Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Messenger, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Selfishness vs. the Collective Good
Youth, Memory, and the Future
Humans and Nature
Identity and Difference
Summary
Analysis
One morning, Leader summons Matty to run messages. Matty loves going to Leader's homeplace, as Leader has a spiral staircase and more books in one place than Matty has seen anywhere else. He has stories, history books, and books with paintings of landscapes, battles, and of "a woman holding a newborn child." Once, when Matty asked about a book written in Greek, Leader explained that Mentor was teaching him some Greek, since Leader couldn't learn things like that in his old village. Leader explained that two years after he left, a river barge arrived filled with crates of books. He'd been afraid that his old village was still looking for him and would want to put him to death, but when he saw the books, he knew it was changing and getting better. Matty asked why Leader never went back, and Leader said that this is his home now.
The mention of a painting of a mother and child is a nod to classic Christian imagery of the virgin Mary and baby Jesus. This foreshadows Matty's later sacrifice to Forest in an extremely Christ-like fashion. Leader's elevation of books and his desire to look at them as a symbol of progress suggests that within the world of the novel, education and knowledge are the only things that allow people to truly know who they are and understand how and why they should make decisions that serve the common good. In other words, Village desires a knowledgeable and therefore fully informed and willing populace.
Themes
Matty admires Leader's books and bounds up the stairs when Leader calls him. With a smile, Leader asks Matty how the fishing is and confirms that Matty has been fishing for the entire six years he's lived in Village. Matty stiffens; he doesn't want to be given the true name Fisherman. Leader laughs, and Matty explains that he doesn't want fishing to be anything more than a fun thing to do. Leader explains that he's trying to assess the food supply, as there are rumors that there aren't as many fish now as there used to be.
The fear that Matty experiences at possibly being named Fisherman reinforces how much he identifies now with his role as Village's messenger. This also suggests that as integrated into Village as Matty is, he still believes, at least on a personal level, that there's a hierarchy of jobs and things that people can do for the community—and as far as he's concerned, fishing isn't especially high on the list.
Themes
Matty looks over Leader's tally of salmon and trout caught from the river and says that he remembers pulling many fish out of the river as a boy. He says that he was little then, and points out that when you're little, it always seems like things are bigger, farther, and more than they do when you're an adult. As an example, Matty says that while it's true the journey to his old settlement takes days, it doesn't seem to take as long now that he's bigger. Leader considers this thoughtfully and then gives Matty messages about an upcoming meeting. As he leaves, he tells Leader the proper way to catch a fish, which makes Leader laugh.
Matty's insight shows that he's thinking critically and often about what it means to grow up and look at the world in a different way. As the novel progresses, Matty will possibly be more willing to truly consider the information that comes to him and use it to make well thought out decisions—a result of the fact that Village wants its citizens to be critical and educated. The fact that Leader has heard complaints about not enough food also foreshadows the push to close Village to outsiders.
Themes
Matty spends most of the day delivering the messages. He thinks about how much he likes carrying messages to his old village, as there, he gets to snub people who were cruel to him. Matty reads the notices as he delivers them and realizes why Leader questioned him about the supply of fish: people want to vote to close Village to outsiders. When Matty reads this to Seer later, Seer points out that they just voted on this a year ago. Matty notes that there's plenty of food, and Seer says that while they'll cite dwindling resources, this is a matter of selfishness creeping into Village. This startles Matty, both because Village was founded on selflessness and because Mentor is the one spearheading the movement to close the border.
Again, Matty's little thrill at being able to snub people who were once cruel to him reminds the reader that while Matty is the novel's hero, he's not entirely without fault—he still likes feeling superior. However, he also possesses the capacity to understand that in order to properly serve Village and work for the common good, it's important to understand Village's history and the way that things could be if Village didn't focus so much on the common good. It’s clear that something fundamental has changed about Mentor if he is suddenly acting in such an uncharacteristically selfish way.
Themes
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Matty obediently cooks and says that Mentor isn't selfish. Mentor accepts everyone at school and teaches them all the same, and Seer agrees. Seer then asks if Mentor has traded. Matty thinks and says that he stops by often, and doesn't see anything different there—Mentor doesn't have a Gaming Machine. Seer doesn't laugh. He says that this is about more than Gaming Machines.
Matty believes that an adult's identity is static, rather than capable of changing just like his is. This again speaks to his immaturity. Seer’s grim response implies that there is something very sinister going on regarding trading, and that somehow trading has made Mentor change for the worse.
Themes
