Poetry Precis #11: "American Cheese"

In “American Cheese” by Jim Daniels, a childlike, reminiscing tone is conveyed as he appeals to the reader through imagery of the familiar tastes, smells, and experiences in an American childhood, showing that your childhood memories always stays with you. The speaker starts out by defending his acquired taste for fine cheeses, showing how as an adult he has established himself and is more sophisticated than his simple background. Despite this, he recollects fondly, through imagery, the “American singles,” and “Day-old Wonderbread” that carried him through his childhood. Much detail is used to describe the American cheese, which represents his boyhood, like “Sixty-four Singles wrapped in wax” and how you had to  “dig your nails in to separate them.” The culmination of the poem occurs in the last stanza, where he explains that although his mother did not remember him being “a cheese eater, plain like that,” it is an insignificant thing that is really a big deal to him. Although the speaker is a grown adult and has an appreciation for bigger and better things, it is the American cheese and the memories that come along with it that he “craves” more than anything. Daniels is able to portray the message that the memories from one’s youth stay with them forever and will always be something to connect them and make them appreciate the simplicity of their childhood.