A Cheesy Quiz Part Two

Answer: Adam and Brint

This transcript is the first indication that the book is different in its construct. As the story unfolds and more of these transcripts appear, the reader begins to see there is a clear connection between the bike trip narrative and this second part--the taped transcripts. It is later that the reader discovers that "T" stands for Brint.

Answer: first person

The book starts out with a first person narrative of a teen boy who goes by the name of Adam. However, as the story unfolds there is more than just Adam's point of view of the story to process. There is a three-way narrative that moves the plot along--an unusual writing device when the book came out.

Answer: true

While Adam relates some of his childhood in his first person narrative, the reader learns more about his childhood in the unnamed third person narrative that comes after the taped sessions between Brint and Adam.

Answer: search for identity

While aspects of the other choices do occur in the story, Adam's bike journey primarily signifies Adam's search for his growing need to go from trusting child to savvy adolescent. His bike journey represents the teenager's need to pull away from the nurturing of the parent to the independence of becoming an adult.

Answer: A man states there is no Amy that lives at the number dialed

At first Adam cannot reach Amy, and then as the story continues he does get someone on the line, but it seems like Adam has reached a wrong number. Finally, the man who answers gets annoyed saying he has had the number for three years and states no Amy has ever lived there that he knows of.

Answer: elderly couple

Adam is run into the ditch by a group of unruly teens looking for kicks. A cheerful old man and his ailing grumpy wife help Adam out by loading his bike into their car and giving him a lift to the next town. The elderly couple might represent the wisdom and security that older people can offer teens as they are looking for answers on their journey through life.

Answer: true

Adam does get suspicious of Brint, but he decides to continue the sessions even though the answers create physical pain as the remembering of his past becomes more vivid. Sometimes finding out the truth can be painful.

Answer: Paul

Adam discovers his real name is Paul Delmonte, not Adam Farmer. He learns his parents had been hiding the truth from him, yet the truth actually brought them closer together instead of distancing them.

Answer: he is greeted by a doctor, for he is a patient there

The ending is the beginning in many ways. Adam/Paul is actually a patient of this government run hospital, and all that is encountered on his bike journey is found on the hospital grounds. There is a blend of fantasy with reality mixed into the conclusion for Adam/Paul begins the narrative all over again.

Answer: new realism

Up until Cormier's "I Am the Cheese", most young adult literature consisted of sports stories or happy teenagers engaged in adolescent rituals such as attending the prom, with everyone living happily ever after. Cormier changed things up with presenting a story with the protagonist living through some real struggles and ending the book with an unresolved conclusion.