Messenger Literary Elements

Messenger Literary Elements

Genre

Young adult fiction

Setting and Context

A village entangled by a hostile forest

Narrator and Point of View

Omniscient third-person narrator

Tone and Mood

Mysterious, suspenseful

Protagonist and Antagonist

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

Major Conflict

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.

Climax

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.

Foreshadowing

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."

Understatement

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."

Allusions

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.

Imagery

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."

Paradox

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

Parallelism

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.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

The village represents the idea of an altruistic society.

Personification

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

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