Mitch Albom's, The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Eddie’s perception of life and the role of animals changed after he watched a kitten for a brief period, and when he was mugged near to death. The kitten that he watched for a friend challenged his perception of the animal, and eventually led to him adopting many cats of his own because of the small little kitten. While being mugged, Eddie screamed for help from passerby, who ultimately ignored him. He related that incident to how animals

He lost his hat, the one that he got from someone at his birthday party. He got offended by Mickey, giving him a punch on the arm. From this, the readers can understand that MIckey, the alcoholic Irishman, was not a good soul to Eddie. Mickey will probably became a part of a negative time period during Eddie’s life, and this could be the reason why the narrator introduced MIckey in this way not completely positive. Thirdly, “She puts his hat back on his head. Later, she will walk him along the pier, perhaps take him on an elephant ride, or watch the fishermen pull in their evening nets, the fish flipping like shiny, wet coins. She will hold his hand and tell him God is proud of him for being a good boy on his birthday, and that will make the world feel right-side up again” (Albom 25) In a lot of moments we read about Eddie, how he suffered much pain and misconstrued events throughout his life on earth: Eddie was searching for some kind of peace within himself, which he never found. However, here the love of the mom for his kid is shown, and the reader can definitely understand that Eddie’s mom cared deeply for Eddie and his brother, Joe, offering her sons a nurturing alternative to their abusive, alcoholic

Eddie Corazon is a juvenile delinquent who is involved in gang activity, but surprisingly loves to read. The rest of his gang does not believe in reading or being educated, and only want to break the law; but Eddie cares about his education. Throughout Muchacho, Eddie has to secretly educate himself while dealing with the doubt from his peers. Through obstacles and setbacks such as dealing with school, Eddie learns that he needs to follow his own path.

The author Mitch Albom incorporates sacrifice which is a big part of being a brothers keeper in The Five People you Meet in Heaven. Eddie was in war for a short period of time, during this time The Captain becomes his keeper because he shot himself in the leg to protect Eddie, as a captain he should have done this. He teaches him that grieving is the only way out of a tough situation, similar to the one he is in. Eddie does not recognize the reasoning behind why he did what he did. The Captain explains to Eddie, "Sacrifice, you made one. I made one. We all make them. But you are angry over yours. You kept thinking about what you lost… You didn’t get it. Sacrifice is a part of life." (Albom 93). By doing this it shows his bravery, loyalty and companionship towards Eddie. He shot Eddie in the leg so Eddie would not die in the burning tent. Even though he sacrificed his life for Eddies he was

Through Eddies school experience got off to a rough start with many fights and comments about his parents and their Asian culture. He never really took comments against him very well, he fought back many times with physical violence. Many times these fights were over cultural differences at school. Huang wrote about the lack diversity he experienced when in school and the many names he was called by the students. Many students called him racist names and bullied him; Huang wrote “Edgar grabbed me by the shirt and threw me to the ground. “Chinks get to the back!” I looked up from the ground dumbfounded.”(Huang 32). Because of the lack of

Eddie the matenience man of Ruby Pier carnival seems like just typical old man, who struggles with the idea that he never lived up to his potential. However, after he dies, he is able to see his life through a different perspective, one of eternity, and realizes how unique and important his life has been. This closely echoes the truth found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church which says that only in heaven with Christ will we find our true identity and meaning of life. 1 Death is only the beginning for Eddie and his journey through the five “heavens” of people that his life has impacted demonstrates how intricately woven together every humanity is. As pilgrims, our view of suffering and day to day actions constricts our ability to see how God truly weaves human messiness together to create a beautiful tale of redemption. So, we must live for the destination, not for the journey, leaning on hope instead of complete understanding.

Turning against the world of drugs and violence, Eddie vows to take the straight and narrow path, even if it means struggling at temporary manual labor jobs. So when he takes a landscaping job for a white man across town thinking that god had finally heard him, the man's truck is stolen from the front of Eddie's apartment causing yet another problem to add on. He hid for hours and days drinking because he really liked his job with the white man and was afraid of what might happen to him. Although getting the truck stolen from him kinda seems like a big deal, it is not because that sort of thing happens daily in the streets of fresno that he lived by, it was almost like that was something normal to him. So when his aunt gets home she reminds him yet another time that his cousin died only this time a gun came with the tortillas she would try and persuade him with the avenge the death of her son.

When Eddie and Beatrice are waiting for Rodolpho and Catherine to get home after a movie, Eddie goes down to the street and talks to them trying to figure out why Rodolpho had her out so late at night. When Rodolpho leaves, Eddie begins talking to Catherine and says that he is upset that Rodolpho did not to ask for permission to take her out. He goes on and says that Rodolpho does not respect Catherine and Eddie tries to split the couple apart with the idea that Rodolpho is only interested in Catherine to become a citizen. This is Eddie’s first attempt to split Catherine and Rodolpho apart. This is an unsettling thought because the audience does not suspect that Rodolpho’s feelings for Catherine are in any way fake. Eddie becomes very torn apart when she begins to date Rodolpho. He becomes convinced that something is not “right” with him and tries to intervene. When this plan does not work, he goes to a lawyer to try in hopes that the law can separate them. Of course, there is no law and Eddie becomes frustrated. When he gets drunk, he goes back to the house and tries to kick Rodolpho out of the house. He is jealous that Rodolpho is getting all of Catherine’s attention and the fact that he kisses her on the mouth leaves an uneasy feeling on the audience, adding onto Eddie’s unsightly protagonist image. When Catherine says that she is going to go with Rodolpho, Eddie becomes extremely angry and

