Kangaroo MCQs

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Author: Nasir Iqbal | Assistant Professor of English Literature

Kangaroo MCQs
Updated on: October 21, 2025
Estimated Reading Time: 17 min

Kangaroo MCQs

1. What season was it when the Somers arrived in Sydney?

A. Mid-spring
B. End of May/Winter
C. Mid-summer
D. Early autumn

C. Winter.
The arrival in winter sets a tone of coldness and alienation for the Somers’ initial experience of Australia.

2. What did the stranger quote as the correct tariff for the bags?

A. A shilling
B. A penny
C. Threepence
D. A sixpence

C. Threepence.
Somers’ argument with the taxi driver over a small fee introduces the theme of social friction and Australian attitudes.

3. What name was printed on one of Mr. Somers’s bags?

A. D.H. Lawrence
B. R.L. Somers
C. Jack Callcott
D. B. Cooley

B. R.L. Somers.
R.L. Somers is the protagonist of the novel, a writer and a semi-autobiographical stand-in for the author, D.H. Lawrence.

4. How did Mr. Somers feel about the Australian concept of freedom regarding payment?

A. It granted equality
B. It was fair to the worker
C. It meant being forced to pay
D. It allowed free negotiation

C. It meant being forced to pay.
Somers sees the Australian “freedom” as a form of social bullying, where one is pressured to conform.
5. What did Harriet say the house name, “Torestin,” actually meant?

A. Must be Russian
B. Must be native word
C. It meant “To rest in”
D. It was meaningless

C. It meant “To rest in”.
The simple, literal name of their bungalow highlights a practical and unsophisticated aspect of Australian culture.

6. What piece of furniture covering did Harriet remove immediately upon entering?

A. A sheepskin rug
B. The red plush tablecloth
C. A lace doily
D. An Indian sarong

B. The red plush tablecloth.
Harriet’s immediate rejection of the suburban furnishing shows her and Somers’ artistic and anti-bourgeois sensibilities.

7. What was the most prominent negative feature of the suburbs, according to Harriet?

A. Brick houses
B. Corrugated iron and fences
C. Tudor manors
D. Tall hedges

B. Corrugated iron and fences.
The ugly, makeshift nature of the suburbs represents the lack of a deep-rooted, organic culture in Australia.

8. What was R.L. Somers’s primary source of income?

A. Investments
B. Writing poems and essays
C. Working as a mechanic
D. Farming

B. Writing poems and essays.
Somers’ profession as a writer makes him an observer and critic of the new society he finds himself in.

9. What made the Southern night-sky feel alienating to Somers?

A. The heat
B. The Southern Cross was inconspicuous
C. The lack of stars
D. The heavy cloud cover

B. The Southern Cross was inconspicuous.
The unfamiliar night sky symbolizes Somers’ feeling of being an alien in a strange and indifferent continent.
10. Who was the female neighbour who first spoke to Harriet?

A. Rose Trewhella
B. Mrs. Callcott (Victoria)
C. Mrs. Somers (Harriet)
D. Gladys

B. Mrs. Callcott (Victoria).
The neighborly introduction begins the Somers’s complicated relationship with Jack Callcott and his circle.

11. What kept Australia from anarchy, according to Somers’s cogitation?

A. Economic stability
B. The name of England/Authority
C. Strong local laws
D. The temperament of Australians

B. The name of England/Authority.
Somers feels that Australian society is formless and only held together by a lingering, ghost-like respect for British authority.

12. What was the heavy chunk of lead from Jack’s war wound mounted on?

A. A brooch
B. A hatpin
C. A toy lamp-post
D. A necklace

C. A toy lamp-post.
This strange object symbolizes the way the trauma of the Great War has been domesticated and turned into a suburban curiosity.

13. What did Somers note was absent in Sydney?

A. Outer suburbs
B. Irresponsible freedom
C. Any core or pith of meaning
D. Tall buildings

C. Any core or pith of meaning.
Somers perceives Australian society as superficial, lacking a deep spiritual or cultural center.

14. Who was Mrs. Callcott’s sister married to?

A. Alfred John Trewhella
B. William James Trewhella
C. Jack Callcott
D. R.L. Somers

B. William James Trewhella.
William James, or “Jaz,” is another key figure in the political movements that Somers encounters.
15. What physical feature of Jack Callcott did Somers note as having an “aboriginal darkness”?

A. His hair
B. His eyes
C. His hands
D. His beard

B. His eyes.
Somers senses a prímitive, non-European quality in Jack, linking him to the ancient spirit of the Australian continent.

16. What type of physical contact made Richard Lovat feel “isolated” and wary of Jack?

A. The strange smile
B. Calling him “mate”
C. Being touched or hugged
D. Arguing about politics

C. Being touched or hugged.
Somers, the reserved European, is uncomfortable with the easy physical familiarity of Australian mateship.

17. How did Somers describe the communication style among the common people/Australians?

A. Intentional and formal
B. Silent and involuntary
C. Always foiled by speech
D. Entirely based on talk

B. Silent and involuntary.
He feels that true communication in Australia happens on a non-verbal, almost telepathic level, underneath the casual speech.

18. What did Jack suggest was the “bogey of to-morrow”?

A. Foreign powers
B. The money-men
C. Labour
D. Anarchy

C. Labour.
Jack introduces the political tension in Australia between the right-wing Diggers movement and the socialist Labour party.

