I Will Find You

Family is a motivating force for both the protagonist and antagonists. Familial love overcomes all personal, moral, and legal considerations and provokes sympathy for David—as a desperate father seeking his missing son. David’s father Lenny and David’s godfather Philip are close as brothers, as are David and Philip’s son Adam. Philip has another connection to the Burroughs in his lifelong love for David’s aunt Sofie. When both Philip and David return to their old neighborhood at different points and see Lenny and Sofie, it awakens old connections. Overall, the father-son relationship is I Will Find You’s most frequent representation of family. Even when sentenced to life in prison, David’s commitment to his son Matthew is absolute. He loses motivation with this loss, doubly so when his family—especially his father—thinks him capable of murder. His father figure Philip also believes in his guilt, but he and Adam ultimately make up for it by helping David escape prison. Hayden is another father, driven to real murder and kidnapping to claim the boy he believes to be his biological son—Matthew (or “Theo”). When David finally reunites with Matthew, whom he temporarily believes is not genetically related to him, his unconditional love prevails.