I Am The Messenger

by Markus Zusak

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What is the message in I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak?

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Ed's identity is in question throughout the novel, particularly as he tries to deliver the messages. He begins to change and realize what he wants in life and how he fits into the world around him.

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The message is that an ordinary individual is capable of extraordinary achievements but only if they are willing pursue those achievements. Ed gets his fifteen minutes of fame after he foils a robbery. However, he goes back to his ordinary life after the fame dies down. Shortly after, he starts getting messages in his mailbox in the form of playing cards. Each card arrives with visits that he should make.

The messages involved rescuing people in distress. Although Ed is not coerced to take part in the rescue efforts, he finds himself helping those he has been sent to help. According to him, he believes that by helping out he is only delivering the message. He, however, does not know that all his efforts are shaping him into an extraordinary individual. Audrey notices the change in Ed and states “Now you’re somebody."

Toward the end of the story, Ed...

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gets an opportunity to understand why his mother hates him, and he is able to clear his conscience. He manages to help his close friends and rise above his own expectations. Ed realizes that he is the message of hope because he makes the decision to help others and himself.

I did it because you are the epitome of ordinariness, Ed . . . and if a guy like you can stand up and do what you did for all those people, well, maybe everyone can . . . Maybe even I can.

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Markus Zusak's I Am the Messenger tells the story of teenage taxi driver Ed Kennedy, who is labeled a hero by the media after accidentally foiling an attempted robbery. Soon after this occurs, he receives an envelope in the mail with three addresses, dates, and times, as well as the ace of diamonds. He decides to go to the addresses at the times listed and finds a man raping his wife, a senile widow, and a young girl who runs every morning but consistently loses her track meets. In response, he kidnaps the rapist, encourages the young runner, and begins visiting the widow every week because she believes he is her late husband. After completing this list he begins receiving even more cards and addresses in the mail, and continues visiting people and solving their problems for several more cycles. The story ends with Ed meeting the man who claims to be responsible for everything that has happened, strongly implied to be the author, Markus Zusak. The book closes with Ed stating that he is "not the messenger at all—I'm the message."

Essentially, what this means is that Ed navigated his own story viewing himself acting on the will of others, delivering aid and justice because he was ordered to by those sending the cards. However, it was Ed himself who made the decision to help those people, and he was the one who carried it out. This is why the book ends with Ed realizing he is not just a "messenger," sent to deliver a predetermined message to people—he is the one creating the message himself, by choosing how to respond to the problems he sees.

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What are some themes in Markus Zusak's I Am the Messenger?

Markus Zusak's novel I Am the Messenger presents several themes worth exploring. These themes and others work together to reveal the complex understanding at the novel's end that Ed's is a message worthy to be shared. 

The first theme has to do with the disappointment that occurs when one realizes their dreams may never be obtained. Ed learns over the course of the novel that one may not find true love, that the world can be harsh, and that things may not work out in the end. Disappointment plays out not only through Ed's journey of delivering the messages but through learning the backstory of his family and falling for Audrey.

A second theme of the novel is Ed's identity crisis.  At the start of the novel, Ed has few aspirations and takes little value in his life:

Inside, I laugh. Me? A saint? I list what I am. Taxi driver. Local deadbeat. Cornerstone of mediocrity. Sexual midget. Pathetic card player.

As he works to deliver the messages, Ed struggles to determine whether his identity is changing in a way that is valuable to him, or if he is simply becoming who the cards tell him to be.

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