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Chapter 3
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
The narrative flashes back again. It is Eddie’s fifth birthday, and he is playing at his father’s feet while his father plays a game of cards. In what he describes as an Irish tradition, Mickey Shea joyfully picks Eddie up by his feet and shakes him out once for each year he has completed, while the other adult men laugh and cheer. Eddie doesn’t like being upside down, and afterward he clings to his mother as she takes him out for a walk along the pier until the “world feels right-side up again.”
