Character Analysis: I Am The Messenger

Jenae Sweet
Writing 95

Helping Friends

In I Am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak, Ed, an underaged cab driver, is given four Aces with three different issues. Throughout his unexpected journey, Ed meets new people, makes new friends and finds out some things he didn’t ever know about his old friends. Ed finds out how to help them through their own problems, and, in the end, finds out why he is chosen to help them. Ed starts off with one card, which is the Ace of Diamonds, where there are three different addresses on them. When he completes the Diamonds he gets another card that is the Ace of Clubs where he is given a riddle that he has to solve, when Ed is done with the first three Aces receives The Ace of Spades where he is
given three names and has to figure out who they are and what to do. Lastly he gets the Ace of Hearts where there is three movie titles on the card. Ed then realizes that each movie has in some way the name of one of the three friends. “ I check the order. Ritchie. Marv. Audrey” (Zusak 290). First to help from the Ace of Hearts is his friend Richie. Ed stays outside Richie’s house night after night trying to figure out how to help his friend. Richie has always been the friend where he always looks calm, cool and collected. But, on the inside, things just aren’t right. Richie has nothing going for him at all. He doesn’t have a job, ambitions, or accomplishments under his belt. Ed is given the duty to help him and he figures out why. The last night of standing out at Richie’s house, Richie walks outside to Ed and tells him “‘Lets go to the river”(Zusak303). While at the river they pretty much have a heart-to-heart, I think. Richie tells Ed that everyone has a job; and, that he has nothing he wants to do. At the end of the chapter Ed and Richie have one last set of dialogue “ ‘Ed?’ Ritchie says later. We’re still standing in the water. ‘There’s only one thing I want.’ ‘What’s that, Ritchie?’ His answer is simple ‘To want.’” (Zusak 304-305). Earlier in the chapter Ed says to Richie “Richie— you’re an absolute disgrace to yourself.”(Zusak 302). Ed has to be hard on Richie, I believe to help him. There couldn’t of been any sweet talk to help Richie realize that he can be worth something. Next there is Marv.
Ed and Marv share an interesting relationship; they aren’t really chummy with each other all the time. Marv is at times cantankerous, especially when it has to do with being around Ed’s old, lazy, and smelly dog The Doorman. Throughout the book Marv talks about the money he was saving for an unknown reason. Ed has to figure out why he is saving all that money and never giving any type of clue to anyone. It is assumed Marv is saving for a new car; but, he is too attached to his run down piece of trash car anyways, and doesn’t want to get a new one. Ed figures out later on in the book why Marv is saving up so much money. Marv reveals to Ed that the reason why the love of his, life Susan Boyd, moved out of town is because Marv got her pregnant and they have a two year-old child together. It’s one of the most surprising parts of the whole book. Ed helps Marv build up the courage to go to Susan’s house where she lives with her over protective dad who isn’t very fond of Marv. Marv of dubious at first; but, builds up the courage to knock on the door. Her dad is a short but heavy bloke, who throws Marv out of the house and yells “‘Now get the hell out of here’”(Zusak 323). A week goes by and Ed gets a message that someone wants to be picked up. Ed finds out its Susan, gets in his taxi, and makes his way to her house. When Ed gets there he tells her that he can take her to where Marv is working. When they arrive Ed gets Marv, and he can see he is nervous but makes his way to the swing set where his daughter is waiting for him. After pushing her on the swings; they head back to where Susan and Ed are standing. At the end we get to read that Ed sees Marv smiling with tears in his eyes. He says “They are two of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen” (Zusak 330). Ed got to help Marv be with his family, and in the end see a side of Marv that no one ever gets to
see. Lastly we have Audrey. A girl who is unable to truly love anyone due to her family always beating one another and never loving each other. “I think she loved them, and all they ever did was hurt her. That’s why she refuses to love. Anybody” (Zusak 23). Through out the book we read of how much Ed loves Audrey, but; Audrey doesn’t love him. Ed’s last mission is to have Audrey feel the love that she has blocked out with boys and sex. The true love that he can bring her. He does this by going to her house one night and making her dance with him on her front porch while music plays softly in the back. “She let herself love me for three minutes” (Zusak 336). All Ed needed to do was let Audrey love come into her. At the end of the book we find out all the secrets that Zusak had planted. We find out who the master mind was behind the sending of the cards. From the very beginning everything was set up to show Ed that he was no ordinary taxi driver. He was someone who stood up for the one’s who couldn’t stand up for themselves. “I’m not the messenger at all. I’m the message.” (Zusak 357).

Works Cited

Zusak, Markus. I Am the Messenger. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010. N. pag. Print.

KEY
Semicolons: Green
Parallel Sen: Pink
Pos. Apostrophes: Red
Quotes: Orange
Vocab: Blue