A Web of Lives

               “That there are no random acts.  That we are all connected.  That you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind.”  This quote from The Five People You Meet in Heaven reveals how each of life’s countless decisions is capable of influencing other’s lives in unimaginable ways.  Seemingly insignificant interactions tangle strings of lives into an infinite web of cause and effect. 

                The Five People You Meet in Heaven begins with the end of Eddie’s time on earth and the introduction of Joseph Corvelzchik.  Joseph recounts the moment of Eddie’s youth when each of their lives met: Eddie chasing a ball into the street.  This act, however innocent it may have seemed, resulted in Joseph’s death.  Eddie’s encounter with Joseph teaches the reader that with every action, there is a consequence.  Another’s life may then take an unexpected turn.

                The line from cause to effect connects events in one life to those of another.  These connections are impossible to sever, even in death.  For example, such an irreversible link formed between Eddie and a young girl named Tala when he burned a hut she had been hiding in during the war.  This link remained strong even after Tala’s death in the fire, for she determined his reason for existence at Ruby Pier.  “‘Children,’ she said. ‘You keep them safe. You make good for me.’”  Finally, at the end of his life, Tala brings Eddie to heaven.  This shows how influential the ties are that one’s actions may create.  Additionally, the importance of a well-known lesson is revealed in this novel: think about consequences before taking actions.  Not all connections between people may have positive consequences.

                An intricate web of actions and reactions is woven from the lives of all who have ever and will ever exist.  As stated in the novel, “There was a pier filled with thousands of people, men and women, fathers and mothers and children – so many children – children from the past and the present, children who had not yet been born… They were there, or would be there, because of the simple, mundane things Eddie had done in his life, the accidents he had prevented, the rides he had kept safe, the unnoticed turns he had affected every day.”  The pier of people Eddie had affected in his lifetime represents such a miniscule part of this web.  It proves that no life can exist without another, and no one is truly alone.