Sunday, October 31, 2010

I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak

The protagonist in this novel is a nineteen year old cabdriver in a big city of Australia. His name is Ed Kennedy. Ed is what some may call, “your average Joe”, but he proves more than that in the story. Out of all of his siblings, Ed still lives in the town that he grew up in. Ed hasn’t quite opened his eyes to his future that he could potential have if he would just try. Ed lives a very simple life unlike his siblings who have high paying occupations. His family isn’t mentioned in great detail. His mother claims that Ed is a failure just like his dad who never accomplished anything in life, and died an alcoholic. “You’re just like him.” (Zusak, 39) is the response Ed’s mother gave him when Ed asked why she didn’t approve of him. Ed’s mother does love him, but does not love the fact that he is headed the same way in society as his father.

The beginning of the novel starts off with Ed and his friend Marv, going to the bank, but while they are at the bank a robbery is present. Ed is titled a hero in the newspaper the following day, because he stops the gunman in his tracks inadvertently when he decided to flee away. Ed is asked by the police to come to court to serve as a witness to the robbery. At the end of the trial, the gunman says this to Ed, “You’re a dead man” (Zusak, 39) Ed is quite frightened by this since the robber is only in jail for six months. Ed finally forgets about the saying until a few days later when he starts to receive playing cards in his mail. After Ed is crowned a local hero in the newspaper, his life starts to give him a range of feelings. He only receives the ace playing card in the four suites. Each card had a total of three titles, addresses or clues for Ed to help him find his recipients. He never learns who sends all the aces of each suit until the end, but each suit is symbolic to how Ed must help the people. For example, the people he met with the ace of diamonds symbolized the need to protect peole from physical or emotional harm. The order of the aces went diamonds, clubs, spades and then hearts. From the beginning to the end of the novel, Ed’s life is totally changed by the one day he thought he was just going to go to the bank.

Discussion Questions:

1.If you were chosen by a random person to deliver messages to such strangers would you be willing to do it like Ed? Why or Why not?

2.Who do you believe is sending Ed the secret messages and why?

13 comments:

Madi Y 7-8 said...

I think i would be willing to deliver these messages. I always like to help people out. I would be cautious and not deliver the messages if anything weird started to happen though.

Josie D 7/8 said...

1. If I were chosen to deliver these messages I think I would be willing to deliver these messages. I think I would because if someone honestly needed these messages delivered to them I would want to help them.

2. I think that someone who witnessed the robbery is sending the aces. The person may have known other people effected by the gunman and wanted to change both Ed's and the other people's lives.

Kyle N.1-2 said...

1. I don't know if I'd do it, because if a random card was sent to me in the mail telling me do something, i would think it could be a scam or something. You never know, so I'm not exactly sure what I would do.

Sarah N. 7-8 said...

1. I have mixed feelings about if I would be willing to deliver a random message to a stranger. Like Madi said, I am happy to help people out, but as Kyle said it is hard to know what will happen if I were to deliver a message. Unfortunately now there is so many bad things in the world, I would be scared to deliver the message to a stranger, because what if it was a dangerous person.

Monica J. 1-2 said...

1. i dont think know a days i woul dbe so willing to deliver a random strangers mesage because in the world we live in today we have no idea what the message would say or how serious or dangerous what you are delivering could be.

Sydney S. 1-2 said...

Just like Sarah said, I think I would be a little mixed. I would like to help the person, but at the same time, you don't know if it's dangerous or not. I think in the end, though, I would deliver the messages.

Miranda R. 7-8 said...

I would not deliever the messages because I would not want to be in danger. He has no idea who sent them and he could get himself into a bad situation if it was the robber.

Natesa W. 7-8 said...

I would not deliver the messages, because I would want to know what they were about. For all I know, i could be helping a murderer.

Paige G. 7-8 said...

I would deliver the messages because it provided a way for Ed to help other people. If things started to happen that indicated that i was in danger because of the messages i would probably stop though. Did delivering the messages change Ed's life in a positive or negative way?

Freddy B. 7-8 said...

1. I would not deliver messages to such strangers like Ed because I don't know who is sending them or whether or not they really want me to help people. I agree with Natesa
2. I believe someone who knows Ed and is trying to help is delivering the messages.

Morgan O 7-8 said...

I do not think that i would want to give the messages to other because you never know what is really going on, and you could wind up getting in something dangerous or illegal.

Ashlyn W. 7-8 said...

I would want to help people if the message was helping someone. I would still be a little nervous if I wasn't told what the message said.

Mrs. Sherwood said...

Graded