Trivia quiz on Willa Cather, “The Song of the Lark” & “My Ántonia”

Trivia Quiz for Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark (1915) and My Ántonia (1918)

For West Seattle “Classic Novels (and Movies)” book club, 3/27/22

1. Women’s work. Cather’s novels provide a glimpse of the paths available for girls growing up in the rural heartland of the USA in the early 1900s. Which one of the following careers is not portrayed as a possibility for women, in the two works we read?

a. Opera singer                       

b. Wife and mother                

c. Teacher

d. Attorney                             

e. Seamstress                         

f. Real estate investor

g. Maid                                   

h. Church pianist                   

i. Boarding house owner

j. Laundress                            

k. Cook/Housekeeper

2. Overcoming adversity. The two heroines—Thea Kronberg and Ántonia Shimerda (later Cuzak)—undergo many hardships before finding success. Which one of the following obstacles does not adversely affect them, over the long run?

a. unplanned pregnancy         

b. poverty                   

c. familial hostility    

d. foreign languages

e. lassitude / lack of will power                     

f. growing up in rural isolation

3. Social satire. Although her tone is kinder than some writers we’ve read, Willa Cather does ridicule social convention. Of the following passages, which one is written by Cather?

a. “No matter in what straits the Pennsylvanian or Virginian found himself, he would not let his daughters go out in service. Unless his girls could teach a country school, they sat at home in poverty.”

b. “Left-wing people are always sad because they mind dreadfully about their causes, and the causes are always going so badly.”

c. “To a feather-brained school girl, nothing is sacred.”

d. “There were two classes of charitable people; one, the people who did a little and made a great deal of noise; the other, the people who did a great deal and made no noise at all.”

4. On Love with or without Marriage (and vice versa). It may surprise modern readers to discover multiple critiques of marriage in Cather’s work, given its early time period. Which one of the following is not by Cather?

a. “’I don’t see why anybody wants to marry an artist anyhow. … You might have kept me in misery for a while, perhaps. … I have to think well of myself, to work. You could have made it hard.”

b. “Loverless and inexpectant of love, I was as safe from spies in my heart-poverty, as the beggar from thieves.”

c. “She is handsome, energetic, executive, but to me she seems … temperamentally incapable of enthusiasm. … She has her own fortune and lives her own life. For some reason, she wishes to remain Mrs. X.”

d. “Men are all right for friends, but as soon as you marry them they turn into cranky old fathers, even the wild ones. They begin to tell you what’s sensible and what’s foolish, and want you to stick at home all the time.”

5. Maxims. Life lessons run through both books. Which one of the following is not by Cather?

a. “Living’s too much trouble unless one can get something big out of it.”

b. “The children you don’t especially need, you have always with you, like the poor. But the bright ones get away from you.”

c. “Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man’s face. It cannot be concealed.”

d. “Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again.”

6. Humorous Asides. Cather’s portraits of unlikable characters provide some comic relief. Which one of the following lines is not by Cather?

a. “Her face had a kind of heavy, thoughtless beauty, like a pink peony just at the point of beginning to fade. … She gave the impression of wearing a cargo of splendid merchandise.”

b. “X was an intensely dreary girl … who had failed so far to marry, and seemed to have no biological reason for existing.”

c. “X [had a] very fat wife, who had a farm of her own, and who bossed her husband, I was delighted to hear.”

d. “It was excruciating to sit there day after day and hear her; there was something shameless and indecent about not singing true.”

7. On Nature. Which of the following lines is not from Cather’s works?

a. “This earth seemed to her young and fresh and kindly, a place where refugees from old, sad countries were given another chance. … a naïve, generous country.”

b. [About apple trees in an orchard]: “’I love them as if they were people,’ she said, rubbing her hand over the bark. ‘There wasn’t a tree here when we first came. We planted every one.’”

c. X was “drinking her coffee and forcing open the petals of the roses with an ardent and rather rude hand.”

d. “Through the screaming wind they heard things crashing and things hurtling and dashing with unbelievable velocity. A baby rabbit, terror ridden, squirmed through a hole in the floor.”

8-10. Finding beauty in an imperfect world. Match the quote to the character. Characters include: a. Thea Kronberg; b. Ántonia Cuzak; c. Lena Lingard

8. “She laughed her mellow, easy laugh, that was either very artless or very comprehending, one never knew quite which. … I caught a faint odor of violet sachet.”

