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Capote's 'Christmas Memory' Trivia Quiz

It's high time a quiz was written about this American Christmas classic by Truman Capote, author of 'Breakfast At Tiffany's' and 'In Cold Blood'. It ranks with Thomas' 'Child's Christmas in Wales'. I'll take it over Dickens any Christmas!

A multiple-choice quiz by tjoebigham. Estimated time: 4 mins.

Author
tjoebigham

Time
4 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
60,191

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
20

Difficulty
Average

Avg Score
14 / 20

Plays
631

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 20

1. Where and in what decade does the story take place? Hint

The 1930's South

The 1920's Southwest

The 1900's Northeast

The 1950's Northwest

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Question 2 of 20

2. Does the narrator's elderly but childlike cousin have a name?

Answer: (One Word yes or No)

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Question 3 of 20

3. What name does the cousin call the narrator? Hint

Buddy

Truman

Fred

Dill

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Question 4 of 20

4. What is the cousin's dog's name? Hint

Fifi

Lassie

Queenie

Lady

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Question 5 of 20

5. What food do they make during the season? Hint

gingerbread

eggnog

fruitcakes

hors d'ouvres

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Question 6 of 20

6. What are they doing the morning the story starts? Hint

picking cranberries

gathering apples

gathering pecans

harvesting grapes

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Question 7 of 20

7. What do they take with them when doing so? Hint

an old wicker basket

a burlap sack

an old baby carriage

an old washtub

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Question 8 of 20

8. Name the one thing they don't do to raise money. Hint

enter contests

sell fruits and jams

rob a bank

hold rummage sales

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Question 9 of 20

9. Why does the cousin never go to movies? Hint

she is nearsighted

she doesn't like crowds

she is half-blind

she won't waste her eyes

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Question 10 of 20

10. What item are they unable to buy at the store? Hint

allspice

cumquats

currants

whiskey

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Question 11 of 20

11. From whom do they get it? Hint

Snuffy Smith

Jay Gatsby

Haha Jones

Jack Daniels

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Question 12 of 20

12. Why do the other two relatives scold her? Hint

she dances naked

she gives Buddy some whiskey

she moons them

she cusses them out

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Question 13 of 20

13. What happens the morning after? Hint

They get a Christmas tree

They steal a car

They get a hangover

They sing carols

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Question 14 of 20

14. How high is the woman in the car willing to pay for it? Hint

five dollars

fifty cents

ten dollars

fifteen dollars

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Question 15 of 20

15. What present would the cousin have like to have given him? Hint

a bicycle

a bb rifle

a sled

a pair of tap shoes

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Question 16 of 20

16. What do they do Christmas morning? Hint

go possum hunting

yodel

burn down the house

wake up their relatives

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Question 17 of 20

17. What does he get? Hint

socks,shirt,sweater, magazine

raisins, shotgun,dog whistle

apples, jumprope,baseball

oranges, rollerskates, cap pistol

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Question 18 of 20

18. What does she get? Hint

blueberries and a brooch

cherries and a comb

bananas and a locket

oranges and a shawl

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Question 19 of 20

19. What do they do that morning? Hint

fish

attend church

hunt

fly kites

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Question 20 of 20

20. What happens to the cousin and her dog? Hint

the dog bites her mistress

they die

she shoots the dog

she gets lost in the woods

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Where and in what decade does the story take place?

Answer: The 1930's South

Capote placed this autobiographical story in the 30's, in an unnamed part of the South (though based on his birthplace, Monroeville, Alabama).

2. Does the narrator's elderly but childlike cousin have a name?

Answer: yes

Her name is Cousin Kate. They call her by that when they come to yell at her about giving Buddy whiskey. She is based on Capote's real-life cousin Sook Faulk, with whom he lived with until twelve. Geraldine Page memorably played her in the 1966 TV version, narrated by Capote himself.

3. What name does the cousin call the narrator?

Answer: Buddy

She calls him 'Buddy' after a boy in the 1880's who was her friend but who died early. 'Fred' is what Holly Golightly calls the narrator of 'Breakfast At Tiffany's' after her brother in the Army who dies in WW2. 'Dill' is from 'To Kill A {Mockingbird';} Harper Lee based him on Capote, whom she knew in childhood.

4. What is the cousin's dog's name?

Answer: Queenie

Queenie is a 'tough little orange and white rat terrier who has survived distemper and two rattlesnake bites.'

5. What food do they make during the season?

Answer: fruitcakes

It is late November when they begin to make Christmas fruitcakes for distant friends. The cousin calls it 'fruitcake weather'.

6. What are they doing the morning the story starts?

Answer: gathering pecans

Cranberries don't grow in the South! The pecans are for the cakes, natch.

7. What do they take with them when doing so?

Answer: an old baby carriage

It is the narrator's old baby carriage of worn wicker with wheels that 'wobble like a drunkard's legs', used to carry the gathered pecans.

8. Name the one thing they don't do to raise money.

Answer: rob a bank

They sell canned jams and preserves, hand-picked blackberries, gather flowers for funerals, enter contests from football to coffee slogans (theirs is 'A.M. Amen!'). They also ran a 'Fun and Freak Museum' with a stereopticon of tourist sites and a three-legged biddy hatched on their farm (it later died).

9. Why does the cousin never go to movies?

Answer: she won't waste her eyes

She doesn't want to 'squander' her {sight;} 'When the Lord comes ,let me see him clear' she says. And she prefers to hear 'Buddy' tell her the story of the movie.

10. What item are they unable to buy at the store?

Answer: whiskey

State laws forbid the sale and it is too expensive for them.

11. From whom do they get it?

Answer: Haha Jones

A tall, unsmiling Indian owner of a roadhouse (he sports razor scars on his cheeks) he is the one they come to for the whiskey. At first reluctantly giving them the whiskey, he decides to trade it for one of the fruitcakes...and even smiles!

12. Why do the other two relatives scold her?

Answer: she gives Buddy some whiskey

They are not pleased when the cousin drinks the last of the Whiskey with Buddy. They are, by the way, the two adults in charge.

13. What happens the morning after?

Answer: They get a Christmas tree

Out in the woods they find and hew a pine tree for their house.

14. How high is the woman in the car willing to pay for it?

Answer: fifty cents

She is the rich mill owner's wife, too lazy to get one of her own. But the cousin holds firm. 'You can get another one' the lady protests. 'I doubt it' the cousin replies, 'There's never two of anything.'

15. What present would the cousin have like to have given him?

Answer: a bicycle

He can't use a sled in the snowless South. He does express a desire to be a tap dancer in the movies (as the young Capote wanted to be). The BB rifle is what the hero of 'A Christmas Story' craves.

16. What do they do Christmas morning?

Answer: wake up their relatives

Buddy tap dances and she drops a kettle on the floor.

17. What does he get?

Answer: socks,shirt,sweater, magazine

He also receives some handkerchiefs. The magazine is a children's religious one, with a year's subscription. It makes him fume.

18. What does she get?

Answer: oranges and a shawl

She gets a basket of Satsuma oranges and a wool shawl knitted by her sister.

19. What do they do that morning?

Answer: fly kites

They have given each other new kites they made themselves. They love to fly kites when the wind is up.

20. What happens to the cousin and her dog?

Answer: they die

First Queenie dies, from a horse's kick. By now Buddy is sent to military school. Then he receives news of his beloved cousin's death.

Source: Author tjoebigham

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor agony before going online.
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