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Quiz about Quotable Characters in American Lit

Quotable Characters in American Lit. Quiz

In this quiz, I provide a quote from a work of American Literature, some past, some present, and you choose the character who said it. Many of the quotes are famous, a few are more obscure, but all questions are multiple choice!

A multiple-choice quiz by image22. Estimated time: 7 mins.

Author
image22

Time
7 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
206,618

Updated
Feb 25 22

# Qns
20

Difficulty
Average

Avg Score
13 / 20

Plays
743

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 20

1. Which character says, "Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known"? Hint

Holden "The Catcher in the Rye"

Nick "The Great Gatsby"

Frederic "A Farewell to Arms"

Pym "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym"

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Question 2 of 20

2. Who speaks the moving words, "We don't own your laws; we don't own your country; we stand here as free, under God's sky, as you are; and, by the great God that made us, we'll fight for our liberty till we die"? Hint

Tom "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

George "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

Chingachook "Last of the Mohicans"

Uncas "Last of the Mohicans"

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Question 3 of 20

3. Who speaks these lines? "Come up hither, Hester, thou and little Pearl....Ye have both been here before, but I was not with you. Come up hither once again, and we will stand all three together!" Hint

Chillingworth "The Scarlet Letter"

Holgrave "The House of Seven Gables"

Hooper "The Minister's Black Veil"

Dimmesdale "The Scarlet Letter"

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Question 4 of 20

4. Which literary character advises, "Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody"? Hint

Huckleberry Finn "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"

McMurphy "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"

Holden "The Catcher in the Rye"

Gatsby "The Great Gatsby"

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Question 5 of 20

5. Which woman speaks the famous line, "Whoever you are-I have always depended on the kindness of strangers"? Hint

Blanche "A Streetcar Named Desire"

Alice "The Last of the Mohicans"

Phoebe "The House of Seven Gables"

Daisy "The Great Gatsby"

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Question 6 of 20

6. Who delivers the following lines? "O, that's what troubles me, papa. You want me to live so happy, and never have any pain,--never suffer anything,--not even hear a sad story, when other poor creatures have nothing but pain and sorrow, all their lives;--it seems selfish. I ought to know such things, I ought to feel about them! Such things always sunk into my heart; they went down deep; I've thought and thought about them. Papa, isn't there any way to have all slaves made free?" Hint

Mary "The Secret Garden"

Jo "Little Women"

George "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

Eva "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

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Question 7 of 20

7. Which character asks, "Shall we never, never get rid of this Past...It lies upon the Present like a giant's dead body"? Hint

Delano "Benito Cereno"

Hester "The Scarlet Letter"

Clifford "The House of Seven Gables"

Sethe "Beloved"

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Question 8 of 20

8. These words are attributed to which literary character? "It's so hard for me to believe in [time]. Some things go. Pass on. Some things just stay. I used to think it was my rememory. . . . But it's not. Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it's gone, but the place-the picture of it-stays, and not just in my rememory, but out there, in the world." Hint

Cassy "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

Sethe "Beloved"

Douglas "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas"

Blanche "A Streetcar Named Desire"

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Question 9 of 20

9. Who lists the following complaints? "I cannot go to school today. I have the measles and the mumps,/ A gash, a rash and purple bumps./ My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,/ I'm going blind in my right eye.../ Whats that you say?/ You say today is...Saturday?/G'bye, I'm going out to play!" Hint

Hector "Hector the Collector"

Chester "Chester"

Sarah "Sarah...Will Not Take the Garbage Out"

Peggy Ann McKay "Sick"

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Question 10 of 20

10. Which character says, "They were beaten to start with. They were beaten when they took them from their farms and put them in the army. That is why the peasant has wisdom, because he is defeated from the start. Put him in power and see how wise he is"? Hint

Shelby "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

Frederic "A Farewell to Arms"

Benito "Benito Cereno"

Henchard "The Mayor of Casterbridge"

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Question 11 of 20

11. What man speaks these words, "Whenever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Whenever they's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there . . . . I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad an'-I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry an' they know supper's ready. An' when our folks eat the stuff they raise an' live in the houses they build-why, I'll be there"? Hint

