Eddie’s fifth person in heaven, a little Filipino girl who Eddie unknowingly kills while he and his unit are escaping captivity during the war. Tala is affectionate, trusting, and wise. Following her mother’s instructions, Tala hides from Eddie and his men in one of the abandoned village huts. Thinking the huts are empty, Eddie and his unit set the village on fire to send for a rescue signal. Standing before one of the flaming huts, Eddie thinks he sees a small shadow move, but his unit forces him out before he can be sure. All his life, Eddie feels consumed by a darkness, and tries to convince himself nobody was in the hut. In heaven, Eddie is overcome with guilt to realize that the shadow he saw was Tala. Tala then teaches Eddie that he was supposed to be at Ruby Pier all along, keeping children safe to redeem himself for killing Tala.
Tala Quotes in The Five People You Meet in Heaven
The The Five People You Meet in Heaven quotes below are all either spoken by Tala or refer to Tala. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Hachette Books edition of The Five People You Meet in Heaven published in 2006.
Chapter 35
Quotes
He was nothing now, a leaf in the water, and she pulled him gently, through shadow and light, through shades of blue and ivory and lemon and black, and he realized all these colors, all along, were the emotions of his life.
Related Symbols:
Color and Darkness
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Tala Character Timeline in The Five People You Meet in Heaven
The timeline below shows where the character Tala appears in The Five People You Meet in Heaven. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 33
...full of dark-skinned children, and no adults are there. On a hill, Eddie sees a young girl waving toward him. Suddenly, he finds himself standing in front of her.
(full context)
Chapter 35
In heaven, the little girl by the river introduces herself as Tala. She invites Eddie to sit with her on a mat. She tells him the Tagalog...
(full context)
...in shock, but asks her questions to find out what happened. In broken, childlike English, Tala tells him she was hiding from soldiers in a hut, because her mother told her...
(full context)
Tala picks up a stone, and tells Eddie “You wash me.” Reluctant and unsure, he follows...
(full context)
...and he again remembers the little girl, “Amy or Annie,” at Ruby Pier. He asks Tala if was able to pull her out of the way. Tala explains that he didn’t...
(full context)
The river now rises above Eddie, and all the children but Tala disappear. Eddie feels himself letting go of all the pain of his life. Guided by...
(full context)
