The Body of Literature Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Tell-Tale Heart

In the story, the old man with the "vulture eye" becomes an obsession for the narrator. For no other apparent reason, said narrator decides to kill him. Whether he does it or how he tries to do it, I will not reveal, except to say that as the title of the story implies, a still beating heart fuels some serious guilt, and leads to some serious consequences. Poe was one of the first professional writers of fiction in America.

He is often credited with inventing the detective fiction genre. In addition to helping pioneer the short story form, he wrote extensively in the genres of literary criticism and poetry.

Answer: Christy Brown

Christy Brown (1932-1981) was an Irish painter and poet who was born with cerebral palsy. With the support of his mother, he convinced his family and then the world that despite his seemingly devastating handicap, he was an intelligent, sentient being and not a hopeless idiot.

He first communicated by learning to control his left foot, allowing him to scribble the letter "A" on the ground, thus proving he understood far more than had been believed. He eventually learned to paint by holding the brush in his toes.

This explains the title of his autobiography. Daniel Day-Lewis is the actor who played the part of Christy Brown in the 1989 movie version of "My Left Foot." His father Cecil was Poet Laureate of the UK from 1968-1972.

Answer: "The Nose" by Gogol

The others are also famous Russian authors, but Nicolai Vasilievitch Gogol (1809-1852) was the Ukrainian-born writer whose works tended to poke the Russian government bureaucrats of that time. The story in question is bizarre. A mid-level government official awakes one day to discover that his nose has disappeared off of his face.

The nose then becomes a central character in the story, taking on a life of its own like a real person. The hapless man then chases it all over town, trying to recapture it and put it back onto his face and thereby restore things to their proper order.

He spots the nose getting into a carriage, going to the bank, and performing other mundane tasks in public. This only heightens his anxiety and agitation, as his biggest fear is disgrace and ridicule from his peers for losing it in the first place. "The Nose" was published in 1836.

Answer: An Indian History of the American West

Published in 1970, "Bury My heart at Wounded Knee" was something of a watershed moment in the American historical record. It debunked the previously accepted and generally whitewashed view of the period in question. The prevailing notion of brave settlers and cowboys fending off savages was an over-simplification, pushed by Hollywood and eagerly lapped up by most Americans during the first half of the 20th century and beyond. As the subtitle suggests, the author looked at the seizure of land, and the forced resettlement of native people onto reservations, from the point of view of the Indians. Wounded Knee Creek in southwestern South Dakota is the site of a government massacre of at least 150 Indians, including women and children, in 1890. This happened during a confrontation with the last vestiges of the Sioux tribe, led by Sitting Bull, who had fled to Montana but were forced back onto a reservation in South Dakota. The area became a flashpoint again in 1972 when AIM, the modern Indian rights movement, occupied the site for 71 days in a largely symbolic, but very tense, confrontational protest. The title of the book comes from a 1927 poem by Steven Vincent Benet in which he celebrates the richness of American place names. Here are the first and last stanzas from this poem which have taken on such a different, weighted meaning:

"I have fallen in love with American names,
The sharp names that never get fat,
The snake-skin titles of mining-claims
The plumed war-bonnet of Medicine Hat,
Tuscon and Deadwood and Lost Mule Flat."

"I shall not rest quiet in Montparnasse. I shall not lie easy Winchelsea.
You may bury my body in Sussex grass,
You may bury my tongue at Champmedy.
I shall not be there. I shall rise and pass.
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee."

Answer: The Man with the Golden Arm

Nelson Algren wrote this heart wrenching tale of misery and woe which befalls a World War II veteran with a drug habit, fighting his demons while trying to readjust to civilian life. Written in 1949, the novel paints a bleak picture of post-war life for the disconnected lower class in urban America, in this case Chicago.

The title refers to the talents of the protagonist, Frankie, who is an expert card dealer and an aspiring drummer, and also ironically to how getting the drug into his arm via the needle becomes the sole focus of his life.

Answer: The Black Hand

The idea of "the black hand" as a method of extortion practiced by criminals dates back to at least the mid 1800s and the Kingdom of Naples. The term was the result of extortion letters sent to businesses and individuals demanding money. These letters included threatening postscripts such as pictures of bloody daggers, skull and cross bones, and a blacked in hand raised as if in warning. US Law enforcement mentioned the phenomenon in their crime busts, and zealous journalists in early 1900s America ran with the name, which stuck.

