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The Grapes of Wrath

Quiz

Context

Plot Overview

Character List

Analysis of Major Characters

Themes, Motifs & Symbols

Chapters Thirteen–Fifteen

Chapters Sixteen–Eighteen

Chapters Nineteen–Twenty-One

Chapters Twenty-Two–Twenty-Four

Chapters Twenty-Five–Twenty-Seven

Chapters Twenty-Eight–Thirty

Important Quotations Explained

Key Facts

Study Questions & Essay Topics

Quiz

Suggestions for Further Reading

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The Grapes of Wrath

John Steinbeck

Quiz

1. How does Grampa die?

(A) He has a stroke

(B) He has a heart attack

(D) Noah kills him

2. Why is Noah slightly deformed?

(A) Ma drank heavily during her pregnancy

(B) A local corporation dumped pollutants into the water supply

(D) As a child, Noah was run over by a combine

3. What is a “big cat”?

(A) A machine used by the banks to evict farmers

(B) The migrants' nickname for a policeman

(D) A terrible dust storm

4. During what decade did the Dust Bowl tragedy take place?

(A) The 1910s

(B) The 1920s

(D) The 1940s

5. How many years was Tom in prison?

(A) 11

(B) 14

(D) 4

6. What does Uncle John give to children?

(A) Pennies

(B) Cracker Jack

(D) Wooden soldiers

7. According to Chapter Nineteen, who were the first Americans to settle California?

(A) Squatters

(B) Middle-class businesspeople

(D) Cowboys

8. Who is given the task of burying Rose of Sharon's stillborn child?

(A) Uncle John

(B) Tom

(D) Agnes Wainwright

9. What are Al's main interests?

(A) Cars and clothes

(B) Music and girls

(D) Music and clothes

10. Where do the Joads leave Granma's corpse?

(A) A coroner's office

(B) A hospital morgue

(D) By the banks of a stream

11. Which Joad child believes him- or herself to be the least loved by Ma and Pa?

(A) Rose of Sharon

(B) Tom

(D) Noah

12. What was Jim Casy's former occupation?

(A) Truck driver

(B) Preacher

(D) Mayor

13. How does Jim Casy die?

(A) He dies of heat exhaustion in the fields

(B) He kills himself out of sheer despair

(D) He dies in a fight during a workers' strike

14. What do the citizens of California angrily call the migrants?

(A) Hobos

(B) Okies

(D) Bonzos

15. At the end of the novel, who is the leader of the Joad family?

(A) Pa Joad

(B) Tom Joad

(D) Ma Joad

16. Whom does Agnes Wainwright decide to marry?

(A) Tom

(B) Al

(D) Floyd Knowles

17. Who in the novel first proposes the idea of organizing the workers?

(A) Tom

(B) Al

(D) Floyd Knowles

18. Why does Pa's dam fail?

(A) Pa uses sand when he should have used mortar

(B) A tree falls into it

(D) Pa builds a good dam, but he builds it in a bad place

19. Why does Ruthie reveal Tom's secret?

(A) She is jealous of her older brother

(B) She talks in her sleep

(D) She wants to impress a girl who is picking on her

20. Who tells Tom his parents' whereabouts when he arrives at their deserted farm?

(A) Jim

(B) Muley Graves

(D) Mr. Huston

21. In what year did The Grapes of Wrath win a Pulitzer Prize?

(A) 1940

(B) 1936

(D) 1962

22. Why does Ma fear that Winfield will grow up to be wild and uncontrollable?

(A) Since Noah left, he has been without a proper influence

(B) Work camps are not a decent place to raise children

(D) Manual labor is not good for such a young child

23. Why do the other children ostracize Ruthie when she first arrives at the government camp?

(A) She is from Oklahoma

(B) She bullies a girl on the croquet court

(D) She is from a large family

24. At the cotton farm, where do the Joads live?

(A) In a boxcar

(B) In a shack

(D) In a culvert

25. At the end of the novel, Ma explains to Pa that some people live “in jerks,” while others live in “all one flow.” This is her way of describing an essential difference between which two groups?

(A) Rich and poor

(B) Oklahomans and Californians

(D) Tenant farmers and landowners

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The Grapes of Wrath

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