I Am the Cheese

Cormier published his novel in 1977, at a time corruption was at the forefront of public consciousness in America. Republican President Richard Nixon had resigned in August 1974 due to his involvement in the Watergate scandal. In June 1972, a break-in at the Washington, DC’s Watergate Office Building, where the Democratic National Committee kept its headquarters, caused a large amount of evidence to be brought into the public domain, creating scandal for many leading politicians and administrators. Evidence showed that Nixon had recorded conversations with others about how to sabotage political opponents. This scandal led to a lack of trust in institutions in America.

This lack of trust is captured in I Am the Cheese. The older man at the gas station captures the paranoid mood of the post-Nixon era when he tells Adam, “No privacy, either. Next time you use a phone, you listen. Listen close. You might hear a click. And if you do, then somebody’s listening” (18). The subject of government and institutional corruption is directly addressed by the novel’s premise of whistleblowing and retribution. Louise—Adam’s mom—stresses extensive malfeasance when she states, “The people your father testified against are members of a huge organization, linked perhaps with other organizations. Like an evil growth: cut off one part and another part still grows” (172). The “evil growth” alludes to the huge number of people embroiled in the Watergate scandal of a few years before. The novel suggests that Adam may be confined to the psychiatric hospital because this is expedient as a cover-up rather than for his own care, exploring the subjects of gaslighting and scapegoating.

The novel’s treatment of public trust in government and institutions is highly relevant to a modern audience. In 2020, people questioned the government’s role in COVID-19 and became increasingly anxious about the nature and purpose of political power. Modern media and the proliferation of deepfakes, misinformation, and conspiracy theories also make it difficult for the public to feel certainty about the truth of information and their sources. I Am the Cheese can be read as prophetic about the ways in which this can impact a sense of identity, security, and self-confidence.

Cormier subtly promoted the trust of strangers by using his personal phone number as Amy’s number in the novel. From this point until his death, he was regularly contacted by readers of the book who rang that number.