Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in I Am the Messenger, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Circumstance vs. Choice
Heroism, Sainthood, and Ordinariness
Purpose, Success, and Meaning
Hope, Caring, and Beauty
Summary
Analysis
A few days pass without a card arriving. Ed visits the abusive man’s house, but he’s nowhere to be found. Ed feels guilty, wondering if the man is okay and if he made the right decision by not killing him. One night, Ed returns from playing cards and his house smells like pie baking in the oven. He sees a man in the kitchen, wearing a mask and eating a pie. The last thing Ed remembers is realizing there’s another man standing behind him.
Ed’s concern for the abusive man, despite his significant flaws, shows how caring for others has changed Ed into a generally more empathetic person. On the flip side, the presence of the mysterious and seemingly violent men in Ed’s house hints that a life dedicated to helping others will involve higher stakes and greater sacrifice than one might expect.
Themes
Ed wakes up to the Doorman licking his bloody face. He is lying on his kitchen floor, and his head hurts too much to move. He drifts into unconsciousness before someone begins dragging him across the floor. His vision begins to focus on the two men in front of him. The men complain about the Doorman’s smell, as Ed begs them not to hurt his dog. The men assure him they won’t hurt his pitiful excuse for a guard dog, as they continue to eat pies they stole from Ed’s fridge.
The men’s violence shows the high sacrifice one may have to make in order to undertake a mission of helping others. However, the absurdity of the men eating pies while beating Ed up and their refusal to hurt the dog show that the outside force behind Ed’s mission is not entirely malevolent.
Themes
Ed asks the men who sent them. The men say they don’t know; they just do what they are paid to do. When Ed complains that he doesn’t get paid, one of the men slaps him and tells him to stop complaining, because they all must make sacrifices for the “greater good of mankind.” Ed whines about not getting a pie and the man slaps him again and tells him to grow up. The men chat causally between themselves about their masks, addressing each other as Daryl and Keith. Ed joins in and can feel a camaraderie growing between the three of them.
Since the men are in a similar situation to Ed, where they receive instructions without knowing who sent them, this scene suggests that the mission to help others involves more than just one individual acting alone. The camaraderie Ed feels with these men, who previously seemed threatening, shows how working together for the idea of a “greater good” can unite previously separated individuals.
Themes
Daryl and Keith decide the time has come for them to leave, so they take find Ed’s gun and hand Ed an envelope. Before they go, Daryl says that he has been instructed to tell Ed that he’s been doing a good job so far. Daryl says, though he knows he is not allowed to, that he and Keith know Ed did not kill the abusive man. Then he punches Ed in the stomach and leaves. Ed falls on the floor and passes out from pain.
Daryl saying that Ed is doing a good job emphasizes that Ed is making the moral choice by making sacrifices for the sake of helping others. Daryl’s knowledge that Ed did not kill anyone suggests all Ed’s actions are being watched, which adds to the tension surrounding the question of whether Ed’s mission is part of fate or part of someone else’s plan.
Themes
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