The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom Thesis Essay

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom is a very good, insightful, and thought provoking book, and it’s main character, Eddie, made the book even more interesting. He has traits that are very present in the book; such as being kind-hearted, hard working, patient, and accepting. Eddie’s patience shines through when, in the middle of the book, he liked this girl but was patient in waiting for her. Eventually, she became his wife. Eddie also worked the same job for over 30 years, that he knew would get him nowhere in life, but would support him. This job was at an amusement park, Ruby Pier, just doing maintenance, and making sure the park ran smoothly. It was a very tedious job, doing the same things every day, every week, every year, unchanging except for the types of rides he had to maintain. Eddie worked as carnival maintenance from the time he got out of the military and his father died, right up until his own death. (His death was actually on the job.) Patience was a great trait for him to possess; when he arrived in heaven, Eddie had the time of forever on his hands. The protagonist of The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Eddie, was very kind-hearted on the inside, too. After high school, Eddie went into the military. During combat he and four others became prisoners of war, where they stayed captured for several months. When they broke out, they burned everything down because of the memories and stifled hatred against their captors. But while Eddie was burning down a barn, he thought he saw a child; he had then run inside the burning barn looking for the child. Eddie risked his own life trying to save that child; so much so that the only way his comrades could get him to come out was to shoot him in the knee, then to drag him out. Another instance of Eddie’s kind-heartedness was his death. One day on the job at the carnival, Eddie received a frantic radio call about a broken and dangling carnival ride. He rushed on the scene and saved the people in