are accidental or out of control, and some things will happen for seemingly no reason at all. Similar to the Blue Man, the fourth person that Eddie meets, his wife, Marguerite, also subtly teaches him the importance of accepting how one’s life turns out. Her story, which is arguably more tragic than that of the Blue Man’s, shows Eddie that even the most innocent of people can come to terms with their quick and unexpected demise. Marguerite’s death happened so quickly that there was no time to prepare for it, but she explains that the five people she met in heaven made “all the difference” (Albom 157). However, possibly the person that impacts this lesson of acceptance the most is the final person that Eddie meets, the little girl, Tala, that he killed in the fire that he set during the war. Even a child as young as her is able to accept the fatal mistake that Eddie made, and even tactfully teaches Eddie the lesson that she learned about accepting her own fate. Upon realizing that this is the girl he killed, Eddie explains that “the darkness that had shadowed him all those years was revealing itself at last, it was real, flesh and blood, this child, this lovely child, he had

Whether you know it or not, there is a purpose for everything that happens in your life. This lesson was reiterated numerous times throughout the book by many different characters. Eddie didn’t understand this lesson at first, but the concept eventually made sense to him. Both the Captain and the Blue Man explained to Eddie that they

This novel perfectly illustrates the interconnectedness of life shown through Eddie’s life. First, as a child, Eddie accidentally caused The Blue Man’s death and even attended his funeral. The Blue Man also worked at the same amusement park as Eddie’s father. This example shows that The Blue Man and Eddie’s lives were connected without either of them knowing. Second, Eddie was responsible for Tala’s death during the war that took place

The first lesson was taught by a blue-skinned man who had worked at Ruby Pier’s “freak show.” He was always referred to as “the Blue Man,” but his actual name was Joseph Corvelzchick. The lesson he taught Eddie was, while we all have a different perspective, our lives are all entwined, in some way or another. In other words, everything happens for a reason. The Blue Man crashed his car when Eddie ran across

that if X can be without Y then X and Y are distinct. This view that a

a category mistake, or a misuse of language. He even went so far as to

Many different religions around the world see the importance in life after death but these beliefs do vary a lot and each religion will believe completely different things. Two core religions in this essay that will be looked into are Islamic and Catholic. What do they believe will happen when someone dies? Is there another life after they die? Heaven? Hell? Or Paradise? Through this you will the importance in the belief of life after death, and the practices, rituals, and prayers that provide evidence and physical proof of how they show this belief. Then to go onto to discuss the wider implications holding onto these beliefs can have.