Written by: Marcus Zusak

Main CharactersEd Kennedy

AudreyMarv

Ritchie

AwardsCBCA (Children’s Book Council of Australia)

Book of the Year

What we will explore in the Messenger

PlotCharacterisation

DialogueThemes/ideas

SymbolismAllusions

Meta-fictionImagery

Messenger quiz1. Who are Ed’s three best friends?

2. What event starts the book?

3. What order do the cards come in?

4. What order do the cards come in?

5. Who is the man with the briefcase?

The beginning:The story begins with an introduction to the character of Ed Kennedy, a down-and-out underage taxi driver who is in love with his best friend Audrey, who, to his dismay, feels that she cares about him too much to date him. Ed is standing in a bank queue when a robbery takes place. He accidentally foils the robber’s escape, and is proclaimed a hero. Shortly after, he receives an Ace of Diamonds in the mail.

The ending:The last card is a Joker and has his own address written on it. But as it is made clear in the last lines of the novel it's all about the realization of chances and potential because as Ed finally says: "I'm not the messenger at all. I'm the message." We learn that the person sending the cards was Zusak himself. Ed was the 'guinea pig' of an experiment to see if an ordinary (very unsuccessful) man could perform the impossible and give hope to the world that this generation is not useless. As the book comes to a close, Audrey comes to Ed and reveals that she does love him, deciding to move in with him for good.

Plot

He completes the tasks; some difficult, some easy until he has worked his way through the 4 Aces.

Theme!Recognising the extraordinary in the

ordinary.

We all have something extraordinary about us, no matter where we are from or who we are.

We all have the potential to be extraordinary, it’s about taking hold of your life and making changes, while also taking pleasure in the

little things.

Be kind, be active, take risks, don’t be a bystander. Ed’s life changes when he stops being a bystander and stops blaming other people for

his own failures.

Success doesn’t always consist of commonly acknowledged achievements. Just small things…which are big.

What does this mean?

I AM THE MESSENGER

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

ED KENNEDY Ed Kennedy is the epitome of ordinary; an underage cabdriver who has “no real career. No respect in the community. Nothing.” Ed lives in a cheaply rented shack with no one except his foul-smelling dog. He plays cards regularly with his three friends, and by his own admission is not very good at doing that either.

At nineteen . . . • At nineteen, Bob Dylan

was a seasoned performer in Greenwich Village, New York.

• Salvador Dali had already produced several outstanding artworks of paint and rebellion.

• Joan of Arc was the most wanted woman in the world . . . Having created a revolution.

• Underage Cab driver• No real career• No respect in the

community• Nothing

ED KENNEDY

How does Ed see himself?• “I haven’t written a song of Dylan proportions yet, or started

painting my first attempt at surrealism, and I doubt I could start a revolution if I tried – because apart from everything else, I’m a bit of an unfit bastard.” P21

• “You’re a dead man… it makes me think of my life, my nonexistant accomplishments and my overall abilities in incompetence. A dead man, I think. He’s not far wrong.” P 39

• “’Are you some kind of saint or something?’ Inside I laugh. Me? A saint? I list what I am. Taxi driver. Local deadbeat. Cornerstone of mediocrity. Sexual midget. Pathetic cardplay… ‘No, I’m not a saint…I’m just another stupid human.” P74

Before Ed receives the first card in the mail, he admits that his life is not full of worth. He is dissatisfied is not bothered to change; surrounding himself with people that will not push him to become a better person.

The gunman calls Ed a ‘dead man’ which we take to be a threat. However, the gunman is actually talking about Ed’s current state. Ed is a “dead man” in that he lives a life void of meaning, is lazy and has no aspirations.

It’s what we do with the hand that’s dealt to us

‘There’s an aura to this card, and it’s been give to me. Not to Dickhead Ed. To me – the real Ed Kennedy. The future Ed Kennedy. No longer simply a cab-driving hopeless case . . . Who will I be?’

Ed choses not to do anything about Edgar street for a while, he hopes that it will work itself out.

