There Is Nothing There There Quiz | Literature by Region

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. A frequent visitor to Gertrude Stein's salon was up-and-coming young author, Ernest Hemingway. One of his collections of stories was about a young autobiographical character, Nick Adams. One of the best known stories from this collection was "Big Two-Hearted _____________". Big Two-Hearted what?

Answer: River

Having read the "Nick Adams Stories" some time ago, I remember Nick, Hemingway's character, and the stories of Nick going through various stages of his life, a life similar to Hemingway's own. "Big Two-Hearted River", for example, was the story of a fishing trip, told in Hemingway's sparse writing style, mostly descriptive, that the writer may have gone on.

This is a story that is taught in literature classes, for its many fine qualities.

2. F. Scott Fitzgerald also was a visitor to Stein's salon. One of his greatest novels was "The Great Gatsby". The novel reveals Fitzgerald's view of the attitude of the idle rich toward those of what they considered a lower class. What was the view of the rich?

Answer: The lower class people were expendable

The main characters of the novel are rich, but a few important characters, such as the Wilsons, are of the working class. The casual view of the Wilson's class by the rich is vividly seen when Daisy (rich heroine) runs over Myrtle Wilson with her car.

She has killed the woman, but just drives on, unconcerned. Daisy then leaves her husband (Tom) and continues her life unconcerned, and, shall we say, selfish?

3. Many authors were not in Stein's "charmed circle", and one of these was Stephen Crane. His most famous work is a war novel, "The Red Badge of Courage". In what war is that novel set?

Answer: American Civil War

An 1895 novel, "The Red Badge of Courage" is an example of the Realist movement in literature. In scenes of combat and death, the novel follows a young Civil War soldier as he tries to cope with the nightmarish situation in which he finds himself. The use of a single soldier, instead of a large company of men, enabled the writer to show the horrible reality of war, as experienced by the individual.

It is a powerful novel, one that is still relevant, and worth reading.

4. Nathaniel Hawthorne used Puritan New England for his setting in many of his works, including his most famous novel, "The Scarlet Letter". What Puritan city was the setting for this story of sin and repentence?

Answer: Boston, Massachusetts

Boston, like many other cities in New England in the 1600s, followed the strict rules of the Puritan religion. In this novel, the sin for Bostonians was adultery, and the adultress, Hester Prynne, was sentenced to public humiliation on the scaffold, prison, and the wearing of a red "A" on the front of her dress. She would not reveal the name of the man, which made her punishment worse. As life went on, she tried to lead a dignified life with her daughter Pearl, who became somewhat of a problem. In the end we see that sin and repentance had ruled her life, but because of it she was more free than other women of her day.

The novel contains much symbolism, one of the most interesting being Pearl, who symbolized the sin, and the letter itself. Pearl was dressed in a scarlet dress with gold embroidery, just like the letter.

5. Many American authors have seen nature as an inspiration and subject for their poetry. Joyce Kilmer wrote probably the most famous and popular poem about something in nature. What nature poem did he write?

Answer: Trees

The 1913 poem, "Trees", consists of rhyming couplets, a lyric poem in iambec
tetrameter. It was set to music and sung by many, including Nelson Eddy.
If you have heard it set to music, you can hardly read it without hearing the song in your head.

"I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of Robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree."

Unfortunately, Sergeant Joyce Kilmer, 165th Infantry, (69th New York), A.E.F.
was killed in action near Ourcy, July 30, 1918.

6. Emily Dickinson is thought of as one of America's important poets. She wrote of illness, death and immortality, among other themes. Her life spanned the mid-1800s. Which answer below does not describe her writing?

Answer: Unusually long

Emily Dickinson was prolific, writing about 1800 poems - short, most with no titles, with "creative" punctuation and capitalization. Only about a dozen were published before her death, the others had been hidden away.

Although she lived a sheltered life at home, she got inspiration from intellectual friends, their letters, and books of other poets such as Wordsworth, Emerson and especially Shakespeare.

This poem is an example of her poems of death and dying, a typical short poem with short lines:

"If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain:
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain."

7. "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", a story by Edgar Allan Poe in 1841, introduces a man with brilliant powers of observation and deduction. These attributes of the man, Dupin, lead us to follow him through a story that is known as what?

Answer: The first modern detective story in English

In this story, two men read about a horrible murder. The two become interested
when an acquaintance of one of the men, Dupin, decides to investigate the crime scene and is able to deduce what happened. There are many clues to follow which the police have overlooked, or deemed unimportant. Dupin finds the culprit, thus the birth of the modern detective. Later creators of detective novels and stories owe a lot to Mr Edgar Allan Poe.

8. In 1960, John Steinbeck took an extensive trip around the United States, and wrote a book about it. He took along his friend and the result was one of the most readable travel books, ever. What was the name of this book?

Answer: Travels with Charley

"Travels With Charlie" tells of the trip around America that Steinbeck took with his poodle, Charley. Steinbeck drove a camper that he named Rocinante, (the horse of Don Quixote). Do authors ever get away from symbolism?

Steinbeck wanted to see the America he had written about, and to find out what Americans were like, from his own observations. He gleaned many excellent stories which he described in detail, along with his own personal thoughts.

One thought that I particularly remember is his comment that "If I could ever live away from the sea, I would live in Montana" - interesting.

This quiz alone belies the truth of my title.

9. Upton Sinclair wrote an important novel in 1906, "The Jungle". A novel set in a certain U.S. industry, it exposed conditions so bad that the book led to reform. What was the industry?

Answer: Meatpacking

When Sinclair was 26, he went to work in the Chicago meatpacking industry. He went undercover and in disguise, as he had an ulterior motive. He found exploitation and inhumane treatment of immigrant workers. The unsanitary conditions, rotten and diseased meat were deplorable.

Sinclair was a socialist who was seemingly trying to portray the failure of
capitalism. But the book's most important effect was, perhaps, the passage of the "Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906".

10. Here we are, back to Gertrude Stein. She was considered a Modernist poet. Some of her poems reminded critics of Cubism, an art form co-invented by Pablo Picasso, another favorite at her salon. Some of her works are known for short, cryptic lines. What flower was one of these about?

Answer: Rose

She wrote, "A Rose is a rose is a rose", she loved repetition and being mysterious. After a time spent in Oakland, CA, she was asked how it was there. She replied, "There is no there there".

One of her books that is interesting to read, is "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas". Her lifelong friend and companion, Alice is the narrator of the book. It is a story of both women's lives, written to make money. It became popular, although Gertude's fellow authors, like Hemingway, didn't like it much.

If you like to read about this fascinating period of time in art and literature, I recommend "Charmed Circle: Gertrude Stein and Company".

Source: Author mpkitty

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor looney_tunes before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

There Is Nothing There There Trivia Quiz

This is a quiz about American authors' works. Some were inspired by Gertrude Stein (hence the misquoted title), some not.

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