Previous
Chapter Six
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Messenger, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Selfishness vs. the Collective Good
Youth, Memory, and the Future
Humans and Nature
Identity and Difference
Summary
Analysis
Just after supper, Matty joins the crowd hurrying toward Trade Mart. Matty greets his neighbors and they greet him in return, but the atmosphere is intent and serious. Matty thinks it doesn't feel right, especially when he realizes that people are whispering nervously. He joins a group standing near a platform and stands next to Mentor, hoping that Jean will come. Mentor greets Matty affectionately and when Matty says he has nothing to trade, Mentor says that everyone has something to trade. Matty notices that Mentor has lost weight. He tries to shift the conversation to Jean and mentions the puppy, and Mentor laughs and says that Matty needs to take the puppy soon, as he's getting destructive.
Mentor's insistence that everyone has something to trade seems especially ominous, given that Matty has already clued the reader in on the fact that people can trade away intangible things. It's also telling that Mentor needs Matty to take the puppy—the way Matty has previously described Mentor would suggest that he'd take a naughty puppy in stride. This creates more evidence that somehow, Mentor is changing and becoming a different person.
Themes
For a moment, things seem normal and cheerful. Then, Matty wonders why people are here, as nobody seems to have anything to trade. He notices that some couples appear to be arguing. Then the tall man named Trademaster walks to the stage. Matty knows that he came, already named, from somewhere else and brought trading to Village. He stops at houses after Trade Mart to check on trades. Tonight, he carries a thick book. Everyone stands at attention as Trademaster announces the start of Trade Mart. A woman begins to cry, and several people lead her away, but Matty notices that few people look in her direction. Mentor's face looks different, and he's focused on Trademaster. When Trademaster asks who's going first, Mentor frantically calls out and shoves his way to the front of the crowd.
While the novel overwhelmingly suggests that immigration, new points of view, and new customs are good and necessary, Trademaster's arrival (and the fact that trading is the real antagonist of the novel) suggests that there is reason to be cautious about what exactly becomes a part of the accepting culture's mainstream. In this case, Trademaster seems to be distracting everyone from what Matty believes is the most important part of Village—looking out for others—and instead, encourages them to be more selfish and individualistic.
Themes
When Matty gets home after Trade Mart, he tells Seer what happened. Mentor went first and stepped onto the stage after pushing everyone aside. Seer looks concerned and says that the few times he went to watch, people called out, laughed, and teased. Matty says that people seem nervous now, and says that when a person stood next to Trademaster, Trademaster asked them, "trade for what." Mentor answered that he wanted "same as before," and everyone laughed in an odd, knowing way. Matty says that whatever Mentor is getting, it has to do with Stocktender's widow. She blushed and said to her friends that Mentor needs to trade more.
The response of Stocktender's widow suggests that if trading is truly what's causing people to become callous and cruel, she's also been involved. It seems clear that Mentor is trading to impress her, which suggests that at this point, both of them value trade and obtaining whatever intangible thing that trading gets them over valuing each other as they are, or valuing the community for its numerous flaws and differences.
Themes
Matty says that Trademaster seemed to agree and wrote something in his book. Then he asked, "Trade away what?" This time, Mentor whispered his answer to Trademaster so nobody could hear. For everyone who traded, Matty says, their first answer was loud and public, and their second was secret. Sometimes, the crowd jeered at a person, and Ramon's mother wasn't allowed to trade for a fur jacket. Restlessly, Seer asks Matty to make tea and confirms the verbal exchange people went through with Trademaster. Matty suggests he steal Trademaster's book, but then apologizes for wanting to steal.
This communal act of talking about secrets shows Matty that whatever's going on, it's clear that secrecy is permeating every aspect of Village. Matty is still a good person, as evidenced by his remorse for wanting to steal, but everyone else who's now keeping secrets in a public way is suggested to be somehow morally compromised. This indicates that while trading is the vehicle for this corruption, the real problem is the secrecy and selfishness.
Themes
Get the entire Messenger LitChart as a printable PDF.
Seer asks if anyone got things to take away, and Matty answers that some people were given delivery times. One woman got a Gaming Machine, and Matty makes one final plea for a Gaming Machine of his own. Seer ignores this and asks if people who traded looked different when Trade Mart was over. Matty says he wasn't paying attention; he was tired and uncomfortable. Seer asks about the person who got the Gaming Machine. Matty says it's the woman who lives near the marketplace. As she left, she was walking with her friends while her husband, who has a limp, walked behind. Matty thinks of his puppy and remembers something. He says that the woman is usually nice to her husband, but as she left, she scolded her husband for being slow and made fun of how he walks. Disturbed, Seer begins to walk toward bed. Matty says that Mentor's birthmark is now gone.
Matty's youth comes up again when, despite all he's seen at Trade Mart, he still wants a Gaming Machine and at least on some level, feels that whatever people are trading is worth it to get a fun and exciting toy. His disturbing story of the woman making fun of her husband draws a clear connection between trading and becoming less invested in caring for others, even those whom a person should in theory love above all else, like a spouse. Mentor's absent birthmark suggests that he's trading for conventional physical attractiveness—in other words, he no longer values difference.
Themes
