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Bernie Price
The bank robber holds up the bank with Ed and his friends in it at the beginning of the novel. He has red hair and, according to Ed, is extremely ugly. Ed commits a seemingly heroic act by stopping the bank robber from escaping, and the robber is sentenced to six months in jail. He threatens Ed by saying that he is a “dead man.” At the end of the novel, the robber gets into Ed’s cab as a customer and instructs him to drive past all the addresses Ed visited in his mission. This reveals that every event in the novel, including the failed bank robbery, was orchestrated by the man with the cards. The bank robber says being arrested and going to jail was worth it because the mission has completely changed Ed’s life for the better.
The Bank Robber Quotes in I Am the Messenger
The I Am the Messenger quotes below are all either spoken by The Bank Robber or refer to The Bank Robber . 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:
).
4 of Diamonds Quotes
You’re a dead man. I hear his voice again, and I see the words on my face when I get back in the cab and look in the rearview mirror.
It makes me think of my life, my nonexistent accomplishments and my overall abilities in incompetence.
A dead man, I think. He’s not far wrong.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Bank Robber Character Timeline in I Am the Messenger
The timeline below shows where the character The Bank Robber appears in I Am the Messenger. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Ace of Diamonds: The Holdup
Ed and everyone else in the bank can tell that the robber is hopelessly bad at committing robbery. What’s worse, according to Ed, is the fact that...
(full context)
Angry and undeterred by the bank robber’s threats, Marv continues to argue with Ed about the car and eventually shouts at the...
(full context)
Ed feels sorry for the bank teller, whose nametag reads Misha, as the robber points the gun at her. As Marv and Ed continue to bicker, the bank robber...
(full context)
The bank robber threatens to shoot Ed, who chastises Marv for calling attention to him. The bank robber...
(full context)
The bank robber asks which one of the hostages is Ed, and Ed points at Marv. Marv, unafraid...
(full context)
Suddenly, the robber sees the police arrive and his getaway car speed off. The robber responds by demanding...
(full context)
Ed hears sirens. The robber, uninjured but now caught, collapses. Ed feels sorry for the robber and the series of...
(full context)
4 of Diamonds: The Judge and the Mirror
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...
(full context)
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...
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5 of Diamonds: Watching, Waiting, Raping
The bank robber is only sentenced to six months in jail. Ed tries to ignore the robber’s death...
(full context)
Joker: The End is Not the End
The robber instructs Ed to drive past each address he went to for the mission. Lastly, they...
(full context)
