Turning Neither Left Nor White Quiz

Answer: Using one verb to refer to two different subjects or objects

A zeugma is a figure of speech that uses multiple parts of a sentence joined by a single noun or verb. For example, Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" contains the immortal line "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears." Another example is this quote from Cicero: "Lust conquered shame, audacity fear, madness reason." The word "conquered" is connected to all of the clauses, without being directly used. The opposite of a zeugma is hypozeuxis, and it can also be a powerful rhetorical tool; see Winston Churchill's "We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields..."

Zeugma can be an effective rhetorical tool, but in excess, it can be tiresome, especially when a specific type of zeugma, syllepsis, is used. Syllepsis occurs when the parallel clauses joined have different meaning or grammar. A classic example is "I took my hat and my leave," where the word "took" has two different meanings. Alternatively, one can look at the title of this quiz, "Turning Neither Left Nor White," where "turning" refers to the physical act of changing direction as well as a color change. Syllepses are often unexpectedly funny, which is why some of the following authors took advantage of them in their writings.

Answer: Henry V

"Henry V" is probably the climax in Shakespeare's series about the Henry kings, and it begins when the young king realizes he has ascended to the throne following the death of his father Henry IV. Unfortunately for Henry, England isn't in the best of shape: civil war has tarnished the landscape, and people aren't too happy with the outgoing king. In an effort to rally the people and obscure his unillustrious history as a wild, drunken adolescent, Henry lays claim to lands in France, with some shady legal claims. In response, the Dauphin of France mockingly brings a case of tennis balls to the king. Henry vows war.

On the battlefield, events gradually turn tragic, as several of Henry's friends from adolescence are parted from their families. An attack on the king's life is spoiled, but we learn that Falstaff, a comical character who also appeared in the "Henry IV" plays as well as "The Merry Wives of Windsor" has died. Soon after, Henry's rage causes him to have several former friends executed mercilessly. Yet Henry manages to control himself for the fighting, delivering two monumental speeches before battles. At Harfleur, he makes the famous "Once more unto the breach" oration to persuade the English to continue their siege. Then, right before the climactic Battle of Agincourt, his "St. Crispin's Day Speech" ("We few, we happy few, we band of brothers") rallies the troops to a surprising victory over the French.

Answer: Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce is an interesting character in American literature. Born in Ohio in 1842, he saw fighting in the Civil War at the Battle of Shiloh, but later moved out west to California as part of a military assignment. There, he began a journalistic career that encompassed decades. Bierce was involved in a scandal over the 1901 assassination of William McKinley due to a satirical poem he had published the year before; Secretary of State Elihu Root believed that Bierce's poem influence Leon Czolgosz's act. As a notable Realist writer, much of Ambrose Bierce's literature dealt with the war he had experienced and its terrible effect on humans. Perhaps his most famous short story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," is the tale of Peyton Farquhar, a Confederate who is betrayed at the Battle of Shiloh and hallucinates that he escapes his execution on top of the bridge.

Bierce grew cynical in old age; "The Devil's Dictionary" reveals "Bitter Bierce's" indignation with many aspects of American society. Among the words comically defined in the book are "cynic," "lawyer," and "conservative." In 1913, Bierce traveled to Mexico to report on the ongoing revolution in that country. He disappeared soon afterwards. Carlos Fuentes, acclaimed Mexican author, fictionalized the last days of Ambrose Bierce in his 1985 novel "The Old Gringo."

Answer: The Importance of Being Earnest

"The Importance of Being Earnest" makes very few political or social statements, but it remains Oscar Wilde's most enduring play mainly for its witty plot and dialogue filled with such amusing repartee. The plot opens in London, when Algernon Montcrieff is talking to his best friend Jack Worthing. Except Jack doesn't really go by the name Jack - in London, he calls himself Ernest, an adventuresome and free spirit, and he often leaves his country estate to visit "Ernest" in the city when he feels ennui. Similarly, Algernon makes his escape from city to the country when he gets bored, pretending to visit an ailing friend named Bunbury.

