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Chapter Nine
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
The meeting proceeds as meetings usually do. Leader reads the petition and one by one, the people of Village stand to speak while the newcomers, including the woman and Vladik, stand and watch. Matty stands with the adults and pays close attention. He notices that something horrible is happening, and he realizes that he couldn't see people in the dim light of Trade Mart. In daylight, Matty notices that Ramon and his sister both look very ill, and when his sister coughs, Ramon's mother shakes her and tells her to be quiet. As people speak, Matty can identify who has traded and who hasn't. Those who have traded say that "we" shouldn't have to share resources anymore, while those who haven't traded speak of Village's history and how welcoming it is.
Though Matty hasn't entirely put two and two together yet, the illness that Ramon and his sister experience comes from trading, just like the illness that killed Frolic's littermates did. This shows that the selfishness espoused by Mentor has dire consequences and is, in some ways, a very literal illness affecting Village. The things that villagers say here show that because of their selfishness, they now fear difference. Even if they do close Village now, it won't be as kind as it always was, given that many no longer believe in the ideals it promoted.
Themes
Seer speaks about being cared for for months by people in Village until he was able to live independently. Seer also speaks on Matty's behalf, and Matty is thrilled to hear Seer refer to Matty as his boy. He says that Matty used to lie and steal but now, Matty is a model citizen and will soon receive his true name. Matty half hopes that Leader will call him up now to give him his true name, Messenger. This doesn't happen. Instead, Matty's neighbor, a woman who made clothes for him when he first arrived, says that if they close Village, they won't have to deal with dirty, thieving kids like Matty anymore. She'd been gentle when he was a child but now, she has a fancy sewing machine. Matty knows she traded for it. People begin to chant to close Village.
Again, the way that Matty's neighbor speaks about him and others like him as "dirty" and "thieving" shows that in order to justify closing Village, she feels compelled to dehumanize newcomers and make them more difficult to sympathize with. While Matty's transformation is a clear signal to a compassionate person that bringing in outsiders and teaching them to behave properly in Village does good things for everyone, dehumanizing Matty suggests that he's an outlier, not a normal newcomer representative of many others.
Themes
After people finalize the vote to close Village, Matty and Seer walk home. Matty tries to make light of things and says that he'll probably get to travel a lot to give messages to other villages. He says that Leader knows lots of things, and Seer says that Leader "sees beyond." It's his special gift, and it makes Matty think of his own strange power. He asks if all people who have a gift have the same one, and asks if Seer’s ability to walk is a gift. Laughing, Seer says he learned to walk because everyone in Village helped him when he first arrived. Seer says that his daughter Kira also has a gift. He sits down, and urgently says that the border is closing in three weeks, and he needs Matty to go to Kira's village and bring her back.
While it doesn't occur to Matty here, it's worth considering that if Village closes, his role as a messenger might also come to an end—it's implied later that Mentor thinks that if a person leaves, they shouldn't be allowed back in. This shows that even Matty and what he feels is his true identity are in danger because of this new policy. It affects everyone and damages everyone, whether they're involved in it, believe in it, or reject it.
Themes
