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 drives his taxi on the hottest day of the year. His air conditioning is broken, and his customers complain. Ed remembers he has Lua’s lucky stone in his pocket and feels happy despite the annoyances. When Ed returns his taxi to the company lot, he runs into Audrey. She wants to talk to him, but he notices her boyfriend waiting for her and leaves. He walks the Doorman to the next address on the card and thinks about how Audrey’s boyfriend probably doesn’t appreciate her beauty like he does.
Ed’s opinion that the boyfriend doesn’t appreciate Audrey’s beauty implies that he believes he has earned the right to be with Audrey through his appreciation of her. This shows that Ed still believes one should be able to achieve romantic success by working hard. But of course, the fact that Audrey still rejects him shows the flaw in this view of romance.
Themes
Ed buys an order of French fries on the way to the address. When he arrives at the address, he realizes that it’s a small Italian restaurant. Ed sits on a bench across the street and watches the restaurant, but nothing seems to happen there that night. He returns to the restaurant every night after that, but still sees nothing he needs to fix.
Ed’s failure to determine what his purpose is at this address suggests that helping others involves deeper investigation and, perhaps, personal introspection as well. Issues in need of help, this scene suggests, can be more subtle than the dramatic, obvious problems one might suspect.
Themes
One night when Ed returns from the restaurant, Audrey is waiting for him on his front porch. When he asks her why she’s there, she says that she’s missed him. She says he “used to just be” but now he is somebody. She feels a distance between them now, because he has begun to improve himself. Ed realizes Audrey felt more comfortable with him when he was more ordinary and less confident, because back then he would never have expressed his feelings for her.
The distance Audrey now feels from Ed shows how improving oneself and complicating one’s life by caring for others may cause changes in one’s relationships. However, it seems that such changes can ultimately lead to deeper, more meaningful connections, since Ed and Audrey have never had such a candid conversation before.
Themes
Ed feels the lucky stone in his pocket. He considers how Audrey says he’s changed. He agrees that the old version of himself is gone, and now he lives a new life with purpose. He knows this transformation should make him happy, because he always wanted to change himself, but instead he feels sad.
The language here refers back to the bank robber’s comment that Ed is a “dead man.” Ed isn’t literally dead, but in a sense, a part of him died when he became a better person. This idea indicates that finding one’s purpose can be a valuable source of personal transformation, but that transformation can nonetheless be painful.
Themes
Get the entire I Am the Messenger LitChart as a printable PDF.
Ed tells Audrey that they should get drunk and she agrees. He asks her what else she was doing before coming over. She says she was having sex with her boyfriend, but after he left, she just felt empty. Ed reasons with himself that he could be happy just providing Audrey with emotional support. They continue to drink. Later, Audrey asks Ed if he hates her. Ed says that he does. They laugh, but then Audrey says she doesn’t blame him.
The emptiness Audrey feels shows how, contrary to Ed’s beliefs, sexual success does not necessarily add meaning to one’s life. Their conversation reveals how both characters use each other (Audrey uses Ed for emotional support and Ed uses Audrey for the promise of sexual success), suggesting that the obstacle in their relationship is a lack of understanding and genuine appreciation of each other.
Themes
Ed falls asleep on the couch and wakes up to someone at his front door. He opens the door to find the young man who led him to the stones of home standing in front of him. He looks annoyed. He tells Ed to return to the restaurant tomorrow at 8 pm, and to hurry up, because he has other business to take care of. Ed asks him again whom he works for. The young man tells Ed that he “might not be the only one getting aces in the mail.” Then the man disappears.
The young man’s comments suggest that the mission of the cards extends beyond Ed’s life. This shows how the mission of helping others holds a greater purpose than just one individual’s life. This also suggests that perhaps everyone has a moral obligation to play a role in the higher purpose of helping others; Ed might not be such an anomaly after all.
Themes
After the young man leaves, Audrey follows Ed to bed and begs him to tell her about what he has been doing. He tells her about Milla and Sophie, but then realizes she has already fallen asleep. He continues to tell her about the rest of the people he has helped anyway. Ed feels happy as he falls asleep.
Ed believes that helping others is beautiful and inspiring, so he believes sharing these stories will comfort and uplift Audrey. This shows how helping others can create even greater good beyond just the person who is initially helped.
Themes