9. “She could lie there hour after hour in the sun and listen to the strident whir of the big locusts, and to the light, ironical laughter of the quaking asps. … her power to think seemed converted into a power of sustained sensation.”

10. “A stalwart, brown woman, flat-chested, her curly, brown hair a little grizzled … She was there, in the full vigor of her personality, battered but not diminished.”

11. An origin tale. Although it details the lives of many immigrants, My Ántonia claims to be narrated by a person who was born in the USA. What state is their birthplace?

a. Oklahoma  

b. Indiana       

c. Iowa           

d. Nebraska                 .

ANSWERS

1. d.

2. e.

3. a.

4. b. (That quote is from Villette by Charlotte Brontë.)

5. c. (That quote is from The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde.)

6. b. (That quote is from The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford.)

7. d. (That quote is from Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.)

8. c.

9. a.

10. b

11. d.

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Christmas Trivia Quiz! (re: stories by Gogol, Capote & Thomas)

Trivia Quiz for Christmas stories

Nikolai Gogol, The Night Before Christmas (Russian, 1832)

Truman Capote, A Christmas Memory (American, 1956)

Dylan Thomas, A Child’s Christmas in Wales (Welsh, 1950)

For West Seattle “Classic Novels (and Movies)” book club, 12/19/21

Timelessness. Each story suggests the eternal essence of holiday magic, yet their styles capture that feeling in different ways. Match quote to author: a. Nikolai Gogol; b. Truman Capote; or c. Dylan Thomas

1. “One Christmas was so much like another, in those years…”

2. “It’s always the same: a morning arrives in November, and my friend, as though officially inaugurating the Christmas time of year … announces: ‘It’s fruitcake weather!’”

3. “A clear winter night had come; the stars peeped out; the moon rose majestically in the sky to light good people and all the world so that all might enjoy singing.”

Delicious food! Each story details the treats that accompany the holidays. Match the special food to the author: a. Nikolai Gogol; b. Truman Capote; or c. Dylan Thomas

4. rice, honey, and fat bacon and sausage

5. toffee, fudge, allsorts, crunches, cracknel, humbugs, glaciers, marzipan, and butterwelsh

6. a beef bone, some Satsuma oranges, flapjacks, fried squirrel, and honey-in-the-comb

Seasonal sounds. Each story evokes sounds that signify winter and holidays. Match the special sound to the author: a. Nikolai Gogol; b. Truman Capote; or c. Dylan Thomas

7. “A wild turkey calls. A renegade hog grunts in the undergrowth…. Here, there, a flash, a flutter, an ecstasy of shrillings remind us that not all the birds have flown south.”

8. “The snow sparkled… Groups of lads and girls appeared with sacks. Songs rang out, and under almost every cottage window were crowds of carol-singers.”

9. “It seemed that all the churches boomed for joy under my window; and the weathercocks crew for Christmas, on our fence.”

Maxims about life. Each story contains some lesson to be learned. Match the teaching to the author who mentions it: a. Nikolai Gogol; b. Truman Capote; or c. Dylan Thomas

10. “And when we stopped running … everything was good again and shone over the town.”

11. “Home is where my friend is.”

12. “Things are queerly arranged in our world! All who live in it are always trying to outdo and imitate one another.”

Hints of melancholy. Each story alludes to some mystery or sadness as well. Match the quote to the author: a. Nikolai Gogol; b. Truman Capote; or c. Dylan Thomas

13. “One, two, three, and we began to sing … round the house that was occupied by nobody we knew. … And then a small, dry voice, like the voice of someone who has not spoken for a long time, joined our singing: a small, dry, eggshell voice”

14. “Is it because my friend is shy with everyone except strangers that these strangers, and merest acquaintances, seem to us our truest friends? I think yes.”

15. “She is jeering at me. I am no more to her than an old rusty horseshoe.”

16. Snow! Circle the story which does not mention a snowy Christmas.

a. The Night Before Christmas           b. A Christmas Memory          c. A Child’s Christmas in Wales

Women’s work. Women are a force to be reckoned with in these stories, in vastly different ways.

