I Am David

“I’d like a piece of soap.”

For David, cleaning himself after the dirtiness of the camp plays an important symbolic purpose. He has never asked the man for anything before this point; this illustrates how important becoming clean is for David. He is delighted to wash himself thoroughly in Italy, and this action makes him feel free.

“Don’t think, don’t think!”

For the three years since Johannes’s death, David has carefully schooled himself not to think. He isolates himself and limits his thoughts to his immediate surroundings and practical concerns; this allows David to survive the grief and trauma of the concentration camp. However, once David escapes, his mind is opened. He must confront his ignorance and relearn the importance of human connection, religion, self-reliance, and happiness.

“I’m going with you to Salonica.”

David hears Johannes’s voice in his mind, telling him that he will accompany him to Salonica. This comes at a moment when David feels overwhelmed with loneliness and fear. David calling on Johannes’s memory at this moment illustrates Johannes's important role as a loving friend and mentor. David recalling Johannes marks the beginning of David’s recovery from his enforced emotional isolation.

“The Italian had brought the lifebelt, however, and a piece of bread as well.”

David is accustomed to cruelty and unkindness. The strangers who help him on his journey, including the Italian sailor who feeds him and brings him a lifebelt, help David to relearn trust and human connection.

“His tears continued to flow, faster and faster, and he brushed them angrily away so that the mist before his eyes should not veil that beauty from him. Suddenly he knew that he did not want to die.”

David has only known beauty as a metaphorical concept described by Johannes. When he observes the Italian coastline, he sees beauty for the first time epitomized in the landscape. The sight moves David to tears and inspires him to want to live. This alludes to the important theme explored by Holm: Beauty as Healing and Inspiring.

“Sometimes when they first arrived in camp they were quite white and clean all over with no smell about them.”

The dirtiness and dehumanization experienced by individuals living in the concentration camp are alluded to in David’s limited memory of clean people. People arrived clean but were soon reduced by the filthy conditions to live in dirtiness for years.

“He was David. Everything else was washed away, the camp, its smell, its touch—and now he was David, his own master, free.”

Cleanliness is symbolically connected with freedom and self-autonomy, whereas dirtiness reminds David of the violence, cruelty, and imprisonment that characterized the concentration camp. Cleaning is a cathartic process for David; it allows him to feel free and experience a renewed sense of humanity and autonomy.

“He did not know who he was, did not even know what country he came from.”

David’s identity is established as a mystery. Reader’s interest is piqued by the notion that David knows nothing of himself apart from his name. His journey of self-discovery, culminating in his reunion with his mother in Denmark, is alluded to.

“Almost everyone was laughing! It was not the ugly laughter he was used to when they laughed at the prisoners … it sounded pleasant, even beautiful, as if they were all content, and felt friendly towards one another.”

The cruelty of the camp is alluded to in the tragic association David has formed between laughter and cruelty, and in his surprise that people could seem content and friendly. David must learn that the world is not universally cruel and antagonistic.

“David looked at the church for a long time. He felt it had some meaning for him, but he could not tell what.”

Later in the story, David loses his compass and discovers that a belief in God is uplifting and inspiring. This revelation, essential to David’s survival and identity, is alluded to in his interest in churches.

“If you smile at him, he doesn’t smile back … and his eyes … they’re so quiet looking.”

David’s trauma is evident in his inability to interact normally with people. Many people on David’s journey comment on his unusual ways of speaking and acting—the result of a childhood surrounded only by adults in the misery of the concentration camp.

“God of the green pastures and still waters, I am David and I choose you as my God!”

David replaces his lost compass with a belief in God, indicating how God becomes a guide and comfort to David. Holm suggests through David’s experience that religion helps one survive life’s challenges, as well as allowing for self-reflection and growth in line with values of kindness and forgiveness.

“The man told him that at the moment there was a queen because the last king had no sons, only daughters.”

The context of I am David is alluded to here: The events occur after Queen Elizabeth II's ascension in 1952. The concentration camp where David lived was likely one of the forced labor camps run by the Soviet Government in Bulgaria.

“The lorry driver looked exactly like the sailor who had shielded him aboard the ship!”

David fearfully takes a lift with a truck driver, Angelo. This man is similar physically as well as emotionally to the kind sailor. Angelo’s resemblance to the sailor helps David trust him. Through numerous positive interactions like this one, David learns that the world is not entirely malevolent but instead that there are kind and helpful individuals.

“He scrubbed himself thoroughly all over. […] Not until all contact with him [Carlo] had been washed away would David be able to feel free again.”

David feels violated by the violence inflicted by Carlo; it is reminiscent of the cruelty of the camp. The symbolism of cleanliness being paired with freedom is again foregrounded in David’s determination to wash himself to metaphorically rid himself of the violence.

“He, David, had promised God that he would give Him the little girl, all by himself and without help—and he had done it. And God was clearly pleased with his gift: had not He immediately shown him how to smile?”

David’s belief in God inspires him to save Maria from the fire. This moment of human connection elicits David’s first genuine smile and first moment of pure happiness. Holm suggests that believing in God can inspire people to live bravely and kindly.

“And there was soap, large pieces of it […]. It rubbed into a beautiful, soft lather.”

David’s pleasure in the bathroom in the family’s home is evident in his detailed, sensory description of it. As David symbolically associates cleanliness with freedom, he is overjoyed with the luxurious space.

“His eyes frighten me, too. They’re like the eyes of an old man, an old man who’s seen so much in life that he no longer cares to go on living. They’re […] very, very lonely.”

David’s eyes, often commented on by people throughout his journey, allude to the extensive trauma and loneliness he suffered in the concentration camp. David later notices his mother’s eyes in the photo at Sophie’s, and it is implied that his mother also experienced significant trauma, which also is hinted at in her eyes.

“I’ve found out that green pastures and still waters are not enough to live by, and nor is freedom. Not when you know there’s love and you haven’t anyone you belong to.”

David’s connection with Maria makes him realize that a solitary life is not as fulfilling as one characterized by human connection and love. This realization foreshadows his eventual reunion with his mother, Edith, in Denmark at the end of the story.

“Her eyes look as if…as if she’d known a great deal, and yet she’s still smiling.”

David comments on his mother’s eyes, which convey trauma and suffering, as David’s do also. However, Edith is still smiling. The reader hopes that once David finds Edith, he, too, can smile, despite his eyes, which convey his loneliness and pain.

“He was very powerful […] and […] He expected you to think for yourself.”

While captive in the farmer’s stable, David realizes that he must escape the situation himself rather than rely on God for assistance. David realizes that he was imperfect in chastising God, which prompts him to reflect on Carlo, who is also imperfect. David realizes that he was harsh to Carlo, and he writes him an apology letter.

“A tree in full bloom was among the most beautiful of things, and David’s smile came unbidden.”

Holm suggests that beauty can be healing and inspiring. David is reinspired on his journey by observing the beauty of spring in Switzerland.

“The dog had gone with him freely, and it had met its death freely, in order to protect David.”

David is moved, amazed, and grief-stricken when his dog, King, is shot. He reflects that, like himself, King was free. David is honored by the dog’s sacrifice, which allows him to evade recapture.