Where Did They Get That Title? Quiz

Answer: Their Eyes Were Watching God

"Their Eyes Were Watching God", by Zora Neale Hurston, is the story of a beautiful black woman's pursuit of a happy life and marriage in a difficult world. Janie Crawford is married at the age of 16 to Logan Killicks, a farmer who ignores her or treats her poorly.

She elopes with Joe Starks to southern Florida, and they set up the community of Eatonville. Joe becomes mayor of the small town, but as his importance grows, he treats Janie more and more cruelly. Joe dies, and Janie finds happiness with a local man, Tea Cake, with whom she escapes down to the Everglades, and they marry happily. During a hurricane (from which the quote above is taken), Tea Cake is bitten by a rabid dog, and Janie is forced to kill her husband with a gun to save her own life.

Answer: The Red Badge of Courage

Stephen Crane's talent for description is evident in his most famous work, "The Red Badge of Courage". Although short, the novel is filled with both natural depiction and psychological analysis by the protagonist, Union soldier Henry Fleming. Henry flees after his first real battle when he realizes that his side has no hope of winning.

After running through the forest, he comes upon a group of soldiers covered with war wounds, or red badges of courage. Henry is ashamed of his cowardice, and he proudly fights and bears the Union flag from that point forward.

Answer: All Quiet on the Western Front

Erich Marie Remarque's masterpiece about German soldiers in World War I is often considered one of the greatest war novels of all time. The story is told by Paul Baumer, a young man in the German army who was coaxed into enlisting by his nationalistic schoolteacher.

After entering the war and experiencing real battle, Paul becomes disillusioned by nationalism and becomes more concerned about staying alive. He is unable to connect to the real world on his short leaves of rest because he doesn't know anyone with which he can share his real experiences.

He watches his friends die one by one from enemy soldiers, disease, and every sort of destruction. Paul is the last to fall, in the last few sentences of the novel.

Answer: Cry, the Beloved Country

"Cry, the Beloved Country" takes place in twentieth-century South Africa and centers around Stephen Kumalo, a humble priest from the village of Ndotsheni who travels to Johannesburg to find his sister Gertrude, brother John, and son Absalom. Upon arriving, he discovers that his sister has turned to drinking and debauchery; his brother has become an outspoken politician; and his son is nowhere to be found.

In a race through the cities, Kumalo experiences racism and apartheid of all kinds while searching desperately for Absalom.

He arrives too late: Absalom has been captured by police for the (accidental) murder of a white activist, Arthur Jarvis. He is eventually convicted, but his accomplices (including John Kumalo's son) are released. Stephen returns to Ndotsheni, where James Jarvis, Arthur's father, contributes to rebuilding the town's church.

The novel ends on the day of Absalom's execution, and Stephen climbs a mountain near the village to pray.

Answer: The Catcher in the Rye

"The Catcher in the Rye", by JD Salinger, is the story of a teenager, Holden Caulfield, who does not want to grow up. The narrator Holden fails out of four schools despite his intelligence and is telling his story to a counselor or mental asylum. His narration has spurts of curse words, and perhaps the most famous word from the novel, "phony", to describe anything pretentious and insincere. Holden is terrified of falling into the phony world of adulthood, so he clings to the past and his childhood innocence while wandering around New York City at night.

He pictures himself as "the catcher in the rye", an image taken from a Robert Burns poem. He will catch young children from falling off the cliff from innocence into adulthood.

Answer: A Streetcar Named Desire

"A Streetcar Named Desire" is one of Tennessee Williams' most famous plays, and it gave us a phrase that still exists today: "I have always depended upon the kindness of strangers". The speaker of that quote is Blanche DuBois, who comes to New Orleans, to her sister Stella's house after Blanche loses her mansion and is evicted from a hotel. Strangers' kindness ends for Blanche after she and Stella's husband Stanley begin a feud.

At the end of the play, Blanche is escorted to an insane asylum after Stanley's cruel treatment destroys her mind.

Answer: Things Fall Apart

"Things Fall Apart", by Chinua Achebe, is one of the most famous novels in African history. It narrates the life of Okonkwo, an esteemed warrior of the Umofia clan in Nigeria. After the Umofia conquer a neighboring tribe, Okonkwo is given a 15-year-old boy as a prize.