17. Nikolai Gogol’s story pivots around the actions of certain women. Which is not in the story?

a. One woman beats her husband, then “sighing and groaning, waddled off to tell her old friends of her husband’s unmannerliness and the blows she had to put up with from him.”

b. A witch steals the stars out of the sky.

c. Oksana, the village beauty, is so full of caprices that most of her would-be suitors give up on her.

d. A poor woman receives a white wool shawl knitted by her sister one year.

18. Dylan Thomas describes all but one of the following women in his story. Which does not belong?

a. “Mothers, aunts and sisters scuttled to and fro, bearing tureens.”

b. One neighbor is condemned by his auntie because: “For all the husband’s faults, the wife is guilty.”

c. “Some few small aunts, not wanted in the kitchen, nor anywhere else for that matter, sat on the very edges of their chairs, poised and brittle, afraid to break, like faded cups and saucers.”

d. After a few drinks of port, one aunt stands “in the middle of the snowbound back yard, singing like a big-bosomed thrush.”

19. Truman Capote’s tale is dominated by a female friend who is described as all but one of the following. Which attribute does not belong to her?

a. Superstitious, she spends the thirteenth of each month in bed.

b. She was not known to go to movies, eat in restaurants, wish anyone harm, or let a hungry dog go hungry.

c. She takes a long time getting dressed, and loves to preen before a looking-glass in admiration.

d. She was known to kill rattlesnakes, tame hummingbirds, tell ghost stories, and walk in the rain.

20. Beautiful styles! Which is not by Dylan Thomas? [hint: there are two correct answers.]

a. “Snow grew overnight on the roofs of houses like a pure and grandfather moss.”

b. “It seemed to him as though all the houses had fixed their innumerable fiery eyes upon him, watching.”

c. “The wind through the trees made noises as of old and unpleasant and maybe webfooted men wheezing in caves.”

d. “A message saying so merely confirms a piece of news some secret vein had already received, severing from me an irreplaceable part of myself, letting it loose like a kite on a broken string. That is why, walking across a school campus on this particular December morning, I keep searching the sky.”

ANSWERS:

1. c

2. b

3. a

4. a

5. c

6. b

7. b

8. a

9. c

10. c

11. b

12. a

13. c

14. b

15. a

16. b

17. d  (That describes Capote’s friend)

18. b (That quote is from Pavlova, A Double Life)

19. c  (That description applies to a character in Gogol’s story)

20. b (from Gogol) and d (from Capote)

Trivia quiz for “Not Without Laughter” by Langston Hughes

Trivia Quiz for Not Without Laughter by Langston Hughes (1930)

For West Seattle “Classic Novels (and Movies)” book club, 9/19/21

1. The Growing Child’s Perspective.  On women, love and marriage. Which of the following quips about women is not in the novel?

a. “X was an intensely dreary girl … who had failed so far to marry, and seemed to have no biological reason for existing.”

b. “I ain’t never seen a yaller dude yet that meant a dark woman no good.”

c. “She knew how it was, of course, that her husband hadn’t written before. That was all right now.”

d. “Treat ‘em like chickens, son. Throw ‘em a little corn and they’ll run after you, but don’t give ‘em too much. If you do, they’ll stop layin’ and expect you to wait on ‘em.”

2. On work, money and justice. Which of the following is not in Hughes’s novel?

a. “She was a good nurse… Sometimes they paid her and sometimes they didn’t.”

b. “On Thursdays she did the Reinarts’ washing, on Fridays she ironed it, and on Saturdays she sent it home, clean and beautifully white, and received as pay the sum of seventy-five cents.”

c. “’I was not thinking of the slave-trade,’ replied X; ‘governess-trade, I assure you, was all that I had in view; widely different certainly as to the guilt of those who carry it on.’”

d. “I reckon white folks does think right smart of me … They always likes you when you tries to do right.”

3. On secrets and misunderstandings. Which of the following is not in the novel?

a. “X had lived too long with three women not to have learned to hold his tongue about the private doings of each of them.  … he “saw it with his eyes, but not with his mouth.”

b. “Her longing for love had become an obsession.”

c. “X had discovered long ago that you could hear and see many things by not going to sleep when the family expected you to.”

d. “He had discovered already, though, that so-called jokes are often not really jokes at all, but rather unpleasant realities that hurt.”

