Messenger Literary Elements

Young adult fiction

A village entangled by a hostile forest

Omniscient third-person narrator

Mysterious, suspenseful

The protagonist is Matty, fighting against the forest symbolizing greed and selfishness.

There are two groups of people at Village: The selfish group wants to build a wall around it and prevent people from seeking refuge, while the altruistic group tries to prevent this development.

On their way back to Village, Matty and Kira are almost killed by the hostile forest. However, Matty is able to use all his strength to reverse the negative effects of the villagers' selfishness. The process drains all his energy and he dies.

As Matty and Kira come closer to the middle of the forest, the stench of death intensifies. This foreshadows Matty's death, as at night his dreams are layered over "with an awareness of rot and the imminence of terrible danger."

When Kira asks Matty in the forest if his wounds hurt, he replies, "Not too much." This is an understatement because in reality "he was in excruciating pain, as if his arms had been burned by fire."

The end of the book contains an allusion to the poem "To an Athlete Dying Young" by A.E. Housman, which the schoolteacher recites. This indicates how important Matty's victory over the hostile forest and therefore the village's selfishness was.

When Matty goes through the forest to get Kira, the imagery creates a sense of hostility. Flora and fauna now exhibit harmful behavior: "A chipmunk, usually an amiable companion, chittered angrily and bit his finger when he held his hand toward it. Many red berries, of a kind he had always eaten, had black spots on them and tasted bitter; and for the first time he noticed poison ivy growing across the path again and again, where it had never grown before." Moreover, it is now darker than before, indicating the dark forces that grow in strength. Together with the stench, the changes in the forest foreshadow death: "There was a stench to Forest now, as if it concealed dead, decaying things in the new thick darkness."

Many people attend the Trade Mart, but it seems paradoxical to Matty that they have not brought any tangible goods to trade.

Parallel to the villagers' darkening hearts, the forest darkens and thickens. The process is reversed when Matty sacrifices his life to heal the forest and thus the villagers' attitudes.

The village represents the idea of an altruistic society.

The forest has human qualities. For example, Kira notices: "The branches seem to reach for me."