The Mystery Surrounding I Am The Cheese By Robert Cormier

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The mystery surrounding I am the Cheese by Robert Cormier is the question, who is Adam Farmer? Published in 1970, this book is narrated by two different perspectives, but both by the main character, Adam Farmer. The first perspective is Adam going to a journey to visit his father in a hospital in Vermont. The second perspective is Adam with what seems like an investigator/ psychiatrist, Brint, but Cormier never specifically says who he is. Half of the story tells of Adam who is planning an adventure to Vermont from Monument, Massachusetts to visit his father. He is travelling by bike with a present for his father in the bicycle basket. On his travel his encounters a man who looks like a map, because his arms and face are filled with veins, …show more content…

In the story Adam finds out from his father that Adam is not his real name and that they are all living a lie. Adam’s father used to be a reporter in New York and he discovered information that can get him and his family killed. So Mr. Grey, the family’s protector, gave Adam’s family all new names, occupation, and lives. All this happened when Adam was three years old. Then one day Mr. Grey contacted his father saying that his family was being targeted and advised him to get away for a couple of days until it was over. They decided to go up North to Vermont. They were riding in the car the whole family singing the Father in the Dell. Then they stopped to see the beautiful view of the mountains. Then all of a sudden they hear a car coming at them and hits all three of them. Adam is still conscious when he hits the floor and all he sees next to him is his mom. His mother’s limb’s are sticking out unnaturally and all he sees are his mother’s glassy eyes staring at him, lifeless. He is losing consciousness, but he sees a blur of gray and hears someone say that his father was gone and that they need to find him fast. Adam is telling all this to Brint and he sings the last part of the Father in the Dell song to …show more content…

Then the chapter ends with an analysis of Adam’s condition. The final chapter then is exactly like the first starting out with his bicycle journey. The bicycle journey was not an actual memory of Adam. It is his life in the mental institution. The man with the map face is the janitor, the trio bullies are his mean roommates, the bicycle stealer is just a patient that always wants to ride his bicycle. His destination is the hospital in Vermont, but it is not to visit his father, but to revisit his once lost memories. He tells Brint he is the cheese because he is all alone. His father is gone, his mother is gone, his best friend is gone, his life is gone. He is the only one left. Brint’s analysis says that this has been Brint’s third time hearing the same story and never getting a good description of the killer. So by this, it means that Adam is in a repeating cycle of forgetting and remembering. Never going forward with his life, stuck in the same place for the rest of his

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