Valerie’s Comments (group member since Apr 20, 2016)

Valerie’s comments from the Last but not Least group.

Oh that's interesting I didn't really think about the exhaustion thing. I kinda just read it as is. But I think this is a cool scene to just observe eddies nature. Whether the kid was real or not it shows his hero tendencies. Maybe if the kid wasn't real, it could be an example of symbolism perhaps.

I'm going to add on to Cassie's thought. If he would have saved the person at this point the story would've been very different. Perhaps Eddie would've died at the moment rather than his 83rd birthday. The book would've started with this moment. But maybe it goes along with that whole idea that someone had to go for Eddie to stay and live. But yeah it had to happen for the sake of the plot.

I know it's kind of cheesy but I think the blue man. I know he was the first person but I think he is important. I love the part where Eddie try's to speak but can't and the blue man explains that no one can speak at first in heaven. He says that it is so Eddie could be a good listener implying the he is being taught or given vital information. But then after listening to him Eddie can finally speak. It's interesting that He doesn't start speaking after the last person he meets but after the blue man the first. You would think that he would speak after listening to everyone. This implies that he retained and learned from what the blue man said. It was a really cool detail of the author to add.

I think the blue man is a point that the author wants to leave with the author. The blue man acts as a story builder and stresses the reason for heaven. The man sheds light onto why heaven is the way it is and that it is a place for reflection. It's not beaches and paradise like the common belief. If you take anything away from the book you're likely going to remember the words of the blue man. He is the center of the theme of reflection. He teaches Eddie in a way to look at what his life was and that the places he would never think are what his personal heaven is. The blue man is like the message the author is stressing to the reader.

I like Michaela said I think those section help the book come full circle in a way. They all lead to the point that he died on his 83rd birthday, stressing that the most influential moments of his life happened on his birthday. It provides the connection of eddie's death to the beginning of the book.

I might be just be thinking too much but does anyone kinda find it weird that he has been through war and only walked out with a minor injury but when he had a job at an amusement park he is killed by a cart? I could just be making something out of nothing and I probably am but a war is such a large thing and for Eddie (and for the time period) resembles being deployed and becoming an adult. But he only walks out with a knee injure?? Then he works at an amusement park which is filled with teenagers and is for what we thought to be innocent. But He is killed by a cart. What are the odds? Just something to think about.
And also I think I agree that he is selfless because at the end of the chapter he is holding a little girl's hand in effort to try and save her. We can see that he risked his life for her and the other passengers.