Dystopian Fiction Quiz

Question 1

George Orwell's 1984 introduced which omnipresent authoritarian figure?

Accepted Answer

Big Brother

Answer

The Party

Answer

The Thought Police

Answer

O'Brien

Question 2

In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, what drug is used to keep the population compliant and happy?

Accepted Answer

Soma

Answer

Prozac

Answer

Zoltan

Answer

Bliss

Question 3

In George Orwell's 1984, what is 'doublethink'?

Accepted Answer

Simultaneously holding two contradictory beliefs and accepting both as true

Answer

Thinking two thoughts at once

Answer

A government department that falsifies records

Answer

The ability to speak two languages fluently

Question 4

Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is set in a fictional theocratic state. What is it called?

Accepted Answer

The Republic of Gilead

Answer

Panem

Answer

Oceania

Answer

New Eden

Question 5

Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games is set in the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem, divided into how many districts?

Accepted Answer

12

Answer

10

Answer

13

Answer

16

Question 6

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 depicts a society where what is banned and burned?

Accepted Answer

Books

Answer

Newspapers

Answer

Films

Answer

Music

Question 7

In Lois Lowry's The Giver, citizens of the Community live without what?

Accepted Answer

Emotions, colour, or memories of the past

Answer

Money or possessions

Answer

Crime or conflict only

Answer

Technology of any kind

Question 8

William Golding's Lord of the Flies can be read as a dystopia about what?

Accepted Answer

The collapse of civilization when adults are absent and boys create their own brutal society

Answer

A post-nuclear war world

Answer

A totalitarian government controlling children

Answer

A future world without women

Question 9

In 1984, what is 'Room 101'?

Accepted Answer

A room containing each person's worst fear

Answer

The government's torture chamber

Answer

The Ministry of Truth's main office

Answer

Where dissidents are publicly executed

Question 10

Yevgeny Zamyatin's We (1924) is considered the original blueprint for which two famous dystopian novels?

Accepted Answer

1984 and Brave New World

Answer

Lord of the Flies and The Giver

Answer

The Handmaid's Tale and Fahrenheit 451

Answer

The Road and Parable of the Sower

Question 11

Cormac McCarthy's The Road depicts a post-apocalyptic world. What is the relationship between the two main characters?

Accepted Answer

Father and son

Answer

Brothers

Answer

Strangers who become allies

Answer

Mother and daughter

Question 12

Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange features a protagonist named:

Accepted Answer

Alex

Answer

Winston

Answer

Guy

Answer

Jonas

Question 13

In The Hunger Games, what is the name of the female protagonist?

Accepted Answer

Katniss Everdeen

Answer

Primrose

Answer

Johanna

Answer

Clove

Question 14

In Brave New World, society is divided into castes. What are the highest and lowest castes called?

Accepted Answer

Alphas and Epsilons

Answer

Masters and Servants

Answer

Ones and Fives

Answer

Elites and Deltas

Question 15

P.D. James's The Children of Men (1992) imagines a world where what has occurred?

Accepted Answer

All men have become infertile, with no births since 1995

Answer

All women have become infertile

Answer

A plague has killed all adults

Answer

All children must be allocated by the government

Question 16

What is 'Newspeak' in George Orwell's 1984?

Accepted Answer

A simplified language designed to make thoughtcrime impossible by removing words

Answer

The Party's propaganda newspaper

Answer

The government's television broadcasting service

Answer

A code used by dissidents to communicate secretly

Question 17

Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed (1974) contrasts two societies: an anarchist society and a capitalist one. On what do they live?

Accepted Answer

A moon and its parent planet

Answer

Two continents of the same planet

Answer

Two parallel universes

Answer

Two cities separated by a wall

Question 18

In The Handmaid's Tale, what does a Handmaid's red clothing symbolise?

Accepted Answer

Fertility — their function as reproductive vessels

Answer

Their danger to society

Answer

Their punishment for past crimes

Answer

Their loyalty to the Republic of Gilead

Question 19

Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go features children who discover they are being raised for what purpose?

Accepted Answer

As organ donors for the general population

Answer

Military service

Answer

As servants for the wealthy

Answer

As experimental subjects for medical research

Question 20

What real historical events influenced the writing of George Orwell's 1984?

Accepted Answer

Stalinism, totalitarianism in Nazi Germany, and his own experiences in the Spanish Civil War

Answer

The American Civil War and WWI

Answer

The French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars

Answer

British imperialism in India and Africa