I Am The Cheese By: Robert Cormier 1977 Taylor Holdren

What’s it about? I Am the Cheese has two story lines. In one, Adam Farmer, a young boy, is riding his bicycle from Monument, Mass., to Rutterburg, Vt. to see his father. In the other, Adam is older, and he is speaking to a doctor about his life when he was young. These two story lines alternate throughout the book.

“I emerge from the drugstore and walk to the parking meter and my bike is gone.” (136). I have had my bike stolen before. One day, my brother and I were riding our bikes, and we went home to get a snack. When we came back out his bike was gone, and we didn’t know where it had gone. We guessed that someone stole it just like Adam did in I Am the Cheese.

“Here they were being frightened and intimidated and held at bay by, of all things, a dog. Not an armed robber. Not a wild animal. But a dog.” (34). Dogs do not scare me as much as they do Adam, but big vicious dogs with sharp teeth do scare me. One Halloween night, me and some of my friends were walking down the street, and out of no where a big Rottweiler starts barking and chasing us. We run and run, and the dog keeps following us. Finally, a car comes by and scares the dog away.

“…the bike wavers under me and heads for the ditch, the steep ravine by the side of the road, and I am helpless to halt its progress toward the ditch…feel myself falling, spinning, sucked into the ditch…” (96). One day when me and my brother were riding bikes, and we were racing down a hill. We kept going faster and faster. I started to pass him, but I started thinking what if I fall? Then, the bike started to wobble, and it hit a rock. I flipped over and skidded across the pavement. My knees and arms were all scraped up for months! It was some serious pain.

“…is it possible to be claustrophobic and yet fear open spaces, too?...elevators panic me. I stand in the upright coffin and my body oozes sweat and my heart pounds…” (2). I am terribly afraid of small places. Small places, like elevators, do not frighten me that much because I can still move. Small places, like closets or big storage containers, petrify me. I get paranoid and think the walls are going to close in on me. It is the most terrifying thing in the world.

“The doctor opens the box and takes out Pokey the Pig. My old friend…He places Pokey in my arms…I rock Pokey in my arms.” (209). When I feel sad or just in a bad mood, I always have a stuffed animal to help me get through it. In I Am The Cheese, Adam finds out his parents are dead, and he rocks with Pokey the Pig. If something tragic happened to me, I would want to cuddle up with a stuffed animal like he does. It can be very comforting.

“But I sometimes wonder what's more important--- what I find out about myself or what you find out about me.” (122). This quote reminds me of the labels assignment we had to do. People think about you how they want to, but all that really matters is what you think about yourself. I feel that it doesn’t matter what others think about you or if they like you, as long as you know who you are, and you like yourself.

What is the theme? Careful what you wish for. In this book, the author is trying to tell you that some things are better left unknown. Throughout the book Adam is trying to figure out what he is missing about his life that his parents seem to know and the parts of his memory that he can’t see while he is in the hospital. He doesn’t like what he finds out, so it was probably better that he didn’t know.

Works Cited Cormier, Robert. I Am the Cheese. New York, New York. Dell Laurel- Leaf:1977.