Jim Casy "The Grapes of Wrath"

Tom Joad "The Grapes of Wrath"

Jim "The Red Badge of Courage"

Henry "The Red Badge of Courage"

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Question 12 of 20

12. What twisted literary character opines, "For the bright side of the painting I had a limited sympathy. My visions were of shipwreck and famine; of death or captivity among barbarian hordes; of a lifetime dragged out in sorrow or tears, upon some gray or desolate rock, in an ocean unapproachable and unknown"? Hint

Delano "Benito Cereno"

George "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

Ahab "Moby Dick"

Pym "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym"

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Question 13 of 20

13. Which character raves, "I been silent so long now it's gonna roar out of me like floodwaters and you think the guy telling this is ranting and raving my God; you think this is too horrible to have really happened, this is too awful to be the truth! But, please. It's still hard for me to have a clear mind thinking on it. But it's the truth even if it didn't happen"? Hint

Pym "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym"

Holden "The Catcher in the Rye"

Bromden "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"

George "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

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Question 14 of 20

14. Which simple literary character states, "I would prefer not to"? Hint

Goodman Brown "Young Goodman Brown"

Mamzelle Aurelie "Regret"

Farquhar "An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge"

Bartleby "Bartleby, the Scrivener"

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Question 15 of 20

15. Fill in the blank here to get the speaker's name. "Call me ________. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me..." Hint

Benito "Benito Cereno"

Jake "The Sun Also Rises"

Pym "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym"

Ishmael "Moby Dick"

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Question 16 of 20

16. To whom is the following quote attributed? "Like it? Well I don't see why I oughtn't to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?" Hint

Tom "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"

Cedric "Little Lord Fauntleroy"

Huck "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"

Dennis "Dennis the Menace"

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Question 17 of 20

17. Which character gives the opinion, "'T would have been a cruel and an unhuman act for a white-skin; but 't is the gift and natur' of an Indian, and I suppose it should not be denied"? Hint

Huck "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"

Duncan "Last of the Mohicans"

Hawkeye "Last of the Mohicans"

Pym "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym"

NEXT>

Question 18 of 20

18. Which woman asks, "Wouldn't it be fun if all the castles in the air which we make could come true and we could live in them"? Hint

Amy "Little Women"

Jo "Little Women"

Beth "Little Women"

Laurie "Little Women"

NEXT>

Question 19 of 20

19. Who makes the following speech? "I'm sick of the hypocrisy that would bury alive a woman of her age if her husband prefers to live with harlots... Women ought to be free - as free as we are." Hint

Charles "Absalom, Absalom"

Ethan "Ethan Frome"

Archer "The Age of Innocence"

Nick "The Great Gatsby"

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Question 20 of 20

20. Who speaks the following rhyme? "Would you eat them in a box? Would you eat them with a fox?" Hint

Cat "The Cat in the Hat"

Sam "Green Eggs and Ham"

Miss Bass "Wacky Wednesday"

Pinner Blinn "Oh Say Can You Say"

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Which character says, "Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known"?

Answer: Nick "The Great Gatsby"

Nick is the narrator of "The Great Gatsby," by F. Scott Fitzgerald. "The Great Gatsby" was made into a movie in 1974, starring Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby, Mia Farrow as Daisy and Sam Waterson as Nick.

Answer: George "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

George, from Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" says this as he and Eliza are escaping, and they come face to face with the men who are trying to capture them and return them to slavery. Stowe's novel was arguably the most influential of the 19th century and brought slavery to the forefront of the American consciousness.

Answer: Dimmesdale "The Scarlet Letter"

Arthur Dimmesdale, of "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, finally admits to the town that he is the father of Pearl in this scene, giving both the child and her mother some peace of mind.

4. Which literary character advises, "Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody"?

Answer: Holden "The Catcher in the Rye"

The main character of J.D. Salinger's masterpiece, "Catcher in the Rye," Holden Caulfield, is extremely dissatisfied with his life and the amount of "phony" people that he encounters. This quote is the last line of the novel.

