OVERALL ANALYSIS

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

Eddie

Eddie is an 83-year-old maintenance man, who has dedicated his life to working at Ruby Pier. At the start of the story, we do not know much about Eddie, except for his age and occupation; we learn the most about Eddie when he takes his journey through heaven.

As Eddie meets all five people in heaven, we the readers, as well as Eddie, gain much insight to his life and how it affected others. Eddie was very depressed and full of regret during his life on earth. As a child, Eddie’s ambitions were to attend school and become an engineer; he wanted nothing to do with Ruby Pier or maintenance work.

After Eddie returned, injured from the war, his entire life changed. His volatile relationship with.......

Blue Man

The Blue Man is the first person Eddie meets in heaven. Eddie did not know the Blue Man when he was a child but his actions were responsible for the Blue Man’s death.

When Eddie was a child, he and Joe were playing ball outside. The ball bounced into the street and Eddie ran after........

The Captain

The Captain is the second person Eddie meets in heaven and is also his former captain in World War II. While they were at war, the Captain made a promise to Eddie and his other soldiers that he was not leaving anyone behind. The Captain suffered through the prisoner of war camp........

Ruby

When Eddie meets Ruby, in heaven, she is elderly; however when Ruby was younger, she worked as a waitress at a diner in Eddie’s town. Ruby met her husband, Emile, in the diner when he came in as a customer. When he proposed marriage to Ruby, they were sitting in the sand watching the........

Marguerite

Marguerite was the love of Eddie’s life; when he was young he met her at the pier and she then continued to be the happiness in Eddie’s life. Marguerite was always there for Eddie and never stopped providing him with unconditional love. Before Eddie left for war Marguerite said.......

Tala

When Eddie set the prisoner of war camp on fire, during the war, he was sure he saw an innocent child crawling around in the fire. For the rest of his life he had nightmares and that thought haunted him. It seemed as though he knew, in his heart, that he had killed a child, but.......

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