THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVENWhat is heaven? It seems like there are countless ideas today about what “heaven” is. The fact is, none of us can say for sure. Some believe that heaven is where we look back at our lives here on Earth in order to learn from our mistakes. Author Mitch Albom wrote a story called The Five People You Meet in Heaven which follows one man through such a journey. In the story, a man named Eddie is tragically killed in an accident. What follows is his journey to heaven where he meets five people along the way. Each of the five people is there to teach Eddie a different lesson that he must learn before entering heaven. Each of the five people Eddie meets in Heaven presents ideas that serve as themes for this novel. The five lessons Eddie must learn are: that every person is interconnected in some way, to sacrifice, to forgiveness, to understanding, and that he doesn't need to be famous to make a difference in the lives of those around him. Each of the lessons Eddie learns are themes of the novel that Albom would want the audience to take away from the story. Eddie has spent his entire life living in one place. Like his father before him, Eddie worked as a maintenance supervisor at the local amusement park. When Eddie died, he first found himself in the park he had known his whole life. There he was greeted by one of the workers Eddie knew as a child. The man he met told him a story about when Eddie was a child. Eddie and his friend were playing catch when their ball landed in the street. When Eddie went to pick him up, a car swerved, almost hitting him. The man then told Eddie the same story, this time from the perspective of...... middle of paper ......worked tirelessly without feeling like he had accomplished anything. The main character, Eddie, lived a life similar to that of Albom's uncle. When Eddie died, he was sent on a journey where he met five different people who were there to teach Eddie. These five lessons are also the five themes of this novel. These include: that every person is interconnected in some way, to sacrifice, to forgiveness, to understanding, and that we don't need to be famous to make a difference in the lives of those around us. Albom uses the storyline effectively to make these points to the reader. The audience leaves the story with a feeling of what Albom was trying to do when he wrote the story. ,April 3, 2006.Albom, Mitch The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Hyperion, N