CHAPTER ONE

Vocabulary current - repulsive - thicket - possessed - coarse - grating - cloak - catastrophe - to edge - occasionally - penetrate - merely - tuft - veil - to dwell upon - dazzlingly - dwell - to urge - footing mind - (noun) - to mutter - dozed - identity - clenched

Questions

1. As in most novels, the first chapter introduces the character and sets the scene for what is to follow. But what you are told in the first chapter of I Am David is some- what mysterious, even outright confusing. A snippet of information here, a tantalizing bit there. Why does the author do that? Why doesn't he tell you outright who David is and where he is?

2. Why does David hate the man? Does this hatred seem justified, considering what the man is doing for him? Explain.

3. Look up the word paranoid. Would you call David paranoid? Explain by giving examples that might explain David's odd behaviour.

4. Throughout life, you will judge your environment by certain reference points, which you have acquired over the years as a result of what you have seen, heard, experienced, and learned. What are David's reference points? How do you know? In what ways will that handicap him in judging what is to come during his trek across Europe?

5. What indications do you have that David is above average intelligence? How would the average twelve year old have reacted under the circumstances?

6. In the truck, on his way to Salonica, David experiences a moment of intense fear. How does this sudden fear come about? How does David conquer it? Who is Johannes? What does he symbolize? Why does Johannes "stay behind in Salonica"?

7. Why doesn't the sailor report David to the captain of the ship, but instead helps him jump ship just before it reaches Italy?

8. In a short paragraph describe what David feels when he wakes up from his first night on Italian soil?

9. Geographically, David has moved from wherever the camp is, to Italy. From where has he moved emotionally?

10. Make a short list, in point form, of the bits of information you have thus far received about David. CHAPTER TWO

Vocabulary intermingled - lithe - irresolutely - irksome - intervals - spurs - verge - clamber - credit - arancia - apfelsinen - intricate - passionate

Questions

1. The Chapter begins with a descriptive paragraph. List the descriptive words.

2. David gives himself a good scrubbing. But he is doing more than just washing himself. Re- check the meaning of the word symbolic and explain what is symbolic about David cleansing himself. Why is it so important to him? What effect does it have on his relationships with his surroundings? List the words that indicate a change in David.

3. Why does the author give so much detail about David's decision to cross the road and find a good hiding place?

4. After finding a hiding place, David goes over his plan of action and carefully makes a list of his strengths and weaknesses. (a) Make a list of things that are to his credit. Explain how they might help in the future. (b) Make a list of things he is ignorant about. Explain how this might cause problems for him. (c) Name three character traits which David reveals about himself during his deliberations. Which trait is most adult-like? Explain.

5. Why had David thought at one time that he might be Jewish?

6. Why had there been scarcely any difference between the men and the women in the camp?

7. What things does David experience in the small town? What special qualities does David notice in the people? Are the people really a particularly fortunate group? Explain.

8. David thinks that the baker has "the same slightly stupid expression, the same good- natured eyes" as the sailor (p.43). Why does he use the word stupid.

9. What major misinterpretation makes David leave town?

10. What is strange about David's eyes?

11. What has David learned at the end of the chapter? Do you think David is really old beyond his years? Does he act like a grown up? Explain. CHAPTERS THREE & FOUR

Vocabulary exhausting - terrain - tramp - clump - dispassionately - disconcerted - offended - fortunately - brevity - anxious - awkward - ensnare - sinister - voluntary - looked put out - manage - embroidered - genuine - cypresses - fetch - petrol - cake - conspicuous - lorries - vineyard - hostage - hiding - daft - birch-broom - succumbed

Questions

1. Why did David miss to see boys his own age while he visited the town? Do you think the reasons he gives are the correct ones? What other reasons could there have been?

2. Why could David think about the man calmly and dispassionately?

3. Why does David feel he still has to obey the man and go north to Denmark, even though the man can no longer control him?

4. After losing his compass, David decided that he must have a God.

(a) What purpose would a God serve? (b) What kind of God does he select for himself? What factors are considered by David as he makes his choice? (c) Which factor do you think is the most important to him? Explain. (d) Read David's prayer and tell what he expects from God. (e) Compare his God with those he rejects. What does this tell you about David?

5. How does David find the direction to the North now that he has lost his compass? What would you do to find the way back if you were lost in the woods of the Laurentians?

6. What words does David use in analysing the English couple?

7. When David helps the couple he feels: "... a strong impulse to do something quite voluntary for another person... It felt almost like possessing something, something so big that he could give some of it away." (p.63) Explain what he means with that.

