Challenges In The Book Messenger

Without connections to others, people will become less united and their communities will become corrupt. In the fantasy novel Messenger by Lois Lowry, Matty faces many challenges. In order to overcome these obstacles he must stay connected to others at all times. Lois Lowry reveals Matty’s responses to challenges in order to develop the theme of the importance of human connections. One of Matty’s challenges that he faced throughout the book was that he had to constantly decide to use his unusual gift of healing. This gift relates to the theme because Matty was always willing to help others out even though he knew it would exhaust him after he used his gift. In Messenger, Leader says, “Don’t waste your gift. Don’t spend it.” This is important
because Leader knew Matty wanted to use his gift to help others. Leader told him not to use his gift because he knew he would not have enough energy to save the world. Because, he saved the world, he was able to better connect the people of Village; the people in Village were not selfish anymore and did not build the wall. Another challenge Matty had to face was that Village was changing from being compassionate to selfish. His response to this challenge relates to the theme because the people in Village were becoming less connected and were becoming more stingy. This event was hard on Matty because he had always loved being in Village because of the delightful people that have always helped him out. Lowry writes, “What was happening to Village? Matty felt a terrible unease.” This is important because Matty knew Village was changing in a very bad way. Furthermore, the people in Village were becoming less united and more bitter. Because Matty did not trade, he did not become hateful like the other traders. Although Matty had to overcome many challenges throughout the book, these were the worst that he had to overcome. Matty had to be strong in order to not become like the other awful Villagers. Matty’s responses to challenges show Lois Lowry’s theme, the importance of human connections.