Vivi Chuang reviews The five people you meet in heaven

Vivi Chuang
Ms. Poulsen
English 10A
16 March 2010
The Five People You Meet In Heaven
“What is the meaning of life?” This is the biggest question Eddie keeps asking himself when he was alive. Eddie is an eighty-three year old lonely war veteran. Every person he loves had passed away long time ago, so he couldn’t find any reason to live for. Therefore, throughout this whole novel, Eddie was not satisfied with his life, so he tries to figure out what he is living for. On his eighty- third birthday, he died trying to save a girl from a falling cart in the amusement park. People might think that death is the end where nothing happens after it; however, after Eddie is in heaven, his soul floats, and he has no worries and no pain. There, up in the Heaven, Eddie’s life is explained by five people who were in it. These people he meets may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed Eddie’s path forever. After the journey, Eddie found the solutions of his life – sacrifice, forgive, and love.
I think the main character Eddie is believable because as a reader, I can feel the same way Eddie is feeling. I, myself, sometimes are having the same question too. When I am depressed, I wondered what is the meaning of life. It’s hard to tell the person who you really love how much you love him/her. “He dropped his head into his hands and he said it anyhow, he said what everyone says, ‘I missed you so much’ (Albom 169)”. So when Eddie decided to tell Marguerite how much he wanted to stay with her, I really felt happy for him. Eddie was a steady person, he decided to move back to his mom’s house to take care of her and gave up his beloved job. He was just too shy to show his true love. Also, I thought it was reasonable that people changed after they experienced the terrible war. “The darkness of combat had left Eddie changed. He stayed indoors. He rarely spoke (Albom 113)”. Eddie already had a bad relationship with his father, so when his father wanted him to get a job after the war, Eddie must have been really angry. That is the feeling in which we think our parents don’t understand the pain and experiences we had in the past. And that’s why he never spoke to his dad again. Besides these two points, I think the character is also very believable when Eddie said, “You beat me, you shut me out, I didn’t understand. I still don’t understand. I didn’t know you, but you’re my father. I’ll let it go now, all right? Can we let it go (Albom 152)”. Even if Eddie had a bad memory of his father, his reaction is reasonable because normal people can forgive their parents no matter how big the problem is, especially when you were alone for so many years.
I would recommend this book to those who think their lives are meaningless and to those who are afraid to be dead because this book gave a lot of inspiration to me. Therefore, overall, I really like this novel. I love this book. Maybe the author didn’t use a lot of interesting languages or funny contents, but the whole lesson I have learned has already attracted me. It makes me think more about my family and my life before I have my own stiff idea of boring life and horrible death.