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Chapter 16
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Five People You Meet in Heaven, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Redemption and Forgiveness
The Connection Between All Humans
The Cycle of Life and Death
The Value in Ordinary Life
Time
Gender Roles
Summary
Analysis
Back on earth, it is Monday morning at Ruby Pier. Dominguez has skipped breakfast and shows up at work in Maintenance. He and Willie stare at a newspaper on the desk with a front headline that says, “Amusement Park Tragedy.” They briefly share that neither of them was able to sleep the night before. They sit and then fidget for a while, and the narrator explains that they are both “waiting for the old man to come in and get the workday started.”
Though death is a natural part of life, Dominguez and Willie don’t feel as if Eddie is truly gone. And because we see that Eddie is in heaven experiencing another kind of existence—they are right. Eddie wasn’t as alone at the end of his life as he thought, because he left an empty space with the people around him.
Themes