19. What was R.L. Somers’ income?

A. A hundred pounds a year
B. Four hundred pounds a year
C. Seven hundred pounds a year
D. Very little income

B. Four hundred pounds a year.
This income places him in a precarious middle-class position, making him independent but not wealthy.
20. What did Harriet feel when she was alone in Australia, before the stress?

A. Overwhelmed by silence
B. Free, like a fish in a crystal ocean
C. Frightened by the bush
D. Lonely and anxious

B. Free, like a fish in a crystal ocean.
Initially, Harriet experiences a sense of profound freedom and release in the vast, empty landscape of Australia.

21. What did Somers compare the feeling of being in Kangaroo’s presence to?

A. Being cuddled on his ample breast
B. Being embraced by a tyrant
C. Being stalked by a tiger
D. Being lectured by a fool

A. Being cuddled on his ample breast.
Somers feels that Kangaroo’s brand of love is overwhelming, suffocating, and almost maternal.

22. What did Jack confess he did to the man who shot Kangaroo?

A. Nothing, he fled
B. Shot him back
C. Smashed his brains out
D. Helped the police arrest him

C. Smashed his brains out.
This act of brutal violence reveals the dark side of the Diggers movement and Jack’s loyalty.

23. What philosophical state did Somers briefly enter while walking in the bush?

A. Rage
B. Semi-consciousness/saurian torpor
C. Enlightenment
D. Intense love

B. Semi-consciousness/saurian torpor.
The ancient, alien nature of the Australian bush makes Somers feel pre-human, like a reptile.

24. What did Somers feel he must still fight out with mánkind?

A. A political cause
B. The struggle for a new life-form
C. A revolution
D. The battle for money

B. The struggle for a new life-form.
Somers’s ultimate goal is not political, but a deeper struggle to find a new way for humans to live and relate to one another.
25. What did William James Trewhella claim Australia was meant for?

A. Artists
B. Superior people
C. One dead level sort of people
D. Foreign immigrants

C. One dead level sort of people.
Jaz believes that Australian democracy creates a society of enforced mediocrity where no one can be superior.

26. What did Somers admire about the Colonials when they spoke seriously?

A. They spoke like academics
B. They spoke like men
C. They spoke eloquently
D. They spoke courteously

B. They spoke like men.
Somers is drawn to the direct, non-intellectual way the Australian men communicate when they are serious.

27. What action did Jack perform, emphasizing his trust and conspiracy with Somers?

A. Gave him a secret handshake
B. Clasped his hand and put his arm around him
C. Gave him a secret map
D. Told him Kangaroo’s plans

B. Clasped his hand and put his arm around him.
This is a key moment of male bonding, where Jack tries to draw Somers into his world through physical “mateship.”

28. What reason did Jack give for why they called Ben Cooley “Kangaroo”?

A. He jumped a lot
B. He looked like one
C. He wore a pouch
D. He owned kangaroos

B. He looked like one.
The leader of the Diggers is nicknamed for his physical appearance, with a large belly and small, thoughtful way of moving.

29. What ethnicity did Somers suspect Kangaroo belonged to?

A. German
B. Irish
C. Italian
D. Jewish

D. Jewish.
Somers sees Kangaroo as a powerful, intellectual, and non-Christian figure, associating these qualities with a Jewish heritage.
30. What did Kangaroo define as the one and only inspiration of all creative activity?

A. War
B. Reason
C. Love
D. Money

C. Love.
Kangaroo’s philosophy is based on an all-encompassing, almost divine love for humanity.

31. What did Richard Somers say Kangaroo worked everything from?

A. The stomach
B. The spirit/head
C. The lower self
D. The feet

B. The spirit/head.
Somers rejects Kangaroo’s philosophy because he feels it is based on abstract ideas, not on deep, physical instinct.

32. What word did Richard use for the “dark self” or “lower self”?

A. Spiritual
B. Phallic
C. Rational
D. Unconscious

B. Phallic.
Somers believes in a “dark god” or a source of power that is physical and instinctual, which he calls phallic.

33. What did Kangaroo threaten to do to Somers if he continued to deny his love?

A. Leave Australia
B. Exorcise the demon in him
C. Ignore his politics
D. Write a bad review

B. Exorcise the demon in him.
Kangaroo sees Somers’s individualism and belief in a “dark god” as a demon that must be cast out by his own powerful love.

34. What was the derogatory term used for newcomers from the Old Country?

A. Limey
B. New Chum
C. Pommy
D. Aussie

C. Pommy.
This Australian slang term for an English person emphasizes Somers’s status as an outsider.
35. What word, better than ‘courage,’ did Somers adopt as his motto?

A. Love
B. Virtus/Mut (Manliness)
C. Destiny
D. Freedom

B. Virtus/Mut (Manliness).
Somers seeks a new kind of manly strength and integrity that is different from both love and simple courage.

36. What did Somers realize about the feeling of fear returning in Mullumbimby?

A. Fear of the sea
B. Fear of the mob/democratic society
C. Fear of the wild animals
D. Fear of poverty

B. Fear of the mob/democratic society.
The idyllic life at the seaside is interrupted by Somers’s returning fear of social pressure and the “mob” mentality.

37. What did Kangaroo accuse Somers of doing to him, resulting in his illness?

A. Betraying him
B. Lying
C. Killing him
D. Spying

C. Killing him.
Kangaroo believes that Somers’s spiritual rejection of his love has caused his physical wound to become fatal.

38. What did Kangaroo ask Somers to say before he died?

A. Say you will leave Australia
B. Say you believe in the cause
C. Say you love me
D. Say you will follow me