4. The Savvy Youth’s Perspective.  As time passes, the narration begins questioning certain statements and truths. Which of the following lines is not in the book?

a. “It was all great fun, and innocent fun except when one stopped to think, as white folks did, that some of the blues lines had, not only double, but triple meanings.”

b. “X wondered how people got to be great, as, one by one, he made the spittoons bright.”

c. “’It’s too bad you aren’t white.’ … X had taken this to heart, not as an insult, but as a compliment.”

d. “How incredible that anyone should insist on living in that squalid building that would be demolished any day now.”

5. The Emerging Adult Perspective.  On religion, fighting, and doing good. Which of the following is not from Hughes’s book?

a. “I’m very ready to believe his character will improve, and acquire from hers the steadiness and delicacy of principle that it wants.”

b. “But I don’t want heaven! I want to live first! … I want to live!”

c. “To those who lived on the other side of the railroad and never realized the utter stupidity of the word ‘sin’, the Bottoms was vile and wicked.”

d. “‘To the uninitiated it would seem that a fight was imminent. But underneath, all was good-natured and friendly—and through and above everything went laughter. No matter how belligerent or lewd their talk was … these black men laughed.”

6.  Not Without Laughter as Migration Novel. A classic in the genre, it depicts an African-American family moving North from a small town to a big city, in hopes of a better life.  Circle the correct sequence of the child hero’s movement in the novel.

a. Stanton, KS to Chicago, IL            

b. New Orleans, LA to Stanton, KS, to Chicago, IL

c. Stanton, KS to Chicago, IL, to Stanton, KS          

d. Stanton, KS to Detroit, MI to Chicago, IL

7. The area where the hero lives in Chicago is nicknamed “The Black Belt”.      True / False

8. Poetry and music! Which of the following poetic descriptions is not from the novel?

a. “Earth and sky were fresh and clean after the heavy night-rain, and the young corn-shoots stood straight in the garden… There was the mingled scent of wet soil and golden pollen on the breeze that blew carelessly through the clear air.”

b. “The rose of the world was breathing out smell. It followed her through all her waking moments and caressed her in her sleep.”

c. “Funny how old folks like to sing that way, ain’t it?’ ‘It’s beautiful!’ X cried—for, vibrant and steady like a stream of living faith, their song filled the whole night: An’ we’ll understand it better by an’ by!’”

d. “While the cynical banjo covered unplumbable depths with a plinking surface of staccato gaiety, like the sparkling bubbles that rise on deep water over a man who has just drowned himself.”

9. What kind of music does the author not describe or evoke in this book?

a. Gospel        

b. Jazz            

c. Country-Western               

d. Blues

10. Ambivalence Rules? The narration leaves the ending open, and judgment remains up to the reader. Which of the following uncomfortable statements is not from Hughes’s novel?

a. “He didn’t know that grown-up people cried, except at funerals … He didn’t know they ever cried alone, by themselves in their own houses.”

b. “White folks will see that the Negro can be trusted in war as well as peace. Times will be better after this for all of us.”

c. “I only had to break it, and I was rid of it forever. So simple! I’d never thought of it before.”

d. “They’re right, though, looking out for themselves… and yet I hate ‘em for it.”

ANSWERS

1. a. (That quote is from Nancy Mitford, The Pursuit of Love.)

2. c. (That quote is from Jane Austen, Emma.)

3. b. (A quote from Mitford, The Pursuit of Love.)

4. d. (That quote is from Clarice Lispector, Family Ties.)

5. a. (A quote from Emma, by Jane Austen.)

6. a.

7. True

8. b. (That quote is from Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God.)

9. c.

10. c. (That quote is from Nella Larsen, Passing.)

Trivia Quiz for “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving

Trivia Quiz for “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving (1819)

For West Seattle Classic Novels (and Movies)” book club, 11/15/20

A. Stories found: Long-lost treasures

1. Both “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” are presented as manuscripts found in the papers of a man who is not the author. What is the name of that man?

a. A. Knowitall                      

b. Diedrich Knickerbocker

c. Ibet Ucantguess                  

d. William “Billy” Goatsgruff                       

e. Pudley Vanvrink

B. Legends prompted by unkind women and the unlucky men they know

The characters in “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” inhabit small rural villages, where marriage—for better or worse—seems to dictate their fortunes. This is because women, even young maidens, are seen to hold immense power over the men in their thrall.