The boy, Ikemefuna, becomes a son to Okonkwo; however, the boy is eventually slain as an oracle's decree. Okonkwo takes part in Ikemefuna's death, which begins a cycle of his misfortunes. During a village elder's funeral, Okonkwo accidentally kills the elder's adolescent son, and is banished to a neighboring village for seven years. Europeans missionaries begin to enter Nigeria.

Although Okonkwo fights back against the Christians, his clanmates succumb and convert or act passively.

He kills the leader of the Europeans with a machete, but eventually hangs himself when he realizes that no others will join in his attack. The District Commissioner believes the story of Okonkwo will be an interesting story in the book he is writing: "The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger".

Answer: To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee's novel is required reading for many schools for its themes of the loss of innocence, class distinctions, and racism. The story is told by Scout Finch, a young girl in Maycomb County, Alabama, in the early 1930s. Scout, her brother Jem, and their father, the lawyer Atticus, live normally until Atticus is selected to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, from allegations of rape of a white girl, Mayella Ewell. Although Atticus' defense clearly shows Tom's innocence, the racist jury convicts Tom anyway. Tom dies in a botched escape from prison.

Mockingbirds are used in the novel to symbolize innocence. The Finches' neighbor Boo Radley never comes out of his house, and becomes something of a neighborhood legend. After he saves Scout's life from Mayella Ewell's father, Boo disappears, but Atticus tells Scout not to go after him. Boo, along with Scout, Jem, and Tom, can be considered a mockingbird.

Answer: A Clockwork Orange

At first glance, Alex, the narrator of Anthony Burgess' classic "A Clockwork Orange", is a ruthless and evil teenager. In a world where gangs called droogs take over after dark, Alex and his friends commit heinous acts of theft, rape, and murder. After insulting his droogs, Alex is led into a trap, captured by the government, and thrown into prison. When offered a chance to escape, Alex jumps at the opportunity, little realizing what the results would be. Scientists use Alex as a test subject for the new Ludovico technique, a way of classically conditioning the mind. They inject Alex with a drug that makes him feel sick, and then force him to watch movies of violent crimes. Soon, Alex becomes incapable of free thought, as he is unable to even think about doing anything wrong.

The cruelties that Alex suffers after escaping prison are horrible, and Stanley Kubrick's interpretation of the novel is no substitute for reading it. However, because it is told from Alex's point of view, I strongly recommend that you print out a dictionary of "Nadsat", or teenage slang, from the Internet before reading. Learning the language takes time, but it only adds to Burgess' powerful work.

Answer: A Separate Peace

"A Separate Peace" is John Knowles' most famous and lasting work. The narrator Gene tells of his experiences many years ago at the Devon School, a private boarding school in the Northeast. Gene's best friend was Phineas, the class clown, sporting hero, and all-around nice guy. Gene, the academic, grows increasingly jealous of Phineas, and eventually comes to the paranoid conclusion that Phineas is trying to wreck his study habits. At a meeting of the "Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session", Phineas suggests that he and Gene jump off of a tall tree into the river below at the same time. Although they had done this individually many times, this was the first "double jump". Before they can jump, Gene jounces the limb from behind, and Phineas falls into the water, breaking his leg.

School returns to normal, for a while: Gene considers enlisting in the war effort after realizing the meaninglessness of life at Devon without his best friend. When Phineas returns to school, he immediately comes back to Gene, not knowing that Gene had been the one to cripple him. Gene helps him around, and they switch places: now Gene is the athletic and Phineas is the introvert. At a Winter Carnival, Gene genuinely becomes happy and clear-minded for the first time, leading to "a separate peace". However, another classmate grows increasingly suspicious of what really happened at the tree, and holds a mock trial for Gene. When it becomes clear that Gene was responsible for Phineas' fall, Phineas runs out of the building, tripping on the stairs, and breaking his leg again. This time, he dies in the hospital.

Answer: The Lord of the Flies

William Golding's "The Lord of the Flies" is a philosophical novel as well as an exciting adventure. A group of young children are stranded on a beautiful deserted island, with no means of calling for help. At first, they form a civilized government and elect one boy, Ralph, as leader. Ralph order signal fires to be build and tries to instill discipline among the boys. However, another boy, Jack, dislikes the rules and gathers followers in his hunting group. Eventually, the balance of power switches between the civilized and the uncivilized. Another child, Simon, goes into the jungle to escape the commotion and comes across a pig's head on a stick, swarming with flies. He hears the voice of the devil (Beelzebub literally means "Lord of the Flies"), and barely staggers out of the jungle, where a mad feast by the hunters leads to his unintentional death.

