49 pages • 1 hour read
Robert CormierI Am the Cheese
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1977A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 13-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary
To find further information about Rawlings and his birth certificates, Adam transformed into a “spy,” listening in on his parents whenever he could. Though Amy was central to his life, he couldn’t tell her about the birth certificates. She didn’t take many things seriously. He is afraid she will laugh at him.
In the transcript, Brint pushes Adam to reveal what he discovered. Adam thinks Brint already knows, but if Brint knows, why would he continue this “charade”? Brint thinks the discussions “benefit” Adam. Though Adam has a headache, Brint pressures Adam to keep talking.
Thursdays were the days when Adam’s mom was the least gloomy. She baked cookies or cake and hummed or sang as she cleaned. In the evenings, she went into her room and talked on the phone. His dad called it her “special telephone hour,” but Adam didn’t know who his mom talked to each week. She had no friends, relatives, or professional commitments.
One Thursday evening, his dad went into his office basement, and his mom went to her room for her phone call. In the den, Adam picked up the phone extension and listened to his mom talk to a woman, Martha. Louise (Adam’s mom) was jealous of Martha and her safe space in the world. Martha asked about Adam, calling him her “nephew.” Louise called Adam a “good boy” and expressed remorse about the past. Adam put the phone down when he heard his dad coming. Adam had a terrible epiphany: His parents were liars.
Chapter 14 Summary
In a town called Carver, Adam drops his bike off at a police station, and without glancing at Adam, the police officer agrees to watch it. To settle his stomach, Adam orders clam chowder at a tiny, basic restaurant where three older teens eat popcorn near a jukebox.
One teen, Whipper, asks Adam if he’s hitching, and Adam mentions his bike at the police station. Whipper thinks Adam left it there because he doesn’t trust Whipper and his friends, Dobbie and Lewis. Whipper asks about the package—he wants to know what’s in it. Adam won’t divulge the contents or let Whipper look at it, so Whipper curses at him. The man at the counter breaks up the encounter and Adam runs off.
Chapter 15 Summary
The transcript begins around 2:15 am, as Brint is “available” to Adam 24 hours. Brint wants to know what’s wrong. Adam wants to know what’s going to happen. He needs Brint to “fill” in the “blanks.” He doesn’t know who he is. Adam Farmer is just a name. His name could be Cellar Steps or Kitchen Chair. Brint advises Adam not to panic, but Adam hates where he is, and the people hate him. Brint wonders how Adam knows the people here hate him. Adam knows, and he doesn’t want more needles and pills.
Chapter 16 Summary
In Carver, Adam smiles at an older woman in a red hat, and the woman smiles at him. Adam feels happy and strong. He stood up to Whipper, and he’s about to talk to Amy. When he calls Amy, a man claims there’s no Amy at his house. The man is sick, and he was on the cusp of getting some rest when the phone rang. Assuming he dialed the wrong number, Adam apologizes. Spotting Whipper and his two friends, Adam hangs up and gets on his bike.
Chapter 17 Summary
In the transcript, Adam excitedly brings up “the gray man.” Before Adam continues, Brint must sit down. Last night, Adam received a pill, and his thoughts turned toward “the gray man.” Brint wants further details, but Adam can’t remember more. He wants to go back to his room. Brint mentions Paul Delmonte. Adam wonders if Paul is “the gray man”?
Chapter 18 Summary
A mile beyond Carver, Adam bikes on a narrow country road. He hears a car coming, and the “sickly pink” vehicle nearly hits his elbow. The car leaves, but it returns, and Whipper is beyond the wheel. Adam thinks about ditching his bike and running into the field, but Adam doesn’t want to lose his bike. He thinks maybe another car will come along and help him, or perhaps the teens will grow aware of their lawless behavior and stop it. The car comes by again, and the teens in the car grab Adam and laugh as he falls into a ditch.
Chapter 19 Summary
The tape transcript is exclusively Brint. He wonders if Adam feels better. Unnamed people (“they”) say Adam won’t sleep or eat. He stares into space. Brint believes Adam is thinking and remembering traumatic moments. He pushes Adam to confront “the gray man.” If Adam doesn’t, “everything” will stop.
Chapters 13-19 Analysis
The theme of Constructing and Manipulating Identity becomes increasingly significant in Chapters 13-19 in both narrative layers. In the transcribed memory narrative, Adam’s journey toward the truth leads him further into the disillusionment and suspicion of the adult world. His bike journey becomes more dangerous and fragmented as the novel reveals glimpses that the journey is in Adam’s mind.
Adam’s suspicion is portrayed when “[Adam] became a spy, a secret agent in his own home” (75). To find out more about the birth certificates, Adam constructs an identity that allows for snooping. Intelligence gathering generates another identity—“nephew.” Adam has living relatives—an aunt who speaks to his mom every Thursday. The plural identities prompts Adam to question the authenticity of identity and even his humanity: “Adam Farmer was only a name, words, a lesson he had learned here in the cold room [….] His name might as well have been Kitchen Chair. Or Cellar Steps. Adam Farmer was nothing” (92-93). Identity becomes a construct that is removed from Adam, as it will be in the medical facility. A key focus of Adam’s suspicion is the shadowy “gray man” who appears for the first time in Chapter 17. The man plays a central role in the story, as a protector and a threat to Adam and his family. The phone calls to Amy continue to hint that something is off with Amy. When Adam reaches Amy in Chapter 16, a man who’s sick answers. Adam assumes he dialed the wrong number, which is a red herring or false foreshadowing—the number is correct. Another red herring occurs when Adam wonders if Paul Delmonte is “the gray man.” Paul Delmonte is Adam, and the gray man will be his parents’ killer. The nature of the gray man is withheld but his sinister significance is made apparent by Brint. He tells Adam, “You must face the gray man. Otherwise, everything will come to a halt” (109). The vague diction reads as a threat, alluding to Adam’s death but also the death of his parents.
Adam’s parallel journey increasingly reflects these concerns, strengthening the theme of Human Reactions of Constant Threats and Fears. Whipper, Dobbie, and Lewis taunt Adam before assaulting him with their car, prefiguring the men who cause the death of his parents. Through his heedlessness, the police officer adds to the fearful environment. Adam observes, “[H]e didn’t look at me at all. I mean, I could have had two heads or been carrying a rifle or anything and he wouldn’t have cared” (85). One reason Adam’s society stays dangerous is the people who should keep an eye out for trouble are careless or inattentive, and this is expressive of Adam’s vulnerability and his lack of protection as a child. As the novel will reveal, those who should have looked after Adam—his parents, the authorities, doctors—have let him down either through naivety or through corruption.
The theme of Journeys as Psychological Persistence and Resilience shifts in this section as the reader increasingly comes to understand that the bike journey is part of Adam’s psyche. As a result, the journey becomes a symbol of Adam’s reactions to Brint and his circumstances in the transcript narrative. Although distressed, Adam doesn’t let Brint deprive him of all his agency. Brint manipulates and coerces Adam, but Adam pushes back, apparently refusing to take medicine or eat, and trying to only speak to Brint when he feels like it. In Chapter 15, Adam summons Brint though it’s 2:15 am, showing Adam’s importance to Brint. As Adam eventually faces “the gray man,” he displays mental tenacity that mirrors that on his bike journey.
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