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McCarthy Cormac Quizzes, Trivia and Puzzles
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Cormac McCarthy Trivia

Cormac McCarthy Trivia Quizzes

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When he started writing, the American author Charles McCarthy decided to use the Irish form Cormac, to reduce any resemblance to the name of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's dummy. 'The Orchard Keeper' was published in 1965, but it is 'Blood Meridian' (1985) wh9ch has come to be considered one of the great (albeit violent) novels of the century. 'All the Pretty Horses' (1992), 'No Country for Old Men' (2005) and 'The Road' (2006) won numerous awards, and were adapted into award-winning films.
4 Cormac McCarthy quizzes and 40 Cormac McCarthy trivia questions.
1.
  Blood Meridian   top quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Cormac McCarthy's story of the depraved violence with which the West was won. Follow the kid, a 14 year old boy from Tennessee, as he joins a band of renegade Americans contracted to slaughter Indians, their scalps and blood for pay.
Average, 10 Qns, pu2-ke-qi-ri, Nov 05 22
Average
pu2-ke-qi-ri
Nov 05 22
367 plays
2.
  Cormac McCarthy - Down "The Road"    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
In a gray world freezing from the inside out, you must travel the road. Where are you going? What will you do? let's see. *Spoilers*
Average, 10 Qns, SGTShaw, Apr 17 21
Average
SGTShaw
Apr 17 21
90 plays
3.
  The Works Of Cormac McCarthy    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
A few brief questions on the life and works of one of the greatest masters of the written word.
Difficult, 10 Qns, kingban, Nov 15 10
Difficult
kingban
256 plays
4.
  "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
A fairly difficult quiz about the great novel of the latter 20th century; only doable if you've read the book carefully.
Tough, 10 Qns, forgottenohio, Nov 15 10
Tough
forgottenohio
180 plays
Related Topics
  Contemporary Literature and Fiction [Literature] (22 quizzes)

  Historical Fiction [Literature] (5 quizzes)


Cormac McCarthy Trivia Questions
1. "The Road" received which prestigious literary award?

From Quiz Cormac McCarthy - Down "The Road"

Answer: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

This is Cormac McCarthy's first novel to receive this distinction. It was awarded the prize in 2007, and became a selection for Oprah's Book Club. It was followed by a film adaptation in 2009.

2. Whom among the following does the kid encounter first?

From Quiz "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy

Answer: The Judge

He sees the Judge in the revival tent just before encountering Toadvine on his way to the outhouse.

3. In what US state was Cormac Mccarthy born?

From Quiz The Works Of Cormac McCarthy

Answer: Rhode Island

Born in Providence, July 20th 1933 and moved to Knoxsville, Tennessee four years later. He is the third of six children with two brothers and three sisters.

4. None of the characters in the novel have names, and are instead given titles - the Man and the Boy. What is their relationship?

From Quiz Cormac McCarthy - Down "The Road"

Answer: Father and Son

The novel follows the Man and the Boy (who are, in fact, father and son) as they traverse a scorched wasteland. Everything is gray, and each day grows colder and darker. Their objective is to reach the coast, where the Man believes they will survive the impending winter.

5. How much is Glanton's life worth (in Texas)?

From Quiz "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy

Answer: $500

"...but you'd have to discount the note with your ass," Glanton tells the Prussian Jew, Speyer, who sells them the guns.

6. Who is the eponymous 'Orchard Keeper?'

From Quiz The Works Of Cormac McCarthy

Answer: Uncle Ather

'These six years past it had served as a crypt which the old man kept and guarded.' Uncle Ather eventually reacts to the encroachment of technology and man upon his mountainous plot of land with disastrous consequences.

7. What was the extinction event that ended the world in "The Road?"

From Quiz Cormac McCarthy - Down "The Road"

Answer: Unknown

While there are descriptions of a bright light and low concussions, and flashback sequences show how the Man reacted to the unknown event when it first occurred, there is no clear explanation as to what happened or why.

8. Which character is black?

From Quiz "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy

Answer: Jackson

There is a white Jackson, but he's murdered by the black man early on.

9. 'In Outer Dark,' Rinthy sets out to find what?

From Quiz The Works Of Cormac McCarthy

Answer: Her baby

Those of you who have read the book will know the search doesn't exactly go to plan. She also seeks out medical attention but it is not the catalyst of her search, indeed it is for the pains suffered from the birth. She receives good fortune while her brother is, of course, a constant victim of ill-fortune.

10. Most of the human population has been killed off. What are the survivors eating?

From Quiz Cormac McCarthy - Down "The Road"

Answer: Humans

The apocalypse has killed off all animal life and destroyed all crops. Most survivors have resorted to cannibalism, and the Man's worst fear is that he and the Boy will be murdered and eaten.

11. When the jugglers tell fortunes in the desert, what is the kid's tarot card?

From Quiz "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy

Answer: The Four of Cups

For more on its significance, look up a tarot guide.

12. What is the name of John Grady Cole's lover in 'All The Pretty Horses'?

From Quiz The Works Of Cormac McCarthy

Answer: Alejandra

Played by Penelope Cruz in the poor film version of the novel. Incidentally, the third and final installment of the 'Border Trilogy' is rumoured to be in development for a 2012 release.

