65 pages • 2 hours read
Lois LowryMessenger
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2004A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
Honesty, Openness, and Secrets
The value of honesty and openness within a community is a main theme of Messenger. The novel explores what a community looks like with true openness and honesty, and then what a community looks like when secrets prevail. Village is designed to be a place without secrets, where information is shared openly with everyone. Toward the beginning of the book, it seems like Village truly has achieved this utopian sharing of information, and because of it, it is a peaceful, harmonious place. However, as the story continues, more secrets develop, and the harmony of Village falls apart.
Trade Mart promotes secrecy, and with that secrecy comes shame and distrust. People, like Mentor and Ramon’s mother, will not admit what they traded for. This behavior makes it difficult for villagers to trust one another. Trust (the ability to depend upon one another) is a pillar of life in Village. The existence of secrets threatens Village itself.
Matty also has a secret. His choice to keep his gift a secret serves as an internal struggle until Leader tells Matty that he knows about the gift. By the end of the story, Leader is also forced to keep a secret. Because of the distrust that develops between the townspeople, Leader does not trust the wall builders to refrain from building if he is not there to make them wait. Only when Matty releases his gift of healing do the townspeople return to themselves and their way of life, living openly and honestly with one another.
Selfishness Versus the Collective Good
The most prominent theme in Messenger is selfishness versus the collective good. Village is introduced as an environment where the collective good is the highest priority, and all the townspeople benefit because of it. Everyone contributes to the community in their unique way, information is shared freely, and help is given cheerfully. Because the collective good is prioritized not only by the leadership but by the townspeople, Village is a safe, harmonious place to live. This safety contrasts with the homelands the townspeople left. Those places were built upon secrets, control, and the lust for personal gain. People were killed, hurt, or abandoned because of their differences.
When Trade Mart begins and gains popularity, the townspeople begin trading to satisfy their selfish desires. They prioritize their wants over the collective good and are willing to trade away the deepest parts of themselves to get what they want. This pattern of behavior destroys Village from the inside out, causing people to be mean, irritable, impatient, and aggressive.
Throughout the story, those with selfless desires stand out. Seer, who thinks first and foremost about Village, challenges the townspeople to remember what their society was founded on. Leader, though unable to change things directly, encourages the people to be welcoming and kind and gives everyone equal opportunity to speak. Matty also has a desire to see the people he loves thrive. In the end, his sacrifice restores Village to its harmonious culture where all are welcomed and valued.
Identity, Diversity, and Difference
Most citizens in Village have a physical difference or disability. This fact contrasts starkly with the societies Matty and Leader grew up in, where those with differences were killed or abandoned. Village welcomes and values those with physical differences and creates a community built on mutual help. Despite how strongly this mindset is encouraged within Village, Matty holds an ableist perspective—that is, he is prejudiced against those perceived to have disabilities. Though he loves Kira, he does not consider her to be whole because of her twisted leg and assumes she would rather have two strong legs. When Kira refuses and argues that she is whole as she is, Matty must reconsider his views. He realizes that people with differences don’t need to change. Rather, the world around them must change to be more accepting.
Messenger also takes a strong stand regarding identity: what makes a person who they are, and what parts should or should not change. This theme is first seen in the concept of true names. Leader assigns someone’s true name based on their main characteristics, special abilities, or how they contribute to society. Seer, though blind, has a special ability to perceive the world around him. Mentor is more than a schoolteacher, as he cares deeply about his students and how they develop as individuals. Matty wants to be called Messenger, for he loves to transmit messages for the village but is instead given the name Healer because it resonates more deeply with Matty’s desire for the world and his ability to heal it.
People’s identities are challenged during Trade Mart as they can change things about themselves. When Mentor changes his appearance, he also alters his character. The novel makes a point to question how much one can change about oneself before one becomes a different person entirely. Mentor who traded his deepest self to become more physically attractive to a woman.
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By Lois Lowry
