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 his father took a turn for the worst when they stopped speaking; he also became very depressed and lost all ambition to attend school.

Eddie resented his father for treating him so violently, neglecting him, and for not speaking to him after he returned from the war. Eddie also hated how his father would never praise Eddie unless he fixed something manually. Even after his father’s death, Eddie was still very angry with him, because he felt it was his responsibility to take over his job at the pier. Eddie’s mother also became unstable, causing Eddie to move back into her apartment building to care for her. Eddie was full of resent, regret and despair for the rest of his life for being trapped at the pier.

As Eddie meets the five people in heaven the events of his life unfold and Eddie learns more about his life which all comes together as the underlying message of the book. Eddie’s journey teaches him that we are all connected to another so that one’s actions are destined to have an impact or influence on someone else’s. Eddie also learned how easy it was to never express appreciation or thanks to those he loved. We saw that Eddie’s stubborn personality kept a distance between him and his father, and he also never seemed to show Marguerite appreciation for always celebrating his birthday. Only after she was gone, does Eddie realize how much he missed taffy on his birthday.

It is not until Eddie meets Tala, that he learns where his place in life lied. She tells Eddie that he was more than just a maintenance man checking the amusements; Eddie was significant for all of the people at the park and responsible for keeping them safe. It was his daily, mundane job that had prevented many accidents and kept the rides safe. Through meeting the five people in heaven, Eddie sees an appreciation of this things he had done while living on earth; he was also able to achieve integrity to replace the regret that he faced throughout his life.

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 it. The Blue Man, who was practicing his driving, almost hit Eddie but veered away just in time. Since the Blue Man was already nervous to be driving, his close encounter with Eddie shook him up even more. He began swerving on the road and having a sort of anxiety attack. He pulled over to regain his composure and ended up hitting a truck, which brought him to his death.

The Blue Man teaches Eddie his first lesson, which is that there are no random acts in life; all actions are intertwined in some way to affect the life of someone else. If Eddie had never chased his ball into the street, the Blue Man may have never died. However, since the Blue Man steered the car clear of hitting Eddie, one of the benefits of the Blue Man’s death was the Eddie was able to live.

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 and even the escape with his men.

When Eddie ran into the burning camp, the Captain shot him in the leg so that they could rescue him from the fire and escape. During their escape, Eddie was unconscious in the vehicle. The men came to a suspicious piece of land and the Captain volunteered to get out of the vehicle to inspect it for his men, before they drove over the land. While securing the land, the Captain stepped on an active land mine that killed him. The other soldiers in the vehicle, including Eddie made it to safety. Eddie was not aware how the Captain had died or why he shot him in the leg.

The Captain tells Eddie that, although he shot him in the leg, he kept his promise by not leaving him behind. The Captain even sacrificed his life so that the other soldiers were able to live. Had he not been willing to survey the land himself, all four men would have driven over the land mine and been killed.

Eddie also realizes that when one loses something (his healthy leg), they often gain something else (his life).

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 ocean. Emile said that he wanted to build Ruby a seaside resort to capture the happiness of that moment and so they could stay eternally young. Emile later built the park and named it Ruby Pier, after Ruby.

One day the pier caught on fire and Emile went to the site to try and salvage his years of hard work. Emile was throwing buckets of water on the fire when a column collapsed, injuring him. The pier was ruined and they ended up losing all of their fortune. Because of Emile’s injury and depression, he was unable to walk for about three years. Ruby and Emile moved far away from the pier, partly so she could care for her husband, and partly to get away from the pier. In one night their lives changed and from then on Ruby wished that the pier had never been built.

Ruby also tells Eddie how his father died. She shows him the scene where he saves Mickey Shea from drowning in the ocean. She then explains to Eddie that Emile had been in the hospital bed next to his father; Ruby had seen Eddie before and she also saw his father calling out the window for Eddie and his family the night of his death. Eddie never knew exactly how his father died and he never suspected that he risked his life for the loyalty of his friendship. Ruby allowed Eddie to see this and she teaches him to let go of anger and forgive his father.

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 she would wait for him to come back. When he returned injured and depressed, Marguerite still stayed with Eddie and married him.

During several flashbacks to Eddie’s earlier birthdays, we see that Marguerite always had a celebration for him. It seems that Eddie loved everything Marguerite would do for him, but he never told her how much he appreciated her. We see how sad Eddie is after Marguerite’s death, especially on his birthday.

In heaven Marguerite teaches Eddie about the power and endurance of love. Marguerite tells Eddie that even after she died, her love for him did not disappear; she had always loved him and would continue to forever. Eddie learned from Marguerite that although life ends, love does not; at the end of the story he is reunited with her.

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 his question was never answered.

When Eddie meets Tala, she tells him that he burned her. Eddie now realizes that there was a child in that fire and it was Tala. Most of Eddie’s doubts and questions that had put a strain on his life were answered by Tala: it was she who he killed in the fire during the war; he did save the little girl from the falling amusement at the pier, right before he died; and also that he was meant to work at Ruby Pier. She teaches Eddie that his life did have a purpose, which was to keep the children safe at the pier.