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
Ed receives a subpoena to testify about the bank robbery. When he arrives at court, he sees the robber looking even uglier and more hopeless than before. The robber glares at him until Ed looks away. Ed takes the stand and testifies against the robber. As Ed leaves the stand, the robber whispers that Ed is now a “dead man.”
Ed’s summons to court and the robber’s threats show that there are serious consequences to the kind of rash, dramatic heroism Ed practiced by stopping the bank robber. Calling Ed a “dead man” also represents how the singular event of the bank robbery changed Ed’s life; in a sense, his old self really is dead.
Themes
A policewoman at the courthouse tells Ed not to worry about the robber’s threats. She suspects that a man as pitiful as the robber will be so scared of jail, he won’t risk committing another crime. But as Ed drives his cab away and sees himself in the rearview mirror, he thinks that, considering his life thus far, he basically is a dead man already.
Ed’s assessment of himself as essentially dead shows his perspective that if one is not succeeding in their career or in gaining the respect of others, they are not truly living life. As before, Ed characterizes his life as essentially meaningless because he is not successful by society’s standards.
Themes
