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King 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 and Audrey walk home late at night. The only other person outside is a young man on a bench, but when Ed looks back at him, he has disappeared. Audrey says something to Ed, but he cannot hear her over the sound of heartbeats in his head. He knows the young man he just saw was the one who left the card in the theater.
Ed’s paranoia and his certainty that the stranger is involved with the cards shows how when one believes their life is determined by outside forces, one will ascribe seemingly unrelated happenings to those outside forces.
Themes
Ed wakes up the next morning and looks at the card on the floor. He assures himself that this is the last card, before falling back asleep. Ed dreams of driving away alone, like the hero at the end of the movie. Ed wakes up and picks the card up off the floor. He sees three movie titles listed on the card. He wants to start on solving the mystery, but he focuses on work until Christmas. He carries the card with him and wonders if the mission will ever end. He fears he will always be haunted by memories of the cards, but he is even more afraid he will be thankful for the mission even after it is over.
Here Ed envisions himself as a hero, representing a shift in his self-deprecation from before. This change shows how helping others can lead people to become more confident in themselves. What’s more, it’s clear that Ed still believes in the idea of traditional heroism, where an individual commits extraordinary acts all by themselves, but at the same time, he starts to intuit that it’s actually connecting with all the people he’s helped that’s going to make a lasting difference in his life.
Themes
Ed decides to give out Christmas cards, so he takes the aces from old decks of playing cards and writes notes to each family he has met since receiving the first card. He prays he will run into Sophie, because she is unsuccessful like he is (in her running, anyway) and also because she is beautiful. She comes out of her house as he is putting the card in her mailbox and reads the card, where he wrote that she’s beautiful. She asks him what she can give him in return for all he has given her, but he says, “I’ve given you nothing.”
Ed saying “I’ve given you nothing” references giving Sophie the empty shoe box, but it also suggests that one can help another person not by giving them anything new, but instead by helping them realize the strengths they already possess.
Themes
Ed delivers his last Christmas card to Father O’Reilly. He tells the Father he has been busy with his mission. He feels upset over the fact that the final card is the Ace of Hearts because, according to Ed, hearts are dangerous. The Father assures Ed he will be okay, but Ed knows he will never be just okay anymore. After delivering the cards, Ed returns to driving his taxi. Still, all he can hear is the sound of heartbeats.
Ed’s associations of hearts with danger shows how caring for others exposes individuals to vulnerability. Ed’s desire to never be “just okay” again shows how finding a purpose, as Ed has in helping others, means that one will experience intense joys and intense sadness instead of simply being fine. These deep emotions, Ed implies, are preferable to stagnation and neutrality.
Themes
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