Why do you think Ed is leaving this house for a while?

What does this say about his character?

“I feel like you’re slipping away somehow. You’ve become different since this all started . . . now your somebody. Ed. I don’t know everything you’ve been done and what you’ve been through, but I don’t know – you seem further away now.” – pg. 231

Twelve messages delivered. Four aces have been completed. This feels like the greatest day of my life. I’m alive, I think. I won. I feel freedom for the first time in months, and an air of contentedness wanders next to me all the way home . . .I don’t know why I feel it, but any contentedness vanishes from me . . . Pg. 336

We soon realise that although Ed has helped his friends there is still one more person Ed must help . . . himself. Ed has had some meaning injected into his life by helping others, bit now he must work on himself.

“I did it because you are the epitome of ordinariness, Ed.”

“If a guy like you can stand up and do what you did, then maybe everyone can. Maybe everyone can live beyond what they are capable of.

Ed and Audrey

How does Ed’s attitude towards Audrey shine a light on his character?

How does their relationship develop over the novel?

Ed and his mother

The relationship between Ed and his mother is revealing of Ed’s character and also highlights his development as a character throughout the novel. What was Ed’s attitude towards his mother at the beginning of the book? How does she talk to Ed, and he to her?

The ‘front-porch cyclone’ reveals a change that has occurred in Ed. Ed confronts his mother, asking “Why do you hate me so much?” She replies that Ed reminds her too much of his father. She wishes Ed would make more of his life and wishes he would get out of town. Ed realises though that ‘its not the place . . . It’s the people.’

Ed and his father

Ed could have ended up up just like his father – “ a quarter of what [he] could have been.” There are many similarities between Ed and his father. Ed describes his father in the beginning of the book as a “lonely, kind, quiet, hard-drinking deadbeat . . .he was a furniture deliverer.”

Characterisation - Minor

Milla – “She ate a salad and some soup, and loneliness , she ate that too.” “No other man has entered her life. Not the way her Jimmy did. She’s been waiting years for her Jimmy to come back. And now he has.”

Sophie – “On her face is the beauty of the morning and for the first time she recognises it, 5.30 am.”

The Tatupu family on Glory Road – “Sometimes people are beautiful, not in looks, not in what they say, just in what they are.” “When they laugh you can see the world in their eyes.”

There a number of minor characters which display our theme “recognising the extraordinary in the ordinary” very well.

Why are these three extraordinary?

Milla - Ordinary? Hers is a beautiful story of loyalty and love.

Sophie - Sophie is someone who needed encouragement to be herself. She runs barefoot, and is only herself in those moments. Ordinary? Ed doesn’t think so. He

thinks she has beauty and grace.

Tatupu family - This family have such love for each other they are extraordinary.

These three show us that it is easy for us to dismiss people, this is about “looking closer” seeing the quiet heroes, the potential we all have,

recognising that no-one is ordinary we are all capable of greatness and heroism. Relate to Ed, an educated cab driver who manages to be a hero to

countless people by small, single acts.

That’s so Meta (fiction)Metafiction uses literary techniques to draw attention to itself as a work of art, while exposing the "truth" of a story. "Metafiction" is the literary term describing fictional writing that self-consciously draws attention to its status as a piece of art in posing questions about the relationship between fiction and reality, usually using irony and self-reflection. Metafiction does not let the reader forget he or she is reading a fictional work.

What is metafiction?

Some things that show you a work is a piece of metafiction are when:

A story containing another work of fiction within itself; A book in which the book itself seeks interaction with the reader; A story in which the characters are aware that they are in a story; A novel where the narrator intentionally exposes him or herself as the author of the story; A story about a writer creating a story; A story about a reader reading a book; A story containing another work of fiction within itself.

How many of these aspects does The Messenger contain?

MetafictionA good way to think about it is it’s like the author or character winking at you from within the book. They are “breaking the fourth wall” as they say in theatre. They are acknowledging this is a work of fiction.

Zusak does this for a specific reason that he makes explicit in the end of the book. He creates this world and these characters for a reason… what does he want us to realise by doing this?

