The Messenger (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Charles Wright
- First Published: 1963
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: The late 1950’s and early 1960’s
- Setting: New York City
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Autobiographical fiction
- Subjects: 1950’s, African Americans, 1960’s, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Gay men, Homosexuality or homosexuals, Sex or sexuality, Authors or writers, New York City, Prostitution or prostitutes, Religion, Friendship, Midwest, Substance abuse, Veterans, Grandparents or grandchildren, Drug addiction or addicts, Depression, mental, Missouri
- Locales: New York, NY
Characters Discussed
Charlie Stevenson, the protagonist, an introspective twenty-nine-year-old African American veteran of the Korean War. He lives in the subterranean junkie world of New York City. Although he works as a messenger for a service in Rockefeller Center, his passion is for reading great literature with the hope of one day producing his own written works. Born in Sedalia, a small Missouri town, he was reared by his maternal grandparents after his mother died; his father had abandoned the family earlier. Charlie has spent his life since the age of fourteen wandering...
[The entire page is 915 words long]
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