13. The Man carries a revolver with him. How many rounds are in it?

From Quiz Cormac McCarthy - Down "The Road"

Answer: Two

The Man is saving the rounds for himself and his son, so they are not captured and eaten by other survivors. He does, however, use one to kill another survivor who threatens him and holds the Boy at knifepoint.

14. Who is the only Mexican in Glanton's gang?

From Quiz "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy

Answer: McGill

He is killed in the raid on the Apache village.

15. In 'Blood Meridian,' when The Kid visits Los Angeles which two former accomplices does he witness hanged?

From Quiz The Works Of Cormac McCarthy

Answer: Toadvine and Brown

The Vandiemenlander is skewered to a tree, Bathcat and Glanton both massacred and Tobin is never found.

16. There is a scene in the book where the Man gives the Boy a "treat". What does this turn out to be?

From Quiz Cormac McCarthy - Down "The Road"

Answer: Coca-Cola

The Man finds the can of soda and offers it to the Boy, urging him to drink it all, as one of the last surviving relics from a civilized world. The Boy instead shares it with his father.

17. In 'The Road,' what time do the clocks stop?

From Quiz The Works Of Cormac McCarthy

Answer: 1:17

Incidentally this same number appears in 'No Country For Old Men' as a motel room number in which Chigurh kills the Mexicans.

18. How far does the Judge throw the "enormous iron meteorite shaped like a great molar"?

From Quiz "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy

Answer: ten feet

Not that ten feet isn't impressive; even Glanton refuses to bet on him in this endeavor.

19. At the end of 'Suttree,' what is the fate of the 'City Rat' Gene Haroogate?

From Quiz The Works Of Cormac McCarthy

Answer: He is imprisoned

His sister is informed by Suttree where he is and heads off to visit him. Harrogate provides many of the novel's comic moments which include him sexually assaulting a farmer's watermelons and attempting to blow into the vaults of Knoxville's banks by burrowing underneath the city in its vast catacombs.

20. No Western is complete without a showdown. In "Blood Meridian," the showdown is between the kid (joined by Tobin the expriest) and the judge (joined by the fool and two horses). Who gets shot and dies?

From Quiz Blood Meridian

Answer: The two horses

Interestingly enough, the duel is more a duel for knowledge of the kid's soul than for the life of either the judge or the kid. The judge passes within easy shooting range of the kid several times, but the kid refuses to shoot him. Similarly, Tobin urges the kid to shoot the fool and the horses to gain a strategic advantage, but the kid only shoots the two horses, not the fool. Similarly, the judge does not shoot the kid. In the climax of the scene, the judge calls out to the kid that he is flawed because he had some clemency for the heathen. Then the judge departs, fool in tow. The kid and Tobin are rescued by kind Indians. And so the story continues.

21. The Man, since the beginning of the novel, has been suffering from an unknown ailment and is dying. To make matters worse, he is injured by what?

From Quiz Cormac McCarthy - Down "The Road"

Answer: An arrow

The Man and the Boy are ambushed, in which the Man gets shot with an arrow in the leg. He ultimately kills one of the attackers with a flare gun, but his health quickly deteriorates.

22. The "expriest" Tobin protests to the Judge that he was never a priest but only...

From Quiz "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy

Answer: a novitiate

"'Journeyman priest or apprentice priest', said the Judge. 'Men of god and men of war have strange affinities'."

23. What does Chigurh do to Carla-Jean Moss at the end of 'No Country For Old Men'?

From Quiz The Works Of Cormac McCarthy

Answer: He shoots her

The Coen Brothers chose not to depict this in detail in the film adaptation of the novel. Don't know why.

24. Despite the nature of the world around them, The Man tries to instill his son with civility and morality. Throughout the novel, he refers to this as "carrying" what?

From Quiz Cormac McCarthy - Down "The Road"

Answer: Fire

The Man constantly reminds the boy they are "carrying the fire," claiming this is the reason they can't give up on surviving. The Boy even goes so far as to ask a set of strangers at the end of the book if they are carrying it as well, to see if they are "good guys."

25. The idiot James Robert and his brother/keeper Cloyce share what last name?

From Quiz "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy

Answer: Bell

A last name that crops up in both this and "No Country for Old Men".

26. What happens to the kid at the end of the novel?

From Quiz Blood Meridian

Answer: The judge rapes and murders him

After his conversation with the judge, he does business with a whore, then goes outside. He watches the meteor shower and listens to people calling out to the girl who owned the bear, who has now run away. Then he opens the door of the outhouse: "The judge was seated upon the closet. He was naked and he rose up smiling and gathered him in his arms against his immense and terrible flesh and shot the wooden barlatch home behind him." This is the last we hear of the kid. The man who later tries to use the outhouse only remarks "Good God almighty." Given the judge's love of rape and the huge weight difference between the kid and the judge, we can fill in what happened. So ends the life of the most sympathetic character in the novel, strangled and sodomized in a dirty outhouse.

27. Where does the Man die at the end of the novel?

From Quiz Cormac McCarthy - Down "The Road"

Answer: Beach

The Boy stays with his father's body for three days before being approached by a family. The Boy, while hesitant, becomes convinced they are the "good guys" and decides to travel with them, bringing the novel to a close.

28. Where do the kid (now "the man") and the Judge meet again many years later, and have their final showdown?

From Quiz "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy

Answer: Griffin

The kid encounters the Judge in all of these places, but it is in the Griffin, TX, jakes that he meets his fate at the Judge's hand.

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