The Diamond as Big as the Ritz Quiz

Answer: Hades

Styx and Acheron are rivers in the underworld of Greek myth. Ultima Thule is the legendary end of the world of old Greece. Unger is about to unknowingly exchange one "Hades" for a worse one of mindless materialism and greed. His surname obviously points to hunger, the sort of materialistic hunger the Roaring 20's embraced and Fitzgerald criticized throughout the era.

Answer: St. Midas

Midas was the greedy Greek king who wished for the "Golden Touch" so as to increase his wealth, only to face starvation when he turned food into gold. Most publishers worried that Fitzgerald's satirical reference would be construed as blasphemous.

Answer: it's an entire mountain in Montana

Of course no diamond on Earth can ever make up a whole mountain in real life! But in Fitzgerald's allegory it's one cubic mile of pure diamond that Percy's family has built a fancy chateau upon.

Answer: a Civil War colonel

Fitz-Norman Culpepper Washington, a "direct descendant of George Washington and Lord Baltimore" left Virginia after the war with two dozen faithful slaves to seek his fortune out West. He was chasing a squirrel for food when he noticed it had something shiny in its mouth. That led to the discovery of the diamond mountain, source of the Washington family's wealth.

Answer: Negro slaves

The Washington family kept slaves long after the Civil War. Even today, I'll bet a lot of black readers will hate that detail of Fitzgerald's!

Answer: Gygsum

Gygsum is a "black Gargantua" that picks up Unger "like a child" to put him in the automated bath under Unger's bed. He's the only slave whose name we know. The name is a pun on "jism"! (sperm)

Answer: sauna

It doesn't have a sauna adjacent, but the bath does have an aquarium in its glass sides (fittingly, the Montana village the Washingtons live outside is named Fish), a fountain that makes a misty rain on the bath and motion pictures, which Unger refuses.

There are also paddle wheels that stir up the liquid soap from walrus-headed spouts into a luxurious bubble bath. Cecil B. DeMille, eat your heart out!

Answer: Kismine

Childlike Kismine is barefoot when Unger first meets her, in a knee-high white gown and hair bound with sapphires. She's "not more than sixteen" and "the most beautiful person he had ever seen". He falls for her on the spot, and later gives her a small gold football charm from St. Midas (she gives him a sapphire in return). Jasmine, the elder, is bowlegged, with big hands and feet.

Answer: in a glass-lined pit in the ground

Unger is shown two dozen aviators who have stumbled on the giant diamond in a glass-walled pit in the ground covered by an iron grate. This is the first sign of the nightmarishness underlying the supposedly idyllic life of the Washingtons.

Answer: polo

The three of them could hardly make a polo team! But they do hunt, swim in a mountain lake and golf. In fact, it's during a golf game that Braddock shows Unger the pit where the intruders are kept.

Answer: they were murdered

Kismine innocently discloses that some girls were invited by her and Jasmine but were slain to keep them from revealing the location of the giant diamond. Unger is horrified and temporarily breaks with her but later finds he still loves her.

Answer: airplanes

Airplanes finally assault the mountain, trying to take over the diamond. A prisoner escaped and gave information about it. The Washingtons defend the diamond with anti-aircraft guns. When the slave quarters are bombed to rubble, Kismine cries "So few Americans have any respect for property" (!), yet she's thrilled to have the chance to be "free and poor".

Answer: God

Braddock offers the diamond as a "bribe to God", hoping God will stop the fight. It doesn't work, of course; the planes still attack.

Answer: the Washingtons blow it up

The Washingtons have wired the diamond with explosives to keep it from falling into other hands. Braddock, his wife and son all perish. Only Unger and the two girls survive.

Answer: William Pene du Bois

Author-illustrator du Bois, 40's childrens' adventure story
"The 21 Balloons" recounts a scientist's crash landing on Krakatoa before it exploded and finding a family there whose great wealth depended on a diamond mine there. du Bois wrote of the coincidence that his story was so similar to Fitzgerald's.