Jack is planning to propose to Gwendolyn Fairfax, and she accepts because she likes the name Ernest. Unfortunately, Gwendolyn's mother Lady Bracknell doesn't consent to the match. Jack retires to his country estate, and Algernon follows him, because Jack told him about a pretty ward named Cecily Cardew that lives there with him. They fall in love, and Algernon pretends that he is the mysterious friend named Ernest, come to marry Cecily. Then, of course, Gwendolyn escapes from her mother to the country too, planning to marry her own Ernest (Jack).

Everything gets pretty chaotic, especially when Lady Bracknell finds out about all of the deceptions, and refuses to consent to her daughter's marriage to such an uneligible suitor. Luckily, a governess reveals that, shockingly, Jack was actually Algernon's brother who was lost in a handbag at Victoria Station as a baby. Content now in Jack's lineage, Bracknell consents to the marriage of Jack to Gwendolyn and Cecily to Algernon.

Answer: Samuel Johnson

Born in 1709 in Lichfield, Samuel Johnson claimed during his life that he originated in poverty, but he ended up becoming one of England's most celebrated minds. He was afflicted with scrofula soon after birth, and failed to recover even after he received the "Royal Touch" from Queen Anne. The remnants of the disease could be seen in permanent scars across Johnson's body. In his childhood, Johnson also was frequently prone to strange tics and gestures, which scientists now have diagnosed as probably a result of Tourette's Syndrome.

Despite these early setbacks, Johnson made a literary career for himself, beginning with "London" in 1738. Alexander Pope himself praised Johnson's work and tried to earn the poor writer an honorary degree from Oxford, Cambridge, or the University of Dublin, but was unsuccessful. In 1746, he signed a contract to write a dictionary for William Strahan, for a handsome sum. Boasting that he could finish the project in just three years, Johnson worked for nearly a decade on the book, but the ensuing "Dictionary of the English Language" was the most significant lexicon until the publication of the "Oxford English Dictionary." Johnson's later work, including a notable novella, "Rasselas," gained critical fame too. In 1762, he met James Boswell, the author who would later write one of the most notable biographies in the English language, "Life of Samuel Johnson." In later years, he wrote several pamphlets protesting the American Revolution and the unjust colonial sentiment against the British; he died just one year after the Revolution ended, in December of 1784.

Answer: The Things They Carried

Tim O'Brien is probably best-known for his anti-war literature, culminating in his masterpiece "The Things They Carried." To give an example, his first major work was titled, "If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home." Kind of cheery, no?

"The Things They Carried" is also based on O'Brien's experiences in Vietnam, and many of the characters in the stories resemble people that the author encountered in real life. Many of the stories in the collection also deal with a man named Kiowa, who was killed when the platoon camped on a sewage field and ambushed. Nearly all of the characters feel responsible for Kiowa's death, including Lt. Cross, who made the decision to camp in the field, and O'Brien, Kiowa's best friend, who revealed their position to the Vietnamese when he shone a light. The title story of "The Things They Carried" details the objects that men carried into war with them, both literal and metaphorical. Some carried letters or guns, while others had grief, terror, love, and responsibility.

Answer: The Rape of the Lock

Alexander Pope, acclaimed poet and satirical wit, is mostly known for his translations of Homer and for "The Rape of the Lock," a ridiculous epic written in imitation of Homer's "Iliad."

Drafted in heroic couplet, the poem begins when Belinda, a beautiful woman, wakes from a dream warning her that something terrible will soon happen. She ignores the premonition and goes to a party at the Hampton Court Palace. There, an enterprising Baron makes up his mind to steal a lock of Belinda's hair, and he finally succeeds in surreptitiously cutting it off. Belinda, in true Achilles fashion, is infuriated, and the gnome Umbriel has to travel to the "Cave of Spleen" to fetch a flask of tears that will "cool off" the fire of her anger. Another woman, Clarissa, tries to reason with Belinda, but the vain woman will have nothing of it, instead initiating a battle to recover her flawless hair. Yet, tragically, the lock is lost amidst the turmoil, and Belinda is woebegone. The poem ends with the consolation that the lock of hair is probably going to be immortalized in the sky as a constellation.

