Purpose

      In part 1 of I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak I learn how one moment can change the purpose of a person's life. At age nineteen, Ed still is yet to find his purpose in life. He is an underage cabdriver who spends his free time with an old, smelly dog and playing cards with his three friends. He was a lazy kid so he did not do good in school and did not go to college like his successful brother. With his mother constantly nagging on him, he was reminded he had done nothing special in his life. Everything changed the day he stopped the robber of a bank. Days after the criminal was arrested, Ed got an ace of diamonds that had three addresses on it. He was afraid of what he would fI nd at these locations but curiosity pulled him to the locations. After visiting the three locations, Ed had met people and first hand witnessed the problems in their lives. The one address on the card that stood out to me was 13 Harrison Street. Ed describes the address by saying, “It kind of depressed me to think a human could be so lonely that she would comfort herself with the company for appliances that whistle, and sit alone to eat. Not that I'm much better…”(Zusak 48). At the address, Ed watches an old lady eating alone and looking ever so lonely. One night soon after seeing her for the first time, Ed decides to walk back to Harrison Street and when he shows up at his door, she thinks he is a man named Jimmy. We learn that the lonely women name is Milla and Jimmy was her husband who had gone missing in war, but she believes that he is still out there. Together they eat, Ed comforts her, and fills her loneliness. Ed has a realization when a conversation occurs, between him and Milla, “Where have you been all this time?”...”I’ve been looking for you”(Zusak 52). Although in this quote Milla is asking where Jimmy had been all these years, and replies not is Jimmy but a is asking where Jimmy had been all these years, and replies not is Jimmy but as Ed. He realizes that he has been looking for an opportunity like this one to give purpose to his life. His whole life Ed had been looking for something great in his life to happen and he never would've found it if he hadn't got the ace of diamonds in the mail. Now, he had the opportunity to help people like Milla and the other people on the card. He now has the purpose to fill Milla’s loneliness and spend time with her. Receiving a simple card in a deck changed Ed's reason for living. He once had no purpose but now he lives to diminish the problems of others.