James Clavell's 'King Rat' , part 2 Quiz

Answer: For tempting Marlowe

Sulina, standing in front of her window, let her sarong fall away from her naked body so Marlowe could see. Her father knew she had done this, and when Marlowe and the King left to return to the camp Sutra came into Sulina's room and beat her with a thin bamboo cane. "'This is for tempting the Englishman when I had not told thee to tempt him,' he said, trying to sound very angry."

Answer: Rover ate one of Colonel Foster's chickens

Even men who stole chickens were punished severely. One man was found with a stolen hen, and the men who caught him beat him to death. In Changi this was ruled justifiable homicide. Colonel Foster was an inmate of Changi who manifested PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) by being a bit too attached to his hens.

When Hawkin's dog Rover got into the chicken run and ate one of his chickens, Foster's response was extreme, even for Changi. "'I want a court-martial. Hawkins the murderer and his beast, a murderer.' Colonel Foster's mouth was flecked with foam. 'That bloody beast killed my hen and ate it.

He ate it and there's only feathers to show for one of my children.'"

Answer: 1

When the men of Changi are rescued after Japan's surrender, the liberators are shocked at the condition of the starved prisoners. "Today it was shark soup-at least, one shark had been divided ounce by ounce into soup for ten thousand men."

Answer: In the jail building

The King rented a cell for three dollars an hour from Griffiths, the man who 'owned' it. It was the best place to mask the smell of cooking meat. The concrete cell walls were two feet thick, and the King had some of his guests stuff strips of blanket into the cracks around the door.

But the smell still got out, maddening the camp's starving men, who luckily assumed that the smell was coming from just outside Changi's wire fence.

Answer: He was found with his head stuffed down a borehole

Gurble had been found stuffed into a borehole, one of Changi's stinking, cockroach-infested latrine pits. The two camp doctors conferred over the body, speculating whether the death had been murder or suicide. "'They held a quiet court of inquiry this afternoon, as soon as they knew who it was. Apparently, a few days ago this man was caught stealing some hut rations.' 'Oh, I see.' 'Either way, I'd say he deserved it, wouldn't you?'"

Answer: Triangle

The play was written by Frank Parrish, and took place in London before the war. The play starred Frank, Brod Roderick, and Sean Jennison. When the final curtain fell, the audience was so spellbound by the performance that there was utter silence, and then there were cheers and ten curtain calls.

Answer: Marlowe made him confront the fact that he was not really a woman

Marlowe was in Sean's dressing room, enraged by the fact that Sean said he, Sean, was no longer a man, but a woman. Marlowe told the King the story of his fight with Sean that resulted in Sean slitting his wrists.
"'Something in my head seemed to snap. I grabbed his arm and ripped the negligee off his shoulders and tore off the padded bra and shoved him in front of the mirror. ''You call yourself a woman?' I shouted. 'Look at yourself! Where are your bloody breasts?''"

Answer: The diet of Changi rotted his teeth

In severe cases of malnutrition such as that suffered by prisoners of war, tooth loss can occur due to the jawbone actually breaking down and thinning. Many men of Changi lost their teeth due to poor diet, as Duncan told Marlowe: "'Doc said something about the water and lack of chewable material and rice diet and calcium.'"

Answer: To allow Duncan to see his wife

Duncan's wife was Singapore Chinese, so she and Duncan's little daughter were not placed in a prison camp. They lived in severe poverty near Changi, and sometimes the two were able to wait near the wire to exchange brief glances with Duncan. Duncan needed Marlowe to distract the guard so he could go closer to the wire and leave a note for his wife to pick up when the work party had gone.

Answer: There was better foraging on tree detail

It was rumored that the detail was going to be sent to cut down coconut trees, and the edible heart of a coconut tree was the delicacy called 'millionaire's cabbage'. When added to the many coconuts the trees would also provide, this duty was a Changi forager's dream detail.

Answer: He found that some of the weights had been tampered with

In the bottoms of the iron weights there were drilled holes, carefully filled with clay. Someone was daily cheating the men out of part of their rice ration.

Answer: Marlowe's arm was crushed between a tree stump and a trailer

Marlowe was on work detail, helping to move a huge fanged tree stump onto a trailer. The stump slipped, crushing his arm between the stump and the trailer, and barbs of wood ripped into his arm.

Answer: He said he would save Marlowe's arm

The King was desperate. Both he and Marlowe were on the wrong side of the wire with the money, and it seemed that everyone in Changi was looking for the King and the loot. The King knew that if he could get back under the wire unnoticed and without the money, when he was finally spotted it would create enough of a distraction to allow Marlowe to hide the money and also get back under the wire. Marlowe was in excruciating pain and nearly delirious with fever from his gangrenous arm, but the hope of being healed allowed him to accomplish the task.

Answer: Timsen

Timsen was the King's black-market-trader counterpart for the Australians in Changi. He named a price for the antitoxin, and then piled on huge additional charges for the equipment and bandages.

Answer: Take his borehole detail

Cockroaches are a rich source of protein. Since protein was so scarce in Changi, two-man teams would be assigned borehole duty. One man would lift the latrine cover, and the other would insert a long-handled net into the hole, scraping the sides and scooping out the cockroaches into a pail.

They would deliver the cockroaches to the special cookhouse attached to the hospital that provided food to the very sick.

Answer: To make sure Drinkwater ate a rat leg

Marlowe despised Chaplain Drinkwater, who traded cigarettes for eggs. The men with whom he traded were the very sick men who were going blind from beriberi and were given an egg a day to try to save their eyesight. Marlowe set the rat leg out where Drinkwater would find and steal it. Later he told Drinkwater that it had been rat meat that he had eaten, and that the rat had been scabby and hairy and diseased. Drinkwater vomited all over his own brand-new uniform.

Answer: He let the King keep it

He let the King keep his share in payment for saving his arm.

Answer: None

Nothing happens to them because the camp is liberated shortly thereafter due to the surrender of the Japanese after Hiroshima.

Answer: Max

Max went crazy and attacked when Marlowe defended the King, whom Max had come to hate. He stabbed Marlowe shallowly in the stomach with a knife before Tex and Dino managed to subdue him. Another extreme example of PTSD.

Answer: Sean drowned

When the camp was liberated, the men who had previously idolized Sean now completely shunned and castigated him. One afternoon, Sean dressed in an evening sarong, applied makeup, and made sure that both hair and makeup were perfect. "And then the girl stood up, confident and very happy. She put on her high-heeled shoes and walked into the sea."