Eddie at the beginning of the story was hopeful that his career would succeed.Everything started going well for him, people said he played from the heart. He was starting to show that he had money, he got a leather jacket and and wore a chain. He made 1 record that went to the charts. When he went to hollywood he met a girl immediately and moved in with her. Not only that she taught him how to play the guitar which started his music career.Eddie started to become successful however when the A&R man told him that he doesn't hear a single. His music career was basically over, he had no idea what to do, he was confused. He was lost, he had no career when his A&R man fired him, he is “a rebel without a

Eddie was born in Washington D.C, the son of two immigrants, making him a second generation immigrant. This effects his self-identity because he is different. He grew up in a different culture than most kids. This came apparent to him early on. Eddie’s food at lunch was different than the “average” lunch. He had food that was traditional to his culture, but it did not smell good. The other kids made fun of Eddie, “It was embarrassing, so I asked Mom to start packing me some white people food.” He was aware that he came from a different background than most kids, and that is was because of his parents being first generation immigrants, making him second.

His second stop is where he meets his commanding officer of his world war II platoon. Eddie remembers being held captive along with his captain and four others. He also was the one responsible for coming up with a plan for them to escape. After they did that the captain told them to burn the place they were held captive but eddie ran back because he thought he saw a young girl, but a bullet was shot and hit him right in the knee. He learned the importance of sacrifice from the captain who then says that that it was him who shot eddie. He says that he had to sacrifice his knee in order to save his life. The captain then reveals that he died because he stepped on a landmine getting Eddie to safety, meaning he also made sacrifice.One his way out he advises Eddie to let go of his anger. The third stop is where he sees a vision of his father. He had flashbacks of the abuse he suffered from the hands of his father when he was drunk.then he meets Ruby who’s husband is the founder of Ruby Pier which was named after her. She offers him a new way to look at his father’s death. Eddie believed that his father died because he made a decision while drunk to jump into the freezing water and caught pneumonia, but really he was trying to save his friend mickey’s life. Mickey tried to kill himself after Eddie’s father caught him assaulting

     Upon hearing this Eddie feels awful and asks why the blue man died instead of Eddie. The blue man assures him that it was okay and that everything happens for a reason. “There are no random acts. That we are all connected. That you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind” (Albom, 48). This was the first lesson for Eddie. That everything happens for a reason and that no life is a waste. “No life is a waste, the only time we waste is the time we spend thinking that we are alone.” (50)

Throughout the novel, Eddie also can be exemplified as a sympathetic character. sympathetic characters are when readers feel sympathy for throughout a story. The reader can feel empathy for Eddie, when the author describes the pain of Eddie’s gunshot wound. The pain was described to be unbearable and the description of the event of the gunshot pains a morbid picture in the reader’s mind. During Eddie’s time as a soldier in World War II, any reader can feel an astonishing amount of sympathy for Eddie. During, Eddie’s time as a soldier, he experienced, “A piercing pain ripped through Eddie's leg. He screamed a long, hard curse then crumbled to the ground. Blood was spewing below his knee. Plane engines roared. The skies lit in bluish flashes. He lay there, bleeding and burning, his eyes shut against the searing heat, and for the first time in his life, he felt ready to die,” (Albom 84). The reader can comprehend Eddies suffering and pain. Eddie was on the ground, in a war zone hurt and slowly dying. Readers can feel a lot of sympathy for when Eddie wanted to let go of the world and die. Before Eddie’s death, he ran under a falling amusement park ride to save a little girl, Eddie

At the beginning of the play, Eddie is portrayed as a sensible and smart character. Eddie and the girls (Catherine and Beatrice) all have a requited respect for each other – Beatrice: “Mmm! You’re an angel! God’ll bless you” – and there are no problems as such, even when the immigrants first come. He is also respected by the community – Alfieri: “He was good a man as he had to be in life that was.” But this dominant respect that he gains is what he is very used to and the slight changes where Catherine finds another man in her life and Beatrice also looks after the two immigrants (Rodolpho and Marco) effects Eddie hugely. The respect that he becomes used to is now shared by the women in his life between the men in his house and he craves for more attention. This can be considered one of his flaws that lead to his downfall. He is also shown caring for Catherine in the beginning of the play. He can be seen as a normal uncle or father – Beatrice: “She’s got a job.” Eddie: “What job? She’s gonna finish school.” He is also very proud of Catherine – “Sure she’s the best… You look like a

Eddie is a longshoreman and earns his living on the New York docks and he is the plays protagonist but also as a famous Greek philosopher called Aristotle said " The tragic hero is one who is neither villainous nor exceptionally virtuous, moving from happiness to misery through some frailty or error in judgement. " And this is exactly what Eddie Carbone is, a tragic hero. The plot is based around Eddie agreeing to shelter Marco and Rodolfo (his wife, Beatrice's illegally immigrated cousins) while they seek refuge in the Sicilian community of Redhook. As his wife's niece Catherine whom he has unconditional love for as a daughter begins to take a liking to Rodolfo, Eddies love begins to transform into jealousy and hate of Rodolfo and as a consequence Eddie commits an unjustifiable and indefensible act of hatred which in the Sicilian community would be classed as a 'crime' against everybody around him including his family by revealing Marco and Rodolfo to the immigration bureau.