He wants us (and Ed) to realise that if even a character as hopeless and useless as Ed Kennedy can change his life, realise his potential, and affect change in other’s lives, than it really is possible for anyone, including the author to do so as well.

Ed is a guinea pig for Zusak to discover the truth about human potential. The potential to be extraordinary that we all have, if we could just realise it and make it happen. By putting himself in his own novel and acknowledging Ed’s role as a character in a book, we see not just Ed’s potential but our own as well. He makes us question our lives and what we have accomplished. Ed is the message, and Zusak the messenger. We are the recipients to that message. We just have to be listening.

The perfect Metafiction quotes

“You are the epitome of ordinariness, Ed… and if a guy like you can stand up and do what you did for all those people, well, maybe everyone can. Maybe everyone can live beyond what they’re capable of… Maybe even I can.” – p 353

How would you explain the importance of these examples?

What do they show us?

“That’s when I realise… I’m not the messenger at all. I’m the message.” – 357

Biblical AllusionDespite seeming to be a no hoper, Ed is forced to play the role of the messenger, the saint and the saviour when he starts receiving the cards. In this way, Ed is like Jesus figure, while the person sending the cards/the author/Zusak is the all knowing, all seeing God.

His acts are not always big, but his small contributions affect change in his own life and others. By helping people in whatever way they need it, he makes his own life extraordinary.

The stories told in this novel are akin to parables. Ed must act the Good Samaritan and help a series of people to find their heart’s desire. But the needs of each are different, and the type of task required is different too.

Question:

Is he saying Ed is a saint? Or is he showing us something else?

Ed the messenger, Ed the saint, Ed the saviour.

Biblical Allusion quotes“The damn card is like gravity itself. Like a cross to strap across my back.” P 113

“You know, they say that there are countless saints who have nothing to do with church and almost no knowledge of God. But they say God walks with those people without them ever knowing it… you’re one of those people, Ed. And it’s an honour to know you.” P 156

“Why have I been chosen for this? I beg, despite knowing without questions what I have to do. You were happy with the other two, I castigate myself. So now you have to do this one.” P 81

“’Are you some kind of saint or something?’ Inside I laugh. Me? A saint? I list what I am. Taxi driver. Local deadbeat. Cornerstone of mediocrity. Sexual midget. Pathetic cardplayer… ‘No, I’m not a saint…I’m just another stupid human.” P 74

ImageryZusak uses the dark/light, day/night imagery repeatedly in the novel.

In the context of our theme and characters, what could that dark/light dichotomy represent?

And what are some examples that show it?

ImageryZusak’s repeated use of light and dark can be seen to represent good and evil as well as Ed movement from no hoper to someone with a purpose. He goes from being someone ordinary to recognising others and his own potential to be extraordinary.

For example, the fact that Ed chooses to face all of his earlier “cards” in the dark is a fact not to be overlooked; as the book progresses and Ed becomes more confident in his missions, more and more of his challenges are dealt with during the day.

Egs: “The sun is up – an orange cutout in a cardboard sky. I make it to the top and kneel down. My hands touch the cool stone.” One could say Zusak uses the idea of reaching the top of the rock face as the sun is rising as a symbol for the perseverance and determination of Ed in the novel.

This could also be seen as a reflection of Ed’s evolving conflicts and character in the novel – once dejected and relatively isolated, the sun is now “rising” from darkness, dawning on a new chapter in his life and possibly revealing the answer to the “cards” themselves.

DARKNESS AND LIGHT QUOTES“We sit in on the front steps, which are half in shadow, half in the sun. As it happens, I sit in the darkness and Tommy sits in the light… I’d wanted to stay on the porch with him until the sun shone bright on both of us, but I didn’t… I’d rather chase the sun than wait for it.” P 282-283

“I meet the darkness and uncertainty of what will come next. I feel the fear, but I walk fast toward it.” P 289

“I cant let him slink off to that darkness place inside him, where his pride is strewn all over the floor in some hidden room.” P 302

“The words stagger slowly from Marv’s mouth. Half his face is trodden with darkness, covered but I can still make out the outlines, the forms.” – p 317

Major Symbols

Symbolism – The playing cardsTalk to your neighbour:

What do playing cards represent in life? What associations do they have with them?

