I Am the Messenger Themes

At the beginning of I Am the Messenger, Markus Zusak’s 2002 novel, main character Ed Kennedy wallows in discontent with his life. He is frustrated with his dead-end career as a taxi driver in a hopeless suburban town and his lack of a love life, but cannot seem to improve his life due to his innate ineptitude. However, fate appears to offer Ed an opportunity when he stumbles upon a bank robbery that he…

Ed Kennedy, a 19-year-old cab driver with no ambition or close personal relationships, feels like the heroism and sainthood others have attained are impossible for a person as ordinary as himself. However, after Ed embarks on a mission of doing good deeds for strangers, those he helps begin to view him as a hero or a saint. When the man who gave Ed his mission arrives at the end of the novel, he reveals…

Ed believes his community to be generally hopeless, because in his opinion, everyone in his neighborhood is self-centered. However, after Ed receives his mission to help others through a series of playing cards with unknown origins, he begins to notice the beauty of how other people express caring for others. He also inspires hope himself by showing others his care for them. Ed begins to see the beauty in his community and his life through…