I am David

The Historical fictional book novel ‘I Am David’ (1963) by Anne Holm conveys ideas of loss of freedom and sustained hop. The book ‘I Am David’ revolves around a young boy who is twelve years old, barely younger than the children reading this book is surviving in a concentration camp in Bulgaria. One day he is given a chance to escape the camp and experience freedom independence and hope.
David is clenching on to hope that he can escape the concentration camp and flee to Denmark and find his mother. His character conveys the determination of a human being able to survive on little belief in a bleak environment. The use of conjunction in, quote ‘If you are alive you can change things, but if you are dead you can’t, shows that David is still hanging on to hope that he can find his long lost mother. Johannes who is David’s best friend in the camp says ‘Believe in power to change your destiny. The use of second person, displays the human desire and strength of survival in believing. In summary David believes that he can escape the camp without being caught so that he can find his long lost mother.
David is complaining about the lack of freedom that he gets when he says the use of first person,’ ‘ I wish I was dead’ shows highlights that he wanted to die due to not having choice in the life he was living in. The missing freedom is further demonstrated through the hyphen, “he was now twelve years old- it said so on his identity card”. This displays David’s loss of freedom through his inability to know his proper self due to the trust in his identity card.
In conclusion the book ‘I Am David’ by Anne Holm is mainly teaching us what it is like to have freedom and teaching us not to take it for granted, as most of us do. She also teaches us not to give up and believe in yourself.