What could they represent in this book? (There may be more than one correct answer.)

Luck – you might have bad luck but you can’t blame it foreverChance

GamblingDoing what you can with the cards you are dealt

Mastering life like you master a game of cardsTaking control – not letting the cards you receive be the end of the story

Where do we see the cards as symbolic?

The card game - Annoyance

The messenger cards

The structure

The suit themselves

AnnoyanceThe 4 friends get together every week to play annoyance. What could this be symbolic of?

(Hint: think about the name…)

The acesClearly the cards themselves are symbolic.

Ed says “I imagine a full hand of aces in that drawer, fanned out as a player would hold them in a game. I never thought I wouldn’t want four aces. In a card game, you pray for a hand like that. My life is not a card game.” 117

An ace is both the highest card and lowest card in the deck.

When Ed is first sent the cards we see he sees himself as the lowest common demoninator in society, the low ace. No prospects.

As the cards and messages progress he shifts his view on himself and begins to recognise his own inherent ability to be extraordinary. The people around him see him as a saint, and while Ed never sees himself like that he does realise he was the one holding himself back from being the high ace.

SuitsIn addition to the overall symbolism of the cards, the suits each have their own symbolism.

Your task: Identify what each suit represents. What was Zusak trying to do with the different meanings of the suits?

Playing cards quotes

“I was lying about throwing out the diamonds. No one in their right mind would throw diamonds out, would they? They’re valuable. If anything, they need protecting.” P70

“I imagine a full hand of aces in that drawer, fanned out as a player would hold them in a game. I never thought I wouldn’t want four aces. In a card game, you pray for a hand like that. My life is not a card game.” [ 117

“Later that night I look in the bathroom mirror. Two black eyes. Swollen jaw. A blood stream flowing to my throat… I stare strangely into the face of clubs.” P 180

“I have to dig. This is spades so I have to dig.” P214

“I remember the diamonds, relive the clubs, and even smile about the spades. I worry about the hearts.” P 280

‘People die of broken hearts.They have heart attacks. And it’s the heart that hurts most when things go wrong and fallapart.’ p 292

“Protect the diamonds. Survive the clubs. Dig deep through the spades. Feel the hearts.”

Symbolism - Ed’s neighbourhood (also

counts as setting)Ed lives is a town near Sydney, Australia. But his suburb could stand in for many in New Zealand, or any Western country, it’s an “every town” like the “everyman” in a virtue and vice story. Meaning it stands in for our own towns and neighbourhoods. It’s “run of the mill”.

“The town we all live in is pretty run of the mill. Its past the outskirts of the city and has good and bad parts. I’m sure it wont surprise you that I come from one of the bad parts. My whole family grew up at the far north of town, which is kind of like everyone’s dirty secret. There are plenty of teenage pregnancies there, a plethora of shithead fathers who are unemployed and mothers like mine who smoke, drink, and go out in public wearing ugboots.” P17

What does the neighbourhood symbolise?

Ed uses his neighbourhood as an excuse for his own failure. He blames it for his lack of motivation and focus.

Don’t use where you come from as an excuse for your ineptitude, your failure. Ed needs to recognise the ordinariness was him, not where he came from.

It’s not the place, I think, it’s the people. We’d have been all the same anywhere else. P 245

The neighbourhood represents our excuses and justifications for why we aren’t living the lives we should be. It allows us to let luck control our lives. Ed realises this and determines he will be better in his own home before leaving.

It also shows us that even in a place like this, heroes and extraordinary people and stories are happening.

“It’s the person, Ma, not the place. If you left here, you’d have been the same anywhere else…. If I ever leave this place.. I’ll make sure I’m better here first.” P 283

Relatable?I’m from Palmerston North, which has very similar associations.