5. Which woman speaks the famous line, "Whoever you are-I have always depended on the kindness of strangers"?

Answer: Blanche "A Streetcar Named Desire"

Blanche Dubois, from Tennessee William's play "A Streetcar Named Desire," speaks this famous line towards the end of the play to the doctor who has come to take her to the insane asylum after she has been brutalized by Stanley.

Answer: Eva "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

The young Evangeline St. Clare, created by Harriet Beecher Stowe in "Uncle Tom's Cabin," seems to be more of an angel than a human child, as she is consistently good and sweet and begs her father to free their slaves.

7. Which character asks, "Shall we never, never get rid of this Past...It lies upon the Present like a giant's dead body"?

Answer: Clifford "The House of Seven Gables"

This quote from Clifford Pyncheon of "The House of Seven Gables," expresses a common theme of Hawthorne's work - the difficulty of esacaping from the past sins and guilt of one's heritage.

Answer: Sethe "Beloved"

This quote comes from Sethe in "Beloved," by Toni Morrison.

Answer: Peggy Ann McKay "Sick"

Although Shel Silverstein may not be on everyone's list of great American authors, he is on definitely one of my favorites. This quote is from Peggy Ann Mckay in the poem "Sick," where she lists about 200 hundred reasons why she can't go to school until she realizes it's a Saturday. This poem is in the collection "Where the Sidewalk Ends."

Answer: Frederic "A Farewell to Arms"

This line comes from Ernest Hemingway's classic tale about love and war during WWI, "A Farewell to Arms."

Answer: Tom Joad "The Grapes of Wrath"

John Steinbeck wrote "The Grapes of Wrath" in 1939, which chronicles the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl migration.

Answer: Pym "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym"

"The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym" is the only novel that Edgar Allen Poe wrote, and although it was not very well received at the time, it has since gained some popularity in literary circles.

Answer: Bromden "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"

Ken Kesey wrote "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" in 1962, and it was made into an extremely popular movie starring Jack Nicholson in 1975.

14. Which simple literary character states, "I would prefer not to"?

Answer: Bartleby "Bartleby, the Scrivener"

Herman Melville tells the tale of "Bartleby, the Scrivener" in which Bartleby's only reponse when asked to do work is the peacable, but aggravating, reply of "I would prefer not to."

Answer: Ishmael "Moby Dick"

"Call me Ishmael" is the famous first line of "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville. Ishmael is the narrator of the tale, and his mild temperament stands in stark contrast to the obsession and psychosis of Captain Ahab.

16. To whom is the following quote attributed? "Like it? Well I don't see why I oughtn't to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?"

Answer: Tom "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"

Tom Sawyer from "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain is quite the mischief maker, but he always manages to find a way out of trouble. This book was Mark Twain's first.

17. Which character gives the opinion, "'T would have been a cruel and an unhuman act for a white-skin; but 't is the gift and natur' of an Indian, and I suppose it should not be denied"?

Answer: Hawkeye "Last of the Mohicans"

This quotes comes from Hawkeye (Natty Bumpo) of James Fenimore Cooper's "Last of the Mohicans." He is speaking of the fact that Chingachook is scalping the enemy, and it demonstrates his belief that the Indians are naturally inferior to the Anglo-Saxons.

18. Which woman asks, "Wouldn't it be fun if all the castles in the air which we make could come true and we could live in them"?

Answer: Jo "Little Women"

This is one of my favorite quotes. It comes from Jo in Louisa May Alcott's novel "Little Women."

19. Who makes the following speech? "I'm sick of the hypocrisy that would bury alive a woman of her age if her husband prefers to live with harlots... Women ought to be free - as free as we are."

Answer: Archer "The Age of Innocence"

This rather progressive statement comes from Newland Archer of Edith Warton's "The Age of Innocence." This line is his condemnation of the double standard that divorced women faced in society at the time.

20. Who speaks the following rhyme? "Would you eat them in a box? Would you eat them with a fox?"

Answer: Sam "Green Eggs and Ham"

"I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-am." This is from the classic children's book "Green Eggs and Ham" by Theodore Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss.

Source: Author image22

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