2. Which of the following nouns and adjectives is not used to describe Dame Van Winkle?

a. a termagant            

b. a virago      

c. tart  

d. sharp          

e. lenient        

3. Which of the following adjectives is not used to describe Rip Van Winkle?

a. henpecked              

b. obedient     

c. foolish        

d. bellicose                 

e. good-natured

C.  The Hudson Valley: A Unique Rural Setting

4. There are many picturesque places named in the two tales by Washington Irving, where the action mostly takes place along the Hudson River in New York state. Which one of the following places is not named?

a. Tappan Zee                        

b. Connecticut           

c. Kaatskill or Catskill Mountains

d. Tarry Town            

e. Brown Willy                                  

d. Sleepy Hollow

D. Changing Times in America

The narration uses a number of striking adjectives to conjure up a world that has vanished with the passage of time and movement of peoples across North America.

5. Which of the following adjectives do not describe Rip Van Winkle’s village in the days before his strange mishap?

a. sleepy         

b. fairy           

c.  magical     

d. populous    

e. tranquil

E. Wisdom: inherited and shared

There are a number of odd sayings and forgotten proverbs in these stories.  Match the proverb with the thing or entity it describes.  The items described include:  a. the outside; b. a woman; c. a sharp tongue

Saying or Proverb:                                                                             

6. The only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.            

7. The only side of the house which, in truth, belongs to a henpecked husband.           

8. A being that causes more perplexity to mortal man than ghosts, goblins, and the whole races of witches put together.           

F. Irving’s Style: Sly irony

Washington Irving’s style could be described as folksy, as his narration claims to relate oral histories inherited from Dutch settlers and their wives. Yet it is not without irony and sly humor.

9. Which of the following actions or traits are not portrayed as explaining the high regard people felt for schoolmaster Ichabod Crane?

a. He had read several books quite through, and was a perfect master of Cotton Mather’s History of New England Witchcraft.

b. He sang very loudly; the people of Sleepy Hollow, as they sat by their doors of an evening, were often filled with awe at hearing his nasal melody.

c. He possessed an enormous library, and he would readily lend books to neighbors.

10. Which of the following reasons are not listed to explain why schoolmaster Ichabod Crane wishes to marry Katrina Van Tassel?

a. She loves learning; they often talk about books    

b. She is plump as a partridge, ripe and melting                  

c. She has vast expectations (i.e. fortune)

d. She wears ornaments of pure gold and short petticoats to show off her pretty ankles

G. Timeliness of “Rip Van Winkle”

11. There are aspects of “Rip Van Winkle” that make it surprisingly timely for modern-day readers. Which of the following does not apply?

a. At the end, Rip and his wife—who has grown kinder over the twenty years of his absence—are reunited, thus making the story a celebration of patience and long marriages.

b. The story ends with a moment when the populace is agitated about an election, and the villagers worry that Rip has come to start a riot.

c. The postscript acknowledges the indigenous people whose land the Dutch settled, and speaks respectfully about the Indians’ belief in an old squaw spirit.

ANSWERS

1. b.

2. e.

3. d.

4. e.

5. d.

6. c. The “only edged tool that grows keener with constant use” is a sharp tongue.

7. a. The outside is “The only side of the house which, in truth, belongs to a henpecked husband.”

8. b. The being which causes perplexity is a woman.

9. c.

10. a.

11. a.

Trivia Quiz for Zora Neale Hurston, “Their Eyes Were Watching God”

Trivia Quiz for

Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)

For West Seattle “Classic Novels (and Movies)” book club, 4/25/21

Like our last read, The Picture of Dorian Gray, this novel is divided into 20 chapters. Whereas Wilde’s novel follows a tragic trajectory, Hurston’s novel ends on an optimistic if bittersweet note. At the end of the book, a whole new life lies ahead for the still relatively young heroine, Janie Crawford.