The secret nationalist military organization in Serbia originally known as "Unification or Death" from this time period also became known as "The Black Hand". Members of the group assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, triggering World War I.

A 19 year old man, Gavrilo Princip, supposedly fired the fatal shots into the Archduke's car, killing him and his wife. Blatchford's book is the true story of Rene Enriquez, an insider in the Mexican Mafia, which exposes this dangerous and far reaching organization.

Answer: Eyeless in Gaza

"Lower than bond-slave! Promise was that I
Should Israel from Philistian yoke deliver;
Ask for this great deliverer now, and find him
Eyeless in Gaza at the Mill with slaves,
Himself in bonds under Philistian yoke."

"Samson Agonistes", lines 38-42 (1671)

Milton imagines Samson, the Bible figure, agonizing over his horrible end of life purgatory, blinded by Delilah's treachery and forced to toil in the mill for his captors. At the time of writing, Milton himself was blind, trying to make sense of the failure of the English Commonwealth he had supported and the Restoration of the Crown in 1660. An eye disease also left Aldous Huxley partially blind in his teens, causing him to give up a career in medicine and in a sense forcing him on the spiritual journey, arguably a "quest for vision" which is so evident in his novels. "Eyeless in Gaza" describes the education, romance, and social life of a high society fellow who realizes the emptiness of his pursuits, and ultimately turns to mysticism and pacifism to find meaning in life.

Answer: Tom Thumb

Tales of a little person, sometimes said to be no bigger than his father's thumb and who undergoes big adventures, go back in English folklore many centuries. In fact, similar tales of mythical tiny humans exist in most cultures. One of the earliest known English texts containing the legend is from 1621. The presumed author is a London man named Richard Johnson, who ambitiously and informatively titled his work "The History of Tom Thumbe, the Little, for his small stature surnamed, King Arthur's Dwarfe: whose Life and Adventures containe many strange and wonderfull accidents, published for the delight of merry Time-spenders." The character of Tom Thumb has been portrayed in book, film and acted drama repeatedly since then.

George S. Stratton was the real life dwarf who lived from 1836-1883. He was a performer in P.T. Barnum's circus where he was widely known by the name of General Tom Thumb and became a famous international celebrity. People of unusually short stature and those afflicted with the disease of dwarfism historically often suffered ridicule and abuse, or were used as curiosities in freak shows, but Tom Thumb was the exception. Barnum, the most renown circus promoter of all time, was a distant relative of the Sherwood family. By all accounts, Tom took to performing naturally, quickly became expert at mime and impersonation, went on the road with the family blessing, and loved the life he was able to live. Of course it helped that Barnum made Tom a wealthy man. He embraced his role in the circus, earning respect and great popularity with crowds in the United States and all over Europe. He had two audiences with Queen Victoria. He grew to a final height of two feet eleven inches. He also married Lavinia Warren, another short person, in 1863. The reception in New York City's metropolitan Hotel featured 10,000 guests!

Answer: The Vagina Monologues

The "episodic play" premiered on October 3rd 1996 at the HERE Arts Center in New York City. It was simply the direct, unvarnished experience of different women regarding body image and reproduction, and their sexual experiences as children and adults; and how societal attitudes on these topics had affected and conditioned them. Ensler originally starred in the play, reading all the monologues herself.

When she left the play, three celebrities took over. In 2001, Whoopi Goldberg and Melissa Ethridge performed a version of the play at Madison Square Garden, to large crowds.

Naturally, owing to the subject matter, the play generated controversy and criticism, from fundamentalist religious groups, but also from some feminists who felt it further sexualized women.

Answer: the Cyclops

Polyphemus the Cyclops was the son of the god Poseidon in Greek mythology. In Homer's epic, "The Odyssey", he was one of a race of unruly giants who tended sheep on an island. Ship captain Odysseus and his crew get trapped in the giant's cave and are being eaten two per day until they turn the tables by putting out the giant's eye with a burning stake after he falls asleep.

Then they escape by clinging to the bottom of his sheep as the sheep exit the cave for their daily grazing, while Polyphemus vainly feels for them in his blind rage.

This is only one of many adventures endured by Odysseus and his men on their journey home from the Trojan War, according to this famous account. It is one of the most often-read and studied examples of literature surviving from ancient Greece. "The Odyssey" is generally considered as a work of fiction, describing legendary events and figures, although some scholars maintain it is based on real, historic events.