When in Doubt, It's A Christ Figure Quiz

Answer: Uncle Tom

"Uncle Tom's Cabin" was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1851, and it was partially responsible for the American Civil War that began a decade later. Stowe begins her novel by describing the happy life of Uncle Tom and his family under a family of kind slave owners.

Then, Uncle Tom is sold down the river to the St. Clare family, who are very kind to him. The daughter Eva is described as an angel, and she and Tom form a close bond. Soon after her death from tuberculosis, Uncle Tom is sold to Simon Legree, a cruel slave owner who beats his subjects mercilessly and is completely intolerant of Christianity on his plantation.

After Tom refuses to whip another slave, Legree arranges for him to be beaten until he either surrenders his faith or is killed. Just before Tom dies, his original owner returns to purchase his freedom, but it is too late. Uncle Tom forgives Legree before becoming a martyr to his faith.

Answer: John the Savage

John the Savage appears in Aldous Huxley's most famous work, "Brave New World." John actually lives on a New Mexican "Savage Reservation" for most of the book, until the characters of Bernard Marx and Lenina Crowne find him while on vacation. They learn that the Savage was actually the son of a government official and bring him back to London. In Huxley's dystopian view of the future, vivipariety (along with emotions, thoughts, solitude, or cultural achievement whatsoever) is frowned upon, so all havoc breaks loose when the scandal erupts. In the midst of the panic, the Savage attempts to inform the brainwashed citizens about the value of culture, religion, and organized thought, but he fails to bring about much change. Retreating to the woods outside London, he attempts to live in peace and purify himself, but society invades. John hangs himself at the end of the novel.

Another hint that John's a Christ figure? While his name comes straight from the Bible, the rest of the names in the book are mainly from Communist leaders.

Answer: Billy Budd

"Billy Budd" describes the title character's life aboard the ship "Bellipotent." Upon first arriving, Billy becomes immensely popular with his fellow sailors because of his diligence and youth. However, the master-at-arms Claggart becomes jealous of Billy and seeks a reason to get the new sailor demoted.

He approaches the captain and sparks a false rumor that Billy was the mastermind of a new mutiny. Billy is summoned, and, when pressed to defend himself, can only stutter. He accidentally strikes out in fury, killing Claggart. Vere sentences Billy to death.

He becomes an object of reverence for the other sailors after his death.

Answer: The Grapes of Wrath

"The Grapes of Wrath," by John Steinbeck, follows the Joad family, a group of migrant workers who move west to California in search of work. After a Dust Bowl and the Depression ruin their lives in Oklahoma, they pack up their bags and head west. The protagonist of the novel, Tom, brings along his new friend Jim Casy for the ride.

Life in California is incredibly difficult, especially because government agencies often make it more difficult for the Joads to find work. There are hundreds of families in exactly the same situation as them, but there are very few openings for work. Despite the harsh situation, the Joads do not give up and remain optimistic. Casy is arrested and then released, where he begins to lead migrant workers in protest. After Casy is killed by police officers, Tom rebels and kills an officer. As the novel ends, Tom leaves the family to organize the workers, and the family seeks refuge from a flood in an old barn.

Answer: Billy Pilgrim

An unlikely Christ figure, Billy Pilgrim appears in Kurt Vonnegut's novel "Slaughterhouse-Five." Billy became unstuck in time after being abducted by a race of aliens called the Trafalmadorians, who "see" time and therefore can read a person's entire life history, past and future, just by looking at them. From his time on planet Trafalmadore, Billy learns that free will is an illusion, and he spends the rest of his life jumping from time to time, unpredictably and inescapably.

While Billy's message might not be equivalent to the Bible's, there are parallels. "Slaughterhouse-Five" is above all an anti-war novel: Billy's life is devastated after he watches the destruction of the city of Dresden during World War II by firebombing. After the war, he becomes an ophthalmologist, trying to help other people "see" what he sees.

Answer: A Separate Peace

"A Separate Peace," by John Knowles, is a tragic tale of friendship and betrayal. Gene and Phineas are friends at the Devon School at the start of the novel. Gene, the academic, relies heavily on his friend Phineas, the athlete and most popular boy in the class. However, Gene's jealousy fuels him to believe that "Finny" is actually trying to sabotage his academics through inane diversions, and at the climax of the novel, Gene jounces a branch to make Finny fall out of a tree.

When the winter semester at Devon starts, Phineas is on a cane and can't compete in athletics anymore. He doesn't realize that Gene was responsible for his symbolic fall from innocence. However, pressure from the other boys in the class forces Gene and Finny to confront the truth. Phineas tries to run away, trips and falls, and breaks his leg again. He dies in the hospital.

Answer: Simon

Simon appears in the allegorical novel by William Golding, "Lord of the Flies." The plot is set in motion when a group of young schoolboys are abandoned by a plane crash on a deserted tropical island. Their attempt to set up an organized society succeeds at first, but evil begins to infect the group. A boy named Jack attempts to subvert the leadership of the elected leader Ralph, and he insatiably hunts for pigs until he finally kills one. The group celebrates in raucous excitement.

Meanwhile, Simon had climbed to the top of the island to investigate what the boys considered a deadly beast, which was in fact a dead parachutist. Upon returning, he confronted the head of the pig that Jack had killed, stuck on a stick. The titular Lord of the Flies (the literal translation of the Hebrew word Beelzebub) tries to tempt Simon. Simon runs away. The partying boys, drunken with abandon, confuse Simon with the beast and kill him violently.

Answer: Sydney Carton

Sydney Carton appears in Charles Dickens' famous novel, "A Tale of Two Cities." Because he resembles Darnay to such a great extent, he is able to help Darnay escape from trouble with the law at the beginning of the novel. Darnay is the relative of a French aristocrat at the start of the French Revolution. After the aristocrat is brutally murdered while Darnay is staying in the house, he returns to London to marry his love Lucie.

Darnay is forced to return to Paris to help rescue a friend imprisoned in his uncle's estate. He is arrested by the revolutionaries and is sentenced to be killed for the misdeeds of his ancestors. Sydney Carton, who has fallen in love with Lucie as well, offers to die at the guillotine in place of Darnay. As he goes to his death, he feels redeemed, saying, "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known."

Answer: Randle Patrick McMurphy

McMurphy appears in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," the most famous novel of Ken Kesey. The book is narrated by mental hospital inmate and schizophrenic Chief Bromden, who reflects on the incredibly harsh conditions put upon the patients by the cruel nurses.

When McMurphy enters the hospital, his influence is immediately felt. He fights for freedom for the patients and tries to break the iron grip held by Nurse Ratched over the rest of the facility. Despite his best efforts, his plan goes awry when, after he tries to attack the nurse, she takes him to be lobotomized and turned into a vegetable. Mercifully, Bromden strangles McMurphy in his sleep so that he can escape the ward.

After McMurphy's death, the patients find their courage, and Bromden regains his massive strength.

Answer: Santiago

When it comes to Christ figures, few are more apparent than Hemingway's Santiago, from "The Old Man and the Sea." At first glance, the novella tells the story of the fisherman who goes out to sea, engages in battle with a marlin, then loses the fish after sharks eat it on the way back to port. Seen as a Christian allegory, however, the resemblance between Santiago and Jesus is immediately clear.

At the end of the book, when the old fisherman returns home, he lies on his bed with arms outstretched, in the exact position of crucifixion.