1. Already on page one, Hurston underlines the solitary destiny of her heroine Janie. While Janie sadly walks into her hometown, traumatized by the recent deaths she has seen (“the sudden dead, their eyes flung wide open in judgment”), she finds that her former neighbors are eager to judge her too, and would likely condemn her if not for the intervention of her childhood friend, Pheoby Watson. Pheoby comes to her house and brings her something. What does Pheoby bring Janie?

a. a bowl of rice                                             

b. a can of Coke

c. a light French breakfast                             

d. a blue-dragon bowl filled with yellow roses

2. The story of Janie’s absence begins in Chapter Two with a narrative of her earliest childhood memories, including her racial awakening. What happens to make her aware that she is black?

a. She is insulted by a schoolmate, who makes fun of her curly hair

b. She sees a photograph of herself with the group of kids she plays with every day

c. She learns to read and sees “Negro” on her birth certificate

d.  All of the above

3. The mid-point of the book—chapter 10—presents a crucial turning point in the plot, when Janie does what? Choose the correct answer.

a. learns to play checkers                   

b. meets Vergible Woods, aka Tea Cake                  

c. laughs a lot                         

d. works in the store during a ball game        

e. all of the above

4. The injustice of traditional gender roles and the oppression of women are constant themes in Their Eyes Were Watching God.  Which of the following comments is not voiced in the book?

a. “Somebody got to think for women and chillum and chickens and cows. … they sho don’t think none theirselves.”

b. “Janie’s dream was dead, so she became a woman.”

c. “Nanny had taken the biggest thing God ever made, the horizon […] and pinched it in to such a little bit of a thing that she could tie it about her granddaughter’s neck tight enough to choke her.”

d. Women are described as: “a being that causes more perplexity to mortal man than ghosts, goblins, and the whole race of witches put together.”

5. True / False. The nickname of the place in Florida where Janie lives her happiest moments is “the muck.”   

 T     F

6. Janie marries three men in this novel. Which of the following is not her husband?

a. Logan Killicks, owner of 60 acres, a wagon and a house

b. Stew Beef Thornton, the kindly-hearted foreman who saves her from a mob in the bean fields

c. Tea Cake, a charismatic “crazy thing” from Orlando

d. Joe (“Jody) Starks, who initially appears as a “cityfied, stylish dressed man” with $300 in his pocket and a knack for oratory

7. Although she lives a rather modest life and never attends much school, the protagonist has an intense inner consciousness which comes into sight occasionally. Which of the following passages is not in Their Eyes Were Watching God?

a. “The rose of the world was breathing out smell. It followed her through all her waking moments and caressed her in her sleep. It connected itself with other vaguely felt matters that had struck her outside observation and buried themselves in her flesh. Now they emerged and quested about her consciousness.”

b. “A little war of defense for helpless things was going on inside her. People ought to have some regard for helpless things. She wanted to fight about it.”

c. “With her usual base habit of cowardice, she shrunk into her sloth, like a snail into its shell.”

d. “She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew how not to mix them.”

Female strength and endurance is an important theme in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Match the quote to the character who says it.  The characters include:  a. Nanny; b. Pheoby Watson; c. the narrator

Quotes:   

8. “Lawd! Ah done growed ten feet higher from jus’ listenin’ tuh you, Janie. Nobody better not criticize yuh in mah hearin’.”

9. “Women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.”

10. “Ah been waitin’ a long time .. but nothin’ Ah been through ain’t too much if you just take a stand on the high ground lak Ah dreamed.”

11. The novel ends with a magnificent storm: a great literary trope we’ve enjoyed in other novels we’ve read as well. Which one of the following storm scenes is from Their Eyes Were Watching God?

a. “The rain came down through the curtain of mist, and it seemed as though she could hear the sea on every side of her and there was no escape from it.”

b. “Through the screaming wind they heard things crashing and things hurtling and dashing with unbelievable velocity. A baby rabbit, terror ridden, squirmed through a hole in the floor.”

c. “As the receding wave swept back with a hoarse roar, it seemed to scoop out deep caves in the beach, as if its purpose were to undermine the earth. … I seemed to see a rending and upheaving of all nature.”

12. What does the title, Their Eyes Were Watching God, refer to?

a. the inspiration felt by Janie and the townspeople, upon listening to Mayor Joe Starks outline his future plans

b. Nanny’s advice to the young Janie, to have patience in life

c. the anxious indecision felt by Janie and others, faced with rising waters caused by a storm

d. Janie’s vindictive rage at her husbands, for the abuse she suffered at their hands

ANSWERS

1. a.