"The Rape of the Lock" is comical not only for its sardonic over-dramatization of a petty quarrel, but also for the description of gods, nymphs, gnomes, etc., that are plentiful in the Greek epics. Ironically enough, characters in Pope's mock-epic lend their names to some of the moons of Uranus, a distinction shared only by characters in myth and in Shakespeare.

Answer: Tom Sawyer

Tom Sawyer appears in several of Mark Twain's most significant books (he plays a significant albeit irritating role in "Huckleberry Finn," and also appears as a detective in an 1896 novel). He might be the most recognizable character in the American literary tradition. Of course, after that aforementioned fight in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," he is forced by his aunt Polly to whitewash a fence in the backyard. Yet he somehow manages to convince his friends that whitewashing is actually an enjoyable pursuit, and he actually earns some token gifts in return for allowing them to enjoy the fence as much as he did.

After the whitewashing incident, the novel's plot picks up. Tom is enamored with a girl named Becky Thatcher, but she shuns him when she finds out that he's already been engaged to a different girl in town. Then, one night, Tom and the son of the town drunk named Huck Finn go to the graveyard to try out some childish mischievousness, when they see a convict named Injun Joe murder Dr. Robinson. When Injun Joe accuses a different man in town, Muff Potter, Tom and Huck feel responsible. Tom testifies against Joe, but the convict flees.

Much later, Tom and Huck are searching for buried treasure in a haunted house when they come across a disguised Joe, who is trying to bury his own treasure. The boys shadow the criminal, determined not to let him get away. Then, when Tom and Becky go for a picnic inside a cave, they accidentally run into Joe, who has hidden the gold inside the cave. They manage to escape from the criminal and alert the authorities, who seal the cave. After Joe's death, Tom and Huck earn the buried treasure, which is invested for them, and Huck Finn is taken under the Widow Douglas' care, setting the stage for the book's much more serious sequel "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

Answer: EB White

EB White (1899-1985) had an illustrious career in both children and adult fiction, as well as in nonfiction. He wrote for the "New Yorker" magazine, and with William Strunk, Jr., he coauthored "The Elements of Style." That guide provides a list of elementary rules of usage, principles of composition, and commonly misused words and expressions. White read Strunk's original "Elements of Style" and made several updates to the book in three new editions. Since the first rewrite in 1959, the guide has sold millions of copies.

White's fiction is also highly praised, especially works for children. With a very natural and pleasant writing style, his works have remained classics for decades. "The Trumpet of the Swan" tells of a trumpeter swan that learns how to play the trumpet. "Stuart Little" is a talking mouse that lives in New York City. Perhaps White's most famous short novel for children, "Charlotte's Web" is about the pig Wilbur, and his curious friendship with a spider named Charlotte. In 1978, White won an honorary Pulitzer Prize for his lifetime achievement in fiction, and he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963.

Answer: Dickens

Dickens' humor surfaces throughout his novels in a variety of forms, but he certainly is the master of the comical use of zeugma. In addition to zeugma, he effectively used puns in his writings, and several of his works are notable for outrageous plots and wacky character names (my personal favorite is the Wackford Squeers, from "Nicholas Nickleby"). Dickens used humor in his novels to describe the harsh lifestyle encountered by many of his protagonists, and many of his works are passionate critiques of the dog-eat-dog social climate of the Victorian era. Published in serial form, Dickens' works range from historical fiction ("A Tale of Two Cities") to allegorical novellas ("A Christmas Carol"), but almost all of them include comical interludes like the quotes above.

So, now that we've explored zeugma ad nauseum, what's the verdict? Truly, using a syllepsis once is refreshing humor that masters of prose can pull off successfully. Too much, though, and it starts sounding a little bit stale. Parallel structure is a lot easier to implement, and much more understandable!