People You Meet in Heaven

¶ … People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

Mitch Albom, author of Five People You Meet in Heaven, is a novelist well-known for his ability to reflect life's realities, and draw positive lessons from these realities to inspire his readers through his novels.

In Five People, Albom talks about the themes of life and death, particularly feelings of guilt and suffering, and learning to forgive, whether this is in the context of the individual's earthly life or afterlife. In Five People, the author focuses on the main character Eddie, whose life revolved around an amusement park called the Ruby Pier. In the novel, Eddie was depicted as a person who grew up soliciting his father's approval while his mother's love and affection kept him secure.

As an older man, Eddie also worked as Ruby Pier's maintenance man. Unfortunately, he regretted it because he dreamed of becoming an Engineer when he was younger. On becoming the Park's personnel, Eddie was at first an unwilling and helpless party. He actually just took over the position to help his father who was at that time hospitalized for Pneumonia. Later, when the man died, he became compelled to permanently apply for the position because he had to look after his mother who was alone in their house. He and his wife even moved to their apartment building so they can take care of her more closely. But no matter how Eddie felt trapped in his job, he was very adept at it that he can distinguish a secure ride from an unsafe one just by listening at the sound it made while running.

Regular patrons of the park knew him by name. They even greeted him when they cross paths with him. He is also in good terms with his co-workers. Children adored him:

"Children looked at Eddie-who, with his protruding lower jaw, always seemed to be grinning, like a dolphin -- and they trusted him. They drew in like cold hands to a fire. They hugged his leg. They played with his keys."

Although he was not exactly charming to them, he carried with him pipe cleaners, which he used in making tricks for those who specifically asks him to perform one.

The story started at Eddie's death when he was already eighty-three years old. He was already alone in life during this time because his wife, brother and parents predeceased him.

Then, through flashback, each phase of his life unraveled on his journey to afterlife. During this journey, he met five people who explained things and helped him realize and understand events and situations that during his life on earth puzzled, confused and hurt him. The author explained through Eddie's story that no event in one's life happens accidentally or for its purpose alone. People's lives and events intertwine and will either begin or end their own or someone else's life. Understanding these events and accepting it as something needed for life's next phase is important. People cannot move to this phase if they have not yet realized the purpose of a preceding one.

Through the five people, the author enabled Eddie's understanding of his life's events. These people were the Blue Man, Eddie's army captain, Ruby, his wife Marguerite, and Tala the burned child. All five were waiting for Eddie so they can enlighten him on things; accomplish their own lives' purpose then move on to their afterlives.

Mitch Albom's use of Symbolism in 'Five People You Meet in Heaven'

Mitch Albom used Symbolism to help readers feel the presence of his characters in the story. Symbol is technically defined as having a "complex meaning; it has not only literal meaning, but also additional meaning(s) beyond the literal." The same site also cited that a symbol is different from a sign where "signs are literal while symbols are not" (Doty, 2009). In addition, as discussed by Wellek (2003) in his analysis of symbolism in literature, he defined symbols as "where the particular represents the more general, not as a dream or a shadow, but as a living momentary revelation of the Inscrutable."

Albom used symbolism to help his readers understand and appreciate the characters in his story better. Below is a discussion of the symbolisms he used to show how he conveyed his ideas and the story's lessons that he would want his reader to learn.

The first man Eddie encountered was the Blue Man. The Blue Man's life became connected with him when as a young child; he had accidentally caused his demise when he suddenly crossed the street where the man was passing in his car. The man, in his attempt to avoid hitting Eddie, had a heart attack and he was not attended to which caused his premature death.

The symbolism that Albom used on this phase of Eddie's story was on the Blue Man's life. The Blue Man, aptly called one, was actually a victim of silver nitrate poisoning. As a child, he did not have the blue-tinged skin but when his father brought him to work in a sweatshop where he accidentally caused him humiliation by spilling a sack of buttons, his father never talked to him again. The Blue Man never got past his father's disapproval and he had started becoming nervous and wetting his pants at night. To cure these concerns, he seeks consult from a doctor who prescribed him silver nitrate. However, on his ignorance about his health problem and the medicine he was taking, he continuously took the liquid, sometimes even taking more than what was required and in the end having his blue skin, which was actually a sign of silver nitrate poisoning.

Albom applied symbolism on the Blue Man's life as a victim of silver nitrate poisoning. The man kept on taking the medicine despite his lack of knowledge on its effect to his himself. His behavior can be attributed to men's impulse to resort to desperate means in times of need.

"But it was all I had, and when it failed to work, I could only assume

I was not ingesting enough. So I took more. I swallowed two gulps and sometimes three, with no water."

The Blue Man wanted very much to address his concern and in his attempt to do it, he resorted to a solution that further increased his concern. It is in this childhood trauma that Albom illustrated how, driven by our need to correct our life's "mistakes" be these mistakes really our fault or not, people would seek ways to correct these, and inevitable end up succeeding or failing. The Blue Man's desire to remedy his sadness and frustration, albeit to an extreme extent, ultimately caused him his death. This theme of alleviating sadness, desperation and/or discontentment through extreme means recurs throughout the book, and is illustrated through the other people Eddie met in heaven.

On the Army Captain, Albom symbolized how men may feel trapped in a situation that they think is hopeless. They would continue tolerating said situation until it forces them to do something about it.

"The prisoners, thin and barefoot and covered in blood, were running now for the steep hill. Eddie had expected gunfire, more guards to fight, but there was no one. The other huts were empty. In fact, the entire camp was empty. Eddie wondered how long it had been just the four Crazies and them."

The Army Captain is relevant to Eddie's life because he shot Eddie, causing him to walk with a limp his whole life and never experience mobility like he did before joining the war. Ultimately, by shooting Eddie's leg, Eddie felt that he was not only robbed of his leg and mobility, but more importantly, he was robbed of his life, and the Captain did this to him. Learning this truth about the Captain and his life, and after hearing the Captain's side of the story, Eddie realized that people make decisions in life that could detrimentally affect another person's life for a long time, just because this decision was right at the moment. It was through the Captain that Albom symbolized this harsh reality about life, a person who decided for Eddie because he felt it was the right decision at the time, not knowing that this would forever alter Eddie's life and how he lived his life with other people after the war.

It was in Ruby that the story pivots Eddie's feelings from anger, sadness, and confusion to enlightenment and eventually, forgiveness. It is in Ruby's character that Albom taught Eddie to gradually let go of his angry feelings in life, and learn to forgive people, like the Captain, who have, in some way, wronged him. More importantly, it is in Ruby's wisdom that Eddie learned to forgive himself for not allowing his self to enjoy what life offered him before, when he was still alive. This path to forgiveness is reflected in Ruby and in the novel when she said, "…no one is born with anger. And when we die, the soul is freed of it. But now, here, in order to move on, you must understand why you felt what you did, and why you no longer need to feel it…" Ruby served as the voice of Albom, and even God, acting as Eddie's guide to the path towards enlightenment, forgiveness (and self-forgiveness), and ultimately, happiness.