I+am+the+Cheese+TS

tsoccer20 11/27/07 Ruby

//I am the Cheese - Reader Response//

While reading the Book, //I am the Cheese// by Robert Cormier, Adam Farmer ... well that was his name before the incident, Paul Delmonte discovers many new things about his life that he has never known about. Throughout the book there are many interesting and unexpected things that occur in Adam's "trip to see his father at the hospital". In his journey to discovery, there are many connections that I made to my own life, books and movies I've seen and read and things that have been going on in the world. I've taken similar trips to places like Adam. I have heard about Edgar Allan Poe and I though he was similar to Mrs. Delmonte's father. In addition, I know that in the world there are witness protection programs like in the novel.

In the novel, Paul is on a journey and trip to see his father "at the hospital". He rides through different towns, meets new people (both good and bad) and stays in a motel. This whole trip reminded me very much of the trip to North Carolina that we go on every year. We drive down to North Carolina and encounter some of the things that Paul did and saw. We travel through different towns state to state like how Paul went through different towns on his trip. We meet new people along the way like Paul did. In all of the restaurants and gas stations there is someone new to meet. Our group especially made friends when we asked for directions at a gas station. Like Paul, we ate at many of the cafes and restaurants on the road. Before we got to North Carolina, we had to stay at a motel on the way that was located across the way from a gas station like the motel in the novel.

The part in the book explaining about how Mr. and Mrs. Delmonte met made me think about Edgar Allan Poe. It told about Mrs. Delmonte's parents and how they had died. The part that made me think was how her father had died. He passed away due to different kinds of alcohol including beer and whiskey. He was intoxicated and in a stupor so much that he tumbled into the snow on the pavement in an alley. This is what experts believe happened to Poe. Poe would drink much alcohol. At times he would drink none while others he drank until he was drunk. He was found in the streets on October 3, 1849 and was delirious which was probably from too much consumption of alcohol. Both Edgar Allan Poe and Mrs. Delmonte's father's deaths were very similar.

Furthermore, Paul Delmonte as well as the rest of his family is under the witness protection program. They are under the protection of this program because Mr. Delmonte testified against a group of people that was making the government corrupt. There are people out there who could potentially kill him for testifying against them. In the "real world" the witness protection program is a real program that is going on. The program is an opportunity for bystanders that witness an act of crime or an unlegal act and testify against them in court. What the witness protection program does is relocates, protects the witness and does whatever is necessary to keep the family safe. Like Paul's family in the novel there are people in the world who have taken part in this program and I made the connection that this is something true.

To be honest I truly didn't understand some of the confusing parts in the novel, but the connections that I made to our everday world helped me a great deal to comprehend the book. The connections that I made included how my family travels to North Carolina every year. Another was that I could relate Edgar Allan Poe to Mrs. Delmonte's father. Further, I realized that the witness protection agency is a real program in the world.