Summary of The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

This novel is about a compelling, yet sad story of a man’s tragic past. While suffering a horrible death he learns life lessons from his past that leads him to understand the purpose of his life. The book begins at the Ruby Pier on the protagonist’s birthday; His name is Eddie. As he does his normal routine in his job the unfortunate happens. One of the rides breaks. While this incident goes on, Eddie gives his coworker, a man named Dominquez, instructions on how to fix the ride. Unfortunately one of the carts snaps and breaks free from the ride and crashes unto the floor. The protagonist then jumps out of the way where the cart is going to fall and by doing so he tries to save this little girl by pushing her out of the way. Unfortunately Eddie does not manage to evade the cart in time and is killed by the impact of it falling on him.
After this happens, Eddie wakes up and he finds himself in heaven. Immediately following, his first assigned individuals shows up to him, the Blue Man. This person begins to tell Eddie that he is going to meet five people there in heaven that he has deeply impacted throughout his life. He also tells Eddie that because of what he did in his life, he is the indirect cause for his death. This being so because when Eddie was kid; he and his friend Joe were playing a game with a ball that bounced into the street. As Eddie ran to the middle of the road to get the ball the Blue Man almost ran him over. He spun out of the way, trying to avoid hitting Eddie. The sad part was that Eddie was ok and safe but the Blue Man had a panic attack because he almost ran Eddie over. His nervousness caused him to swerve out of the road and smash into another car, which killed him. At the end of his story, this man teaches...

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...ted after she died. The fourth lesson Marguerite teaches Eddie is essentially the power of love. She states that even though people pass away, their love does not. Marguerite tells Eddie that her love remained loyal and true even after her death and that no matter what her love was eternal.
The Last individual Eddie meets in heaven is a young Asian girl named Tala. While talking to him she explains that he killed her in a fire. Eddie surprised realizes quickly that it was she that little girl who he had seen burning in the camp back at the war. Tala then changes her skin revealing all of the burns and scars left by the fire. Eddie symbolically launders her free of all her burns and renews her spirit. Because of this she then demonstrates him the final lesson. Eddie’s fundamental purpose in this world was to be at Ruby Pier keeping the children there safe from harm.