Previous
9 of Spades
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 pays for his meal, but Ma is too focused on her date to notice her own son. So, Ed walks to her house and waits on her front porch. Eventually, he falls asleep. He wakes up to Ma asking what he is doing there. He asks her if she had a nice time on her date. She responds that she is a grown woman with needs, before she steps over Ed to go inside her home.
Ed’s mocking of Ma, when she has seemingly done nothing wrong by being an adult single woman gong on a date, and Ma’s blanket dismissal of Ed suggest that both characters need to have greater empathy in order to help each other.
Themes
Ed thinks about how he is the only one of the siblings Ma won’t invite into her house. Before she can shut him out again, he asks her why she hates him. She answers that she hates him because he reminds her of his father, before shutting the door on him. Ed believes that nothing else that’s happened to him, not even being beat up, hurts as much as what she just said. Ed falls to the floor in devastation. He shouts to his Ma inside that he won’t leave without talking to her.
The hurtfulness of Ma comparing Ed to his father emphasizes how one can be oppressed by forces beyond their control, such as heredity, But while Ed can’t help that he’s his father’s son, his insistence ] on talking to his mother despite her anger indicates that he does still have power over how he responds to this unfortunate situation.
Themes
Finally, Ma opens her door. Ed tells her that she treats him the worst of all her children, despite the fact that he is the only one who is in town if she ever needs him. Ma says that is exactly why she is angry with him, because he has never left their town. She tells him that his father always promised her he would move the family someplace better, but now both she and Ed are still here. She says that, like his father once did, Ed has a lot of potential to succeed, but he will always waste it. She tells him that she just wants him to accomplish something and the reason she is so angry is because she loves him so much.
Ma’s words reveal how she believes an individual’s life is dictated by their environment; she thinks that the only way Ed can improve himself is by leaving their town. She also emphasizes the idea that the most disappointing kind of life is one where an individual has not achieved their full potential. Meanwhile, her anger—which she says comes from love—suggests that caring for another person can involve negative emotions.
Themes
Ed looks his mother in the eyes and realizes she doesn’t just hate his father. She also hates herself for never leaving. However, Ed knows that it is not the place which makes a person a failure. It is the person themselves. He also realizes, as she begins to cry, that she was seeing the other man while his father was still alive.
Ed’s recognition of his mother’s self-loathing shows how by confronting one’s issues with another person, one can have greater empathy for that other person. Ed’s newfound belief that he is in charge of whether or not he fails also suggests that helping others has empowered him to take responsibility for his own life.
Themes
Get the entire I Am the Messenger LitChart as a printable PDF.
