I Am the Cheese Study guide Claustrophobic: Fear of

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I Am the Cheese Study guide
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• Claustrophobic Fear of closed-in places
• anxiety worry
• nauseous upset stomach

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• 1. What is the setting of I Am the Cheese?
• The story takes place in Massachusetts and
  Vermont during the month of October, in modern
  times.
• 2. What is the narrator searching for?
• Adam is looking for his father.
• 3. What are three things he remembers?
• He thinks about how he left his home. He
  remembers Amy Hertz. He realizes how tired he is
• from pedaling.
• Chapter 2
• 4. Who is introduced in the beginning of the
  taping?
• Brint

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• 5. How can Adam be in bed and be telling the
  story of the bike journey at the same time?
• He does this through a flashback.
• 6. What is Adam trying to hear?
• He is lying in bed struggling to hear his
  parents conversation.
• 7. What does Adam believe his parents are
  discussing?
• He feels the adults are deciding his fate.
• 8. During the second taping (6 second interval),
  Adam remembers a trip. What happened?
• There was the smell of smoke, a crowded bus, and
  a journey.

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• 9. Adam thinks the word clues. When Brint
  asks him to explain, (Pg. 11) what is
• Adams reaction?
• He wonders if Brint can read his mind.
• 10. What are the clues?
• Adam has already provided clues, though, such as
  his father never smoking, yet Adam smells smoke,
  the medication Adam takes, and dogs.
• 11. What is Adams overwhelming feeling?
• Adam is overwhelmed with fear and panic.
• 12. Adam says, Id like to go back now. (Pg.
  11) Where is back?
• The answer is not given, a room???

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• Chapter 3
• 1. Who is the first person Adam meets?
• He encounters an elderly gas station attendant.
• 2. Adam is called Skipper. Why is this ironic?
• A skipper is a captain of a ship. The fact that
  Adam does not really know where he is headed
  makes it ironic.
• 3. How far does Adam have to travel?
• Adam has to go through seventy miles and three
  states.
• 4. What do the lines in the old mans face
  resemble?
• The veins look like a map to Adam.
• 5. How does Adam feel about the gas station
  attendant?
• Adam is very nervous, anxious, and eager to leave
  after the man discusses losing his son in WWII.

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• Chapter 4
• 1. Who is Paul Delmonte?
• We do not know yet.
• 2. What does Adam refuse?
• He does not want any medication.
• 3. When Adam is riding his bike, what tense is
  used?
• Present tense is used on the bike journey.
• 4. What does he recall?
• He remembers singing The Farmer in the Dell.

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• 5. What is Adams dads name?
• Dave
• 6. Why does the nursery rhyme fit well?
• Adams last name is Farmer.
• 7. Is he really and truly on the way to
  Rutterburg, Vermont? (Pg. 22)
• It appears as though he is, but it seems like a
  long way to travel for such a young boy.

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• 1. What makes it appear that Brint is a doctor?
  Is he?
• He seems to be concerned about Adams well being
  he knows about Adams medications and Adam
  believes that they are in a hospital. Despite the
  above, it is not known whether or not Brint is
  actually a doctor.

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• 2. What is the first clue Adam gives?
• Some other dog is the clue Brint coaxes out of
  Adam. (Pg. 31)
• 3. In the long flashback, what two characters
  walked together?
• Adam and his father were in the woods together.
• 4. What did they encounter before reaching their
  destination?
• A dog. Note that there are at least three dogs in
  this story the dog who chases Adam, the dog his
  father fights, and the dog at the very end.

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Study guide 2

• 5. Where does Adam think he and his father are
  going?
• A He says that they were headed to the library.
• 6. How did Adams father win the struggle in the
  woods?
• A He tricked the dog into biting into a tree
  limb, spun around, and threw the wood, along with
  the dog, a distance away.

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Study guide

• 7. What reaction did Adam have?
• A He had never loved his father as much as at
  that moment.
• 8. Brint asked one very telling question on the
  tape during this session. What was it?
• A He wants to know which incident is more
  important to Adam defeating the animal, or the
  reason Adam and his father were in the woods in
  the first place.

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Study guide

• 9. What is Adams answer?
• Adam felt that the encounter with the dog was so
  terrifying that it was much more important than
  the actual reason he and Dave went into the
  woods.
• 10. What is Adam still positive about?
• A Adam believes that is father was panicked, and
  fearful, when running for the cover of the trees.

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Study guide pgs. 39-54
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Pgs. 39-56

• 1. Who does Adam want to talk to on the phone?
• Amy Hertz.
• 2. What two things are bothering him?
• He is beginning to feel claustrophobic about the
  bathroom at Howard Johnsons, and there is no
  good place to leave his bike.
• 3. What happens with his phone call?
• No one answers.

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Pgs. 39-56

• 4. How does Adam describe Amy?
• She refreshes his spirit and makes him laugh. He
  says, I love her. Adam tells that doctor that
  she is more than a friend because he kissed her.
• 5. What nickname does Amy use for Adam?
• Ace, another A name.
• 6. How did they meet?
• They bumped into each other at the library, and
  their books scattered.
• 7. What is the Number?
• Amy has ideas for little pranks and calls them
  the Number.

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Pgs. 39-56

• 8. What literary term is the sentence her eyes
  were blue flowers?
• It is an example of a metaphor
• 9. How is Adams mother described?
• She is described as withdrawn, upset, tense,
  transformed, and antiseptic.
• 10. Is there really blood staining his cheeks
  while Amy is in the bathroom?
• No. She farted and he is horrified. Her common
  behavior spoiled the image of her perfection that
  Adam had constructed.

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Pg. 39-56

• 11. The phrase, a bit of shock therapy is used
  by Amy to explain to Adam that he should not
  think of her as something special. Why is this
  incident important?
• At present, the reason for this irony is not
  revealed. This is one of the first clues pointing
  to the climax of the novel.

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Pg. 39-56

• 12. Give an example of the Number.
• Amy filled shopping carts at the market with one
  type of item and then abandoned them. She played
  a trick on one of the clerks. She and Adam filled
  twelve carts dangerously high and brought them
  all together at the front of the market.
• 13. Do the incidents at the market seem real?
• Kids enjoy playing pranks, so yes.
• 14. Amy calls Adam in the next flashback and asks
  him about his past. What does she want to know?
• She says that a person visiting her father lives
  in Adams hometown, but does not know anyone
  named Dave Farmer, which is Adams fathers name.
  

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14. contd

• He remembers a day Amy called to tell him that,
  while at her father's newspaper office, an editor
  had dropped in for a visit from Rawlings,
  Pennsylvania, where Adam had told her his family
  had moved from. She said that the editor did not
  know of a Farmer family. Adam lied to Amy that
  they only lived in Rawlings for a few months, but
  he became more curious about his family's past.

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Pgs.39-56

• 15. Adam remembers something, but he remains
  silent toward Brint. What does Adam not say?
• He wants to reassure Amy that he and his parents
  were all born in Rawlings, but he says nothing.
• 16. What previous incident does the memory of
  flight refer to?
• It refers to Adam and his father fleeing into the
  woods.

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Pgs. 39-56

• 17. What new ability does Adam discover about
  himself that amazes him?
• He lied to Amy, and he was surprised at how easy
  it was.
• 18. What were two landmarks Brint explains to
  Adam, and what was Adams age each time?
• The first time he was running from the dog at age
  9. The second time was Amys call when he was 14.