The five people you meet in heaven

The five people you meet in Heaven

P.58-68

This passage take’s place right after Eddie meets the first person in heaven. The first person he met was the Blue man and he learned that it was because of him that the Blue man is dead. Eddie now knows that every person he will meet next in Heaven, is connected to his previous life.

In this Chapter, Eddie has a flashback of when he was young and was preparing himself to go to war. Later he sees Captain on a tree branch and talks to him. Together they talk about their time together in the Philippines.

Extract :

“THEY HAD SERVED together in the army. The Captain was Eddie's commanding officer. They fought in the Philippines and they parted in the Philippines and Eddie had never seen him again. He had heard he'd died in combat.

A wisp of cigarette smoke appeared.

"They explained the rules to you, soldier?"

Eddie looked down. He saw the earth far below, yet he knew he could not fall.

"I'm dead," he said.

"You got that much right."

"And you're dead."

"Got that right, too."

"And you're ... my second person?"

The Captain held up his cigarette. He smiled as if to say, "Can you believe you get to smoke up here?" Then he took a long drag and blew out a small white cloud.

"Betcha didn't expect me, huh?””

Topic : War loyalty

“Others were fighting. He would, too” (p. 60, 3rd line) —> Wants to fight for his country, loyal to his country

“Still, the Captain always promised he would “leave no one behind”, no matter what happened, and the men took comfort in that.” (p. 67, 2nd to 4th line) —> Loyal to the other soldiers

“But when the war ended, nobody came” (p. 68, middle page) —> were all loyal during the war and promised to stay in touch after it ends but finally when the war’s over they never talked to each other again

Key words/ Vocabulary

shrugged = haussa les épaules

shivering = frissonner

rifle = fusil

rubble = décombres

deflected shrapnel = éclat d’obus dévié

fellow soldier = camarade soldat

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