Remember when you were little and your mom warned you to tell the truth, or else your pants would burst into flames? When you grew up a little, you realized the truth is much more complex than simply answering whether it was you who stole a cookie from the cookie jar. In I Am the Messenger, Ed knows he's supposed to deliver truth on a silver platter to the people he's led to, but what is the truth exactly? It's tricky to say when you've never even met the people you're helping, though maybe even more difficult to come across for the people you love the most.
Questions About Truth
- How does Ed make judgment calls about whether something's true or not? What kinds of rules and observations does he use for determining truth?
- Why does Ed find it easier to get to the truth when he's dealing with strangers? What is the significance of him not even knowing the truth about his friends' lives?
- Is Ed's search for truth always at the forefront of the messages? Who is the truth intended for?
Chew on This
Ed might be delivering the truth to others, but the messages are really about him confronting the truth about his own life.
Truth is subjective at different times in the novel for different characters, as evidenced by the fact that Ed can take care of the names on his list through different methods.