People think if you’re from Palmerston North you’re going to be a pregnant teen, an alcoholic, a school drop out. That you’ll wear ug boots to the supermarket,

smoke around your kids, and sign up for the benefit.

Can anyone relate to this?

What effect does it have if people around you are negative about your community, and you are too?

What message should we take from the novel about where we live and where we come from?

Where could this kind of connection to the text help in terms of essay writing?

Minor symbols

The Christmas Lights are Ed’s way of making the Tatupu family feel acknowledged and welcomed. It’s a small gesture, not heroic or brave, but it means so much to them.

He realises from this act that small things can have a big impact. That the ordinary can be extraordinary and that behind the façade of an ordinary house there can be beauty and something special.

It also shows how a small gesture can mean the world to someone.

“Four globes to brighten up the Tatupu house this year. It’s not a big thing, but I guess it’s true – big things are often just small things that are noticed.” P 221

“This isn’t about words. It’s about glowing lights and small things that are big.” P 221

“Lua kisses her. Just softly on the lips. And she kisses back. Sometimes people are beautiful. Not in looks. Not in what they say. Just in what they are.” P 224

Have a think…. Has anyone ever done something like this for you? It might seem small to them but it made your day/week/year?

Or….Have you ever done some thing like this for someone else? Not for the thanks, or the reward, just to make their day?

If you said no…. Why not? What’s stopping us?

The Invisible Running Shoes

When Ed meets Sophie he can’t figure out what she needs.

When he sees her run, he sees her true beauty. She is happiest when she runs barefoot.

By giving her the invisible shoes he is giving her permission to be extraordinary, to run her races barefoot and enjoy it in the same way she does at 5.30am.

The shoes represent the fact that she had that ability all along, she just needed to be reminded of it. Each message Ed delivers lets him know the same thing.

Angie Carusso’s icecream

Like the Christmas Lights, the icecream is a small gesture that has big effects.

Angie is a solo mum with small children. This is a demanding life with very little recognition.

Of course she loves her children, but in having them she has sacrificed a different possible life.

What does it mean that Ed gives her the icecream? What is he trying to say to her?

Dialogue

“Yes, you’re here – and that’s exactly it!... Look at this dump. The house, the town, everything… your father – he promised me that one day we’d leave this place. He said we’d just pack up and go, and look where we are, Ed. We’re stil her. I’m here. You’re here, and just like your old man, you’re all promises, Ed, and no results… you could be as good as any of them… but you’re still here and you’ll still be here in fifty years… and you’ll have achieved nothing… I just want you… to make something of yourself.” P 245

“You are like he as… and just like him you were most likely to die the same way – a quarter of what you could have been… you see Ed, you were always an absolute no-hoper – just like your old man… and we’ve been employed to test you – to see if you can avoid this life.

“You know, they say that there are countless saints who have nothing to do with church and almost no knowledge of God. But they say God walks with those people without them ever knowing it… you’re one of those people, Ed. And it’s an honour to know you.” P 156

“It’s the person, Ma, not the place. If you left here, you’d have been the same anywhere else…. If I ever leave this place.. I’ll make sure I’m better here first.” P 283

Narrative perspectiveZusak has written the story in first person point of view so we can see the world through Ed’s eyes. It’s important for us to see through Ed’s eyes.

Why?

Zusak needs us to see how although Ed is an “ordinary” person, or potentially below ordinary at the beginning, he has kindness and is thoughtful. He is encouraging us to

Narrative perspective vs dialogue

Narrative perspective (can also be called inner monologue)

- Always from Ed’s perspective- Not things he has spoken but things

he has thought

Dialogue

- Something a character in the book has said out loud

- Can be any character, not just Ed

Conditions of useIn Essays

Try not to use both narrative perspective and dialogue in the same essay. They are both good to use, but just try to use one of them. They are a good reliable

paragraph. But having two of them weakens your essay. Pair them with symbolism, allusion, imagery etc.

If you use them, you MUST memorise the quotes for your examples.