TRIVIA -- LITERARY CHARACTERS--ANSWERS

Will O'B · Post by **Will O'B** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 10:49 am

In conjunction with the .4K writing competition and as a way of honoring our many talented writers, I have compiled a list of 20 major literary characters that I feel have gone a long way in contributing to the genre of prose fiction. They were all created by 20th Century authors, and are, for the most part, taken from American novels, with a couple of short stories thrown in for good measure.

The idea is to match the character (number) with the corresponding story (letter of the alphabet).

Don't be concerned with not knowing some of the answers, because I wouldn't be able to answer them all either with my memory being what it is. To make this more fun for yourself, please do not look at anyone else's answers until you have submitted your own. I will post the answer key later this afternoon. Enjoy!

Will O'Ban

Literay Trivia Main Characters -- Prose Fiction -- 20th Century

1. Haze Motes ---------- a) Deliverance by James Dickey

2. Nick Adams ----------- b) Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

3. Holden Caulfield ---------- c) Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

4. Billy Pilgrim ----------- d) House Made Of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday

5. Ed Gentry ----------- e) The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemmingway

6. Jean Louise Finch ------------ f) Finnegans Wake by James Joyce

7. Abel (a Native American) ----------- g) Rabbitt Run by John Updike

8. Danny Alvarez ------------- h) All The King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

9. Guy Montag ---------- i) Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

10. Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker ----------- j) Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

11. Stella-Rondo -------------- k) Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor

12. Jake Barnes ------------- l) Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck

13. Rabbit Angstrom ------------- m) The Killers by Ernest Hemmingway

14. Judd Mulvaney ------------------n) Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

15. Dick Diver ---------------- o) 1984 by George Orwell

16. Jack Burden ---------------p) The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Sallinger

17. George Follansbee Babbitt --------------- q) We Were The Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates

18. Valentine Michael Smith --------------- r) All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

19. Winston Smith ----------------s) To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

20. Paul Baumer -------------- t) Why I Live At The P.O. by Eudora Welty

Flyingcursor · Post by **Flyingcursor** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 11:05 am

Considering I almost exclusively read non-fiction I am quite pleased with my results.

3. Cather in the Rye. Zany youth.
4. Slaughterhouse Five. And so it goes.
6. To Kill a Mockingbird. (Almost didn't get this one then "Finch" suddenly rang a bell. Attica Finch. I confess I looked it up to verify if I was right.)

9. Farenheit 451. Oddly I was just reading the blurb on the back cover to this on Saturday.

18. Stranger in a Strange Land. (I prefer Starship Troopers)

19. 1984. How prophetic
20. All quiet on the Western Front. One of my all time favorites.

chas · Post by **chas** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 12:14 pm

3. Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
4. Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut
9. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
13. The Rabbit books, John Updike
14. Babbitt, Sinclair Lewis
18. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein

and I know Nick Adams, but can't place it.

Only six, pretty wimpy, but I'm horrible with names, plus I'm more into trash and older literature.

Great idea, BTW!

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 12:33 pm

I'm ashamed to admit, I can only positively identify #3 as coming from The Catcher in the Rye, by Salinger, and #19, Winston Smith as belonging to 1984 by George Orwell.
Otherwise, it seems that my memory for tv ads, though sketchy, is better than my familiarity with 20th C. literature. Sad.

(I should have gotten the Finch one though! dumb.)

Will O'B · Post by **Will O'B** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 1:07 pm

Actually, I think that you all did well. It's tough remembering the titles of stories that you probably haven't had to read in years. I know I have the same trouble, and I compiled the list!

To help jog your memory a little, I have added the answers in a mix and match format. I think you may be suprised at how many of the others you can recall when you see the title/author. So give it another shot.

Will O'Ban

Will O'B · Post by **Will O'B** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 4:23 pm

Here are the answers to the Literary Characters Trivia. So how did you do?

1. Haze Motes - Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor

2. Nick Adams - The Killers (and other short stories) by Ernest Hemmingway

3. Holden Caulfield - The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Sallinger

4. Billy Pilgrim - Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

5. Ed Gentry - Deliverance by James Dickey

6. Jean Louise Finch - To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

7. Abel (a Native American) - House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Mamaday

8. Danny Alvarez - Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck

9. Guy Montag - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

10. Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker - Finnegans Wake by James Joyce

11. Stella-Rondo - Why I Live At The P. O. by Eudora Welty

12. Jake Barnes - The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemmingway

13. Rabbit Angstrom - Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; and Rabbit Is Rich (3 Novels) by John Updike

14. Judd Mulvaney - We Were The Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates

15. Dick Diver - Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

16. Jack Burden - All The King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

17. George Follansbee Babbitt - Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

18. Valentine Michael Smith - Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

19. Winston Smith - 1984 by George Orwell

20. Paul Baumer - All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Will O'Ban

chas · Post by **chas** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 7:27 pm

I don't feel embarrassed at all. There are only about 2-3 others that I feel I should have gotten, maybe a couple others I could have.

dubhlinn · Post by **dubhlinn** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 7:57 pm

emmline wrote:I'm ashamed to admit, I can only positively identify #3 as coming from The Catcher in the Rye, by Salinger, and #19, Winston Smith as belonging to 1984 by George Orwell.
Otherwise, it seems that my memory for tv ads, though sketchy, is better than my familiarity with 20th C. literature. Sad.

(I should have gotten the Finch one though! dumb.)

Snap!!
Exactly the same result as Emm. I suppose Atticus would have stood out a lot more than Jean Louise for the Mockingbird question.

Slan,
D. (for Dummy)

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 7:59 pm

dubhlinn wrote: I suppose Atticus would have stood out a lot more than Jean Louise for the Mockingbird question.

Jean Louise, aka Scout.

Will O'B · Post by **Will O'B** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 10:11 pm

I think you people are being too hard on yourselves. The purpose of this was no different than that of naming the commercial jingles -- to have fun with it and see what you remember. Nothing more. Chas has the right idea. Knowing one literary character from another means nothing in the larger scheme of things . . . that's why it's called trivia here. If you've read all of the works I listed that's great. If you haven't, that's fine too. It's a matter of personal taste and what different people find interesting, and remembering the details of what you read years later (which is my number one failing). These words probably sound odd coming from someone who used to teach most of these books in his 20th Century Lit class. But that's life

I agree that Aticus Finch would have been easier to recognize than his daughter's proper name -- Jean Louise Finch, but I was trying to limit the character to the one narrating the story when that was possible. Also, I purposely didn't use her nickname "Scout" because I thought everyone would recognize it too quickly. I guess I can be sneaky like that sometimes.

Will O'Ban