Robert Cormier's Im the Cheese

Novel Title : I’m the Cheese

Author : Robert Cormier

Synopsis

The story is about a young boy whose name was Adam farmer who had psychology problem in his life because of terrorism. The title is taken from the song which Adam’s father always heard when Adam was young, thus Adam’s father called him “the Cheese”.

The story begins when Adam was 14 yeas old. His real name was Paul Delmonte. His mother’s real name was Louise Nolan Delmonte, and his father’s real name was Anthony Delmonte. Delmonte family lived high above the hill, in Monument, Massachusetts. His father was a journalist. At the moment, he smelt a corruption scandal in the government administration. And then, he became a witness to reveal the case.

After the assembly, there was a tragedy; Anthony’s car was exploded. After the tragedy, an agent from government, Mr. Gray, suggested Delmonte family to change their identity and went to other place. And then, they changed their identity became Farmer family and they moved to Ruttenburg.

At the moment, there was a mafia group who killed Farmer family and Adam was the only one who was saved. Adam was taken to the hospital and was interviewed. He was shocked with the tragedy and was depressed.

In his condition, he imagined that he went out his home riding his old cycle to Rutterburg to meet his father. In the fact, that was only his imagination. Actually, his father was died in the tragedy and he did not do cycling from Monument to Rutterburg, but he only did it in the hospital ground.

Personal Response

In my opinion, the story of the novel is good enough. I stressed the plot of the story here. The plot doesn’t just tell the story from the beginning to the ending, but there is a flash-back in the story that attracts me and makes me enjoy reading this novel. It is when the story firstly tells about Adam Farmer who had psychology problem, then secondly tells the reason why he got it, then finally tells about the condition Adam Farmer again thereafter. This kind of plot is the story plot that I like. I, to be honestly, don’t like the story plot that only tells the story from the beginning to the ending; there is no challenge in reading that kind of story plot, because, for me as a college reader level, that is too simple and easy-understood.

The story also, in my opinion, has political message. It is like the tragedy in our country. When someone is trying to reveal corruption scandal in the government, they will get terrorism that, perhaps, comes from the government itself. It is like Udin and Munir case who are, perhaps, trying to reveal corruption scandal in Indonesia several times ago.

Yana Muhammad Fauzi
060751
English Literature B 06