The Messenger Essay Response

COOK SHAW

Most people put themselves before others in their everyday lives. The story “messenger” by Lois Lowry is a sequel to the books Gathering Blue, and the Giver. It is about a young boy named Matt. Matt lives in a small isolated peaceful village. Throughout the story, the town slowly becomes corrupt. This is a result of the Trader, who allows people to trade for anything they desire. In return, the Trader may take something, even non-material things, like a personality trait. Slowly, as more and more people trade, they became selfish and hurtful. This as a result of the selfishness, the village members decide to close the village to the outside world. This would greatly harm the other villages. Matt’s travels show that selflessness is a valuable thing.

Before the trader came, the village was a selfless and productive system. Everyone had their place. For example, the Mentor teaches the young children, the Leader surveys and controls the village and the Weaver maker all of the clothes and cloth needs for the village. Everyone has a part in the village and contributes their skill to the entire village as a whole. This shows that the people of the village are not even a little bit self centered because there is no way to be more well off than another person, no matter how hard you work, you only give to other people. For example,“There were no secrets in Village. It was one of the rules that Leader had proposed, and all of the people had voted in favor of it. Everyone who had come to Village from elsewhere, all of those who had not been born here, had come from places with secrets. Sometimes—not very often, for inevitably it caused sadness—people described their places of origin: places with cruel governments, harsh punishments, desperate poverty, or false comforts.” You cannot give to yourself, or work for personal gain because you rely on everyone and everyone relies on you. This is a flawless system because it makes everyone eager to give, and in the end result, kind.

After the trader came, the people of the village were focusing more on personal gain than the welfare of the village. Because the opportunity of personal gain arose, the purity and selflessness of the people left them and was replaced by curmudgeonly, selfish people. For example, the mentor was a very selfless, loving and kind in the beginning of the book. But when the mentor gave away his inner self for looks, be lost all of his selflessness. After the trade, he rallied a group and attempted to close off the village from others. He thought that the village was only for people that were worthy of it. He had attempted to keep out the “crippled” or “useless” when he had been a hunchback when he entered the village. For example, “Some of those who had been among the most industrious, the kindest, and the most stalwart citizens of Village now went to the platform and shouted their wish that the border be closed so that 'we' (Matty shuddered at the use of 'we') would not have to share the resources anymore. 'We need all the fish for ourselves. Our school is not big enough to teach their children, too; only our own. They can't even speak right. We can't understand them. They have too many needs. We don't want to take care of them.' And finally: 'We've done it long enough.” These selfish people arent even realising that when they were equally as useless and annoying to live with when they had just came to the village. But over time, they all had found their role in the village. This shows how selfishness can be very disruptive and can make you think in irrational and ridiculous ways.

Overall, the story is about a peaceful village that is corrupted by selfishness. We can see the effects of this on the mentor. He attempts to keep the village for himself and a few others by trying to build a wall. We can see that this has a detrimental affect on the surrounding villages. This shows how damaging selfishness has on a community and an individual.