2. b.

3. e.

4. d. (That quote is from “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving.)

5. T

6. b.

7. c. (That quote is from Villette by Charlotte Brontë.)

8. b. This quote is from the end of the book. In a delightful mise en abyme (or play-within-a-play) effect, Hurston stages an ending where the characters (the heroine Janie and her friend Pheoby) declare their satisfaction with the very book we are reading / story she is listening to. “Lawd! Pheoby breathed out heavily, Ah done growed ten feet higher from jus’ listenin’ tuh you, Janie. Nobody better not criticize yuh in mah hearin’.” The careful reader noted, back in Chapter 2, that Janie was now speaking in her own voice, after the narrator explains: “Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches. ‘Ah know exactly what Ah got to tell yuh, but it’s hard to know where to start at’ (p. 8). It is thus logical to loop the communication circuit back to the reader/listener at the end: a satisfying closure ensues.

9. c. This quote is from page one of the book, where an omniscient narrator compares the futile wishing of men to the practical energy of women, noting that: “Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.”

10. a. Nanny, a one-time slave, tells her grand-daughter, toward the beginning of the book: “Ah been waitin’ a long time, Janie, but nothin’ Ah been through ain’t too much if you just take a stand on the high ground lak Ah dreamed.”

11. b.  The other two storms are from a. Jamaica Inn. And c. David Copperfield.

12. c. This gorgeous and painful passage deserves to be read in its entirety: “The wind came back with triple fury, and put out the light for the last time. They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.”

(–Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, p. 160 Harper Perennial edition)

Trivia Quiz for “Passing” by Nella Larsen and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” by August Wilson, film by George C. Wolfe

Image: Chadwick Boseman (1976-2020) is luminous in his role as Levee, the heart-breaking, haunted trumpet player in Wolfe’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, his final film. It became a hit upon release: a true classic. Levee (Boseman) is seen here on the left, with his fellow musicians Slow Drag the bass player (Michael Potts) and band leader Cutler (Colman Domingo).

Trivia Quiz for

Passing by Nella Larsen (1929), and

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom by August Wilson, film by George C. Wolfe (2020)

For West Seattle “Classic Novels (and Movies)” book club, 5/23/21

I. Passing

1. Irene Redfield expresses some compassion and warmth toward her childhood acquaintance Clare Kendry, but she also criticizes her. What trait does Clare not have, according to Irene?

a. she knows how to have fun            

b. she is selfish, cold, and hard

c. she is lonely           

d. she “fair and golden, like a sunlit day”                 

e. she is a devoted pal

2. Clare’s laughter has a distinctive sound. Which of the following does not describe it?

a. “like the ringing of a delicate bell fashioned of a precious metal, a tinkling”

b. “sounded like a pulse irregularly drumming through an entire body”

c. “the ringing bells in her laugh had a hard metallic sound”

3. When a guest accidentally makes Irene drop and break a priceless teacup, she answers in a way that may sound prescient, for what happens later. What does she say?

a. “How heavenly it is to see you again!”

b. “I only had to break it, and I was rid of it forever. So simple! I’d never thought of it before.”

c. “He just s-s-s-slipped!  … He j-j-just got in t-t-the way!”

II. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

4. Although named after a famous woman blues singer, the action of the work—the paroxysm of frustration and anger which brings the show to climax—is mainly driven by the words and deeds of a man unknown to history. What is his name and profession?  Choose the correct answer from the following:

a. Jack Bellew, a businessman                       

b. Levee, a trumpet player                             

c. Logan Killicks, a farmer                            

d. Peter Walsh, a trader

e. Irvin, a studio manager

f. Mr. Fletcher, a retired Treasury official

5. Characters in Ma Rainey express anxiety about sustaining the group’s fragile unity, which may also indicate larger dangers. Which quote is not from Ma Rainey?

a. “Mrs. Turner frowned most of the time. She had so much to disapprove of.”

b. “I don’t feel like rehearsing. I ain’t nothing but a leftover.”

c. “A fool is responsible for what happens to him. A fool cause it to happen.”

