I Am the Cheese

“They were speaking in whispers but their voice scratched at the night and the dark.”

The contentious “whispers” of Adam’s parents foreshadow their secrets. The diction—words like “scratched”—reflects the novel’s journalistic vocabulary and emphasizes the discomfort of the Farmers’ position.

“It’s a terrible world out there. Murders and assassinations. Nobody’s safe on the street.”

The older man alludes to suspicious political events, like the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. Like a journalist, the older man’s diction is blunt, and his words prefigure the murders of Adam’s parents. When Adam’s journey is revealed to be imaginary, the narrative suggests that the fears spoken by the man are Adam’s own fears.

“When we undertook these talks, we agreed that they must be voluntary on your part, that I would act merely as a guide.”

Brint manipulates Adam with diction like “guide.” The word implies that Brint is on Adam’s side, but the narrative increasingly reveals him to be a malign and mysterious figure with near-total control over Adam.

“Hey, what other family has a theme song tailormade for them?”

The theme song is “The Farmer in the Dell,” and the dad’s playful question reveals multiple identities. Adam’s family name was Delmonte before it became Farmer. Like the song, the Farmer last name is a creation, but Dave uses the song to give Adam a sense of belonging and identity.

“[T]he dog steps out into the road and I think, It’s as if he has been waiting for me all my life.”

Dogs symbolize lawlessness and threat in the novel. Dogs wait for Adam wherever he goes because he’s always in a precarious situation. Adam’s sense of this expresses his dread, and also the novel’s layered confusion around his psychological state and grasp of reality.

“His father was an insurance agent who went to the office every day and changed his car every two years and belonged to the Rotary Club.”

Adam creates a normal, archetypal portrait of his dad, generating a secure parental image. The novel will reveal that this is only one side to Adam’s dad: His brave and moral action make him an extraordinary person but also one who has to deal with conflict in his lie, including lying to his son to protect him.

“I need to talk to Amy. She refreshes my spirit, she makes me laugh. I love her.”

Amy represents laughter and love for Adam. His warm feelings and longing for her are expressive of his wish for security and happiness but, in fact, Amy doesn’t exist. Adam’s pursuit of “Amy” and his constant inability to reach her create pathos as they reveal that a normal teenage life is out of reach for Adam.

“I lift my face and the rain pours down. And I begin to sing.”

The song symbolizes encouragement at this point in the novel. The weather jars Adam, but “The Farmer in the Dell” keeps him going, and it reaffirms a family bond and sense of security and purpose.

“He had two birth certificates, two birthdays. Crazily, he thought, Was I born twice?”

The novel here suggests that identity is a construct and people can manipulate it. The two birth certificates make Adam feel like there’s another Adam, suggesting a moment of identity disassociation and prefiguring his later out-of-body experiences.

“This is why he hated Brint sometimes. Because he interrupted the sweet drifting. With his questions. His incessant, never-ending questions.”

Brint reveals his psychological abuse by subjecting Adam to constant questioning. Brint isn’t a friendly guide. He’s trying to force information out of Adam, and he and his team use drugs to make Adam speak when he doesn’t wish to. The unethical use of drugs for corrupt purposes is an allusion to the CIA’s Project MK-Ultra, an illegal human experimentation program halted in 1973.

“You can tell them a mile away, the wise guys […] They are everywhere in the world, in schools and offices, in theaters and factories, in stores and hospitals.”

Adam turns Whipper and his two friends into symbols of Constant Threats and Fears. Bullies like three teen boys dominate the world. Using hyperbole, Adam expresses the belief that insidious people are “everywhere.” Although his fears at first seem paranoid, the novel’s revelations of his experiences and circumstances make these fears increasingly rational.

“Amy who? There’s no Amy here.”

The man who’s sick foreshadows the revelation that Amy is an invention. The words “there’s no Amy here” gesture toward “there’s no Amy,” and they start to cast doubt on the reality of Adam’s source of happiness and support.

“Maybe they realize what they’re doing and it’s against the law: assault with a dangerous weapon.”

Like the dogs, Whipper and the two other teen boys are lawless: Their names are like typical dog names. Though Adam acknowledges that bullies are found everywhere, he maintains hope that the three assailants will come to their senses. Adam isn’t jaded or cynical, which adds to the novel’s pathos once the reader understands the reality of his situation.

“You must face the gray man. Otherwise everything will come to a halt.”

Brint’s coded, technocratic diction produces many questions. What will come to a halt? The interrogations, Adam’s time at the hospital, or Adam’s life? These double meanings speak to the confusion Adam feels but also to the deliberate duplicity of the corrupt institutions Brint represents.

“I saw one of the wheels of your bike sticking up out of that ditch and we stopped and I came over to look, although the wife says people should mind their own business.”

Cormier juxtaposes Edna and Arnold, with Edna representing constant fears and threats and Arnold symbolizing decency and assistance. The presence of people like Arnold not only undercuts others’ claims that everyone is untrustworthy but also expresses Adam’s latent hope and childhood innocence.

“‘Is this Hookset?’ ‘Do you think we’d lie?’”

The snide exchange between Adam and Edna is ironic. The twist is that Arnold and Edna don’t lie (they’re in Hookset), but that other lies and deceit continue to beset Adam. The exchange is doubly ironic because the exchange is in Adam’s imagination although he believes it to be real: One part of his psyche is “lying” to the other.

“Later on, they discovered that the killer was the mailman […] He was so commonplace that he was invisible. That’s the way the gray man was in our lives.”

Adam links the murderous mailman to Grey, suggesting that Grey participated in the death of his parents. Adam lacks irrefutable proof, and Brint suggests otherwise, but this linking helps to support the novel’s sense of moral ambiguity and threat.

“[T]he sharp, staccato words that went into the writing of news stories. Words that went for the jugular. Active verbs that danced and raced on the page.”

Dave admires the diction of journalism, and newspaper jargon is often a feature of Cormier’s novel, reflecting his own professional experience. With this imagery, Cormier brings the words to life, showing them dancing and racing like ebullient cartoon characters.

“I, too, am human. I have headaches, upset stomach at times.”

Brint subverts his cold, emotionless characterization with an upfront declaration. He’s human—he has feelings, and he isn’t infallible. His sympathy rings false, however, and is shown to be increasingly insincere by his cruel treatment of Adam.

“We even drilled ourselves.”

Louise’s words reveal the construction and manipulation of identities. Adam’s parents practice their new identities as if they’re playing characters in a movie or TV show.

“What has convinced you that he is a doctor and I’m not? Simply because he wears a white coat and I prefer a business suit?”

Brint’s words explore how clothes can manipulate and construct an identity. A “white coat” can turn someone into a doctor, and a “business suit” can make someone not a doctor. Brint’s criticism of Adam’s assumption makes him increasingly manipulative and threatening, as he uses this to create more uncertainty about his identity rather than as a prompt to clarify his role.

“[C]ut the crap, stop the self-pity. This gets you nowhere.”

Journeys require persistence, and Adam remains determined to complete his journey. When he starts feeling sorry for himself, he lambasts himself—“self-pity” won’t help him carry on. Adam’s reliance and lack of self-pity make him likeable and add to the novel’s pathos.

“Gray pants. Him. Hearing his voice again.”

The diction—words like “gray” and “him again”—indicates that Grey plays a role in the death of Adam’s parents. Conversely, the diction here obfuscates Grey’s role and the possibility of Adam’s confusion. The passage alludes to Grey but doesn’t clearly identify or rule out other reasons for his presence.