8. David has a way of deciding if a country is a free one or not. What is his method? Do you think it is a good one? Explain.

9. Why is it that David cannot teach himself to smile.

10. David, till he meets Angelo, had thought that good people must also be clever. Why did he think so and why was he puzzled? 11. 1Why had the prisoners in the camp said: "Don't tell the boy anything they may try to worm out of him afterwards"?

12. When David meets up with the mean little boy, he doesn't fight back. Explain why he doesn't and why he compares the boy with the camp guards.

13. Reread the quotation in Question #7.

(a) To what extent is this same feeling the cause for David's rescue of Maria? (b) What roles do his own feelings toward the girl play? (c) Reread page 86: "He was just going.... return!" Why does David feel he needs to repay God? (d) Of all the above causes, which one do you feel gave David the most strength to carry out the rescue?

14. In your own words give a description of the house of the di Levana del "Varchi family.

15. David has been his own master ever since he arrived in Italy. He has been free to select a God, to travel as he wishes and to learn whatever he wishes. After saving Maria, the family insists that David come to their home so that the mother can thank him. David has never been inside a house before and he feels a "vague disquiet" (p.95). What explanations can you give for his fear?

16. Why do you think does the author let David meet such rich people? CHAPTERS FIVE & SIX

Vocabulary

lather - gracious - evil - deception - stab - vitamins - absurd - slatted - shutters - object - rebuffed - contempt - seed-pearls - wretched – sorrow

Questions

1. Why does Chapter 5 start with an analysis of the word beautiful?

2. Why was the bathroom lovely rather than beautiful and good?

3. As the days pass by, David finds he quite enjoys living in a house. List the new and exciting discoveries he makes. How do the children respond to the things David finds so interesting? Why are their responses different in some cases. Explain and give examples.

4. Why did the book have to be published before 1917, so that they couldn't have made it up? Check what famous historical event - "that shook the world" - took place in that year.

5. What characteristics do David and Maria share? How is she different from David? In your opinion how would their relationship have developed if David had stayed?

6. David's hatred for Carlo is described as pure. What does that mean? Are David's actions toward Carlo "normal" for a twelve-year old boy? Explain.

7. Why are Andrea's questions more threatening to David than Maria's questions?

8. Do you think the children are aware that David is different? Explain, using examples from the chapters.

9. The mother of the children explains to her husband why David has to go. What are her arguments? Are they valid? What are the husband's arguments? Are they valid? Why does he give in?

10. All through his travels, David has talked to his God. When he finally enters a church, he meets a priest.

(a) Explain how this meeting affects David's choice of his God. (b) How does this choice affects David's own identity? (c) He arrives at some kind of conclusion on pages 143-145. Do you agree with his conclusions? Explain. 11. In what ways are Signora Bang's treatment and understanding of David different from those of the rich Italian couple?

12. Why does chapter 6 end with a discussion on the meaning of sorrow. What is the meaning of sorrow according to Signora Bang? CHAPTERS SEVEN & EIGHT

Vocabulary

investigating - circumstances - existence - irresistibly - precipice - hurtling - staggering - affection - meddle - scrabbling - apprehensive - dejected - muzzle - interrogate – distinctly

Questions

1. At the beginning of Chapter 7, the author explains how David finds out about his mother and the situation he is in. (a) Do you feel the author has done this in a convincing way? Explain. (b) Do you feel that, at this stage in his life, David's fear of them and they are covincingly explained by the author? Give your reasons.

2. Why did the man hate David, while at the same time looking after him? Why did the man let David escape?

3. Why do you think did the author include the episode in which David has to work for the "evil- hearted" farmer?

4. After having seen many good people, David is suddenly thrown back into a cruel atmosphere. (a) Give examples to show how the Swiss farmer and his family are like them. (b) Compare David's time with Signora Bang with the time at the Swiss farmer's. Use the following headings: freedom of thought and freedom of action. (c) What is the connection between the seasons and David's stay with the farmer?

5. Throughout the story, David has been careful to protect himself, to hide his identity and thus, keep his freedom. In the end, he does not gain his freedom on his own; King sacrifices his own life for David. (a) How does David get back among them? How does he know? (b) To what degree does David's decision to run indicate a change in his attitude towards them? (c) Why does the dog's action affect David so deeply? Consider his last prayer (p.185) as well as his final understanding of the dog's behaviour. (d) How does this affect David's attitude as he completes the last leg of his journey? (e) How has King's act changed David's idea of freedom?

6. Why does the book end the way it does, without you knowing anything more about David and his mother?