The hunters kill Ralph's only remaining ally, Piggy, and begin to close in on him. In the nick of time, adults come to intervene and save Ralph's life. At the end of the novel, Ralph reflects on the events of the past days. The inner animal savagery is still present in humans, no matter how deep it is buried.

Answer: Heart of Darkness

"Heart of Darkness", by Joseph Conrad, follows Marlow, a sailor working on trade in the Belgian Congo. Marlow is instructed to meet with Kurtz, a white man who has subjugated African tribes in his limitless quest for ivory. As Marlow ventures deep into the jungle, he makes racist comments about Africa, describing it as a land of darkness. When Marlow meets Kurtz, he learns that the man is deathly ill; however, the barbaric treatment by the European upon Africans is horrendous. Marlow takes Kurtz aboard his boat, but he dies on board, with his last words being "The horror! The horror!" Marlow returns to Europe and visits Kurtz's fiancee. He tells her that Kurtz's last words were her name.

Conrad's novella has seen its fair share of controversy over the years. While many believe it to be a scathing attack on imperialism, some believe that Conrad wrote the work sincerely, sharing in Marlow's racist views. Chinua Achebe began a long feud with Conrad with his essay "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'".

Answer: Brave New World

Aldous Huxley might be best known for his hallucinogen-inspired novels, but "Brave New World" is undoubtedly his most famous work. Portraying a world set in 632 AF (years after Henry Ford, the inventor of the assembly line technique), "Brave New World" features a totalitarian state whose ingenuity is matched only by Orwell's "1984". Citizens are completely docile thanks to a drug, "soma", that manufactures happiness with no ill effect. Hypnopaedia (sleep-teaching) in government "hatcheries" creates citizens who can think no wrong, who constantly reject books and learning, and who are perfectly satisfied with life the way it is. A strict hierarchical system of Alphas through Epsilons stratify civilization based on work, attire, and intelligence. Epsilons are actually suffocated of oxygen at birth to reduce their brain capacities.

When Bernard Marx and Lenina Crowne, then, take a trip to a Native American Reservation in the Southwest United States, they are shocked at the differences between the two societies. When they encounter John the Savage at the Reservation, Bernard invites him to come to the World State with him and Linda. John learned how to read from "The Complete Works of Shakespeare", and constantly quotes the Bard: "O Brave New World, that has such people in it" is from "The Tempest".

John creates havoc in the World State upon arriving by rejecting the docile lifestyle and causing pandemonium for the government. Eventually, he retreats to the countryside and tries to purify himself by whipping. He hangs himself at the end of the novel.

Answer: The Color Purple

"The Color Purple" is Alice Walker's most famous novel, and the movie version of the novel was released in 1985 to wide acclaim. The novel is made up of Celie's letters to God, to whom she writes because she is unable to communicate with anyone else. Her father Alphonso beats and rapes her terribly. Celie gives birth to two children by her father, but Alphonso steals the babies and disposes of them. When a man asks Alphonso if he can marry Celie's sister Nettie, Alphonso gives him as a bride Celie instead. Married life is difficult for Celie.

The man that Celie married (whose last name is never revealed) has a lover, the singer Shug Avery. When Shug falls ill, Celie's husband takes her into his house. Celie becomes sexually attracted to the singer. Although both are married, they retain their relationship. Celie finds out that her husband has kept letters from Nettie from her. Celie learns from the letters that Nettie now lives in Africa with a missionary couple. The couple's children, Olivia and Adam, are Celie's biological children with her father. Celie and Shug escape to Tennessee.

Later, Celie returns to Georgia to find her husband a reformed man and her father dead. Nettie returns to America and the sisters reunite. Celie realizes that she is finally happy and is free to express her opinions as she wants.

Answer: The Fountainhead

"The Fountainhead", by Ayn Rand, is a prime example of Objectivism, Rand's philosophy advocating self-interest above all. The protagonist Howard Roark loves architecture and creates beautiful work, but it rarely sells or is successful. Throughout the novel, Roark is constantly trounced by other architects, who make less inspiring but more successful work.

However, Roark refuses to cave, and continues to build admirable, yet controversial buildings. Rand's novel is a scathing attack on mediocrity; individualism is the greatest virtue that a person can have. Roark argues in the novel that individuals propel history and are the "fountainheads" of civilization.