III. Themes Found in Both Works 

Social Dangers from within and without. In both works, even the wealthiest, most successful characters express self-doubt and fears about the future. Match the quote to the character who says or thinks it.

The characters include: a. Ma Rainey; b. Irene Redfield; c. Clare Kendry; d. Sturdyvant.

Quotes:                                                                                                         

6. “I think,” she said at last, “that being a mother is the cruellest thing in the world.” Her clasped hands swayed.. and her scarlet mouth trembled irrepressibly.

7. “It sure done got quiet in here. I never could stand no silence.”               

8. “Times are changing. This is a tricky business now. We’ve got to jazz it up… put in something different.”                                                       

9. “She hoped that he had been comfortable and not too lonely without her and the boys. Not so lonely that that old, queer, unhappy restlessness had begun again within him, that craving for some place strange and different.”

God’s Will (or Willful Disregard). Each of the following quotes is taken from either Passing or Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Identify the correct source.

10. “Have you ever stopped to think … how much unhappiness and downright cruelty are laid to the loving-kindness of the Lord? And always by His most ardent followers, it seems.” 

“Have I? It, they, made me what I am today. For, of course, I was determined to get away, to be a person and not a charity or a problem or even a daughter of the indiscreet Ham.”

Circle the source:   Passing   or Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

11.  “Cutler’s God! … Come on and save him like you did my mama.  .. Come on! Where is you? Come on and turn your back on me! Turn your back on me, motherfucker! I’ll cut your heart out! .. What’s the matter? Where is you? Come on and turn your back on me!”

Circle the source:   Passing   or Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

The Heavy Weight of Suffering and Injustice vs. Hopes for the Future.

12. “My daddy wasn’t spooked up by the white man. Nosir! And that taught me how to handle them. … I can smile and say yessir to whoever I please. I got time coming to me.”

Circle the source:  Passing or   Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

13. “Uplifting the brother’s no easy job. I’m as busy as a cat with fleas, myself. Lord! How I hate sick people, and their stupid, meddling families, and smelly, dirty rooms, and climbing filthy steps in dark hallways.” 

Circle the source:   Passing   or    Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

14. “She wanted, suddenly, to shock people, to hurt them, to make them notice her, to be aware of her suffering.”        

Circle the source:  Passing or   Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

ANSWERS

1. e.

2. b.

3. b.

4. b.

5. a. (That quote refers to a woman from Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston.)

6. c.  It is Clare Kendry from Passing who says: “I think,” she said at last, “that being a mother is the cruellest thing in the world.” Her clasped hands swayed… and her scarlet mouth trembled irrepressibly.

7. a. It is Ma Rainey who says: “It sure done got quiet in here. I never could stand no silence.”

8. d. Sturdyvant, the record producer in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, says: “Times are changing. This is a tricky business now. We’ve got to jazz it up… put in something different.”   

9. b. Irene Redfield (heroine of Passing) is described: “She hoped that he had been comfortable and not too lonely without her and the boys. Not so lonely that that old, queer, unhappy restlessness had begun again within him, that craving for some place strange and different.”           

10. Passing: it is Irene Redfield asking, and Clare Kendry explaining why she chose to pass for white.

11. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom: It is Levee imploring the Lord for justice in a cruel world, before the tragic ending.

12. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom: It is Levee at the end of Act One, after showing the long, ugly scar on his chest and explaining his painful childhood.

13. Passing: It is Brian Redfield, the heroine’s husband, a doctor who longs to flee New York and move to Brazil.

14. Passing: It is Irene Redfield.       

Nikki Giovanni rules!

How happy I was to see Nikki Giovanni smiling from the pages of the New York Times yesterday! The article, by Elizabeth A. Harris, is a very nice tribute to her life, her feisty spirit and announces her new book of poetry, Make Me Rain, which sounds wonderful. Today I share three rules of life shared by Nikki Giovanni. They are all one really needs to know, to survive in this day and age in the USA:

1. The best thing you can do for yourself is to not pay attention [to other people’s opinions].
2. You can’t let people you don’t know decide who you are.
3. I’m not going to let the fact that I live in a nation with a bunch of fools make a fool out of me.

Thanks, Professor Giovanni. You rule! (And that’s not the only reason I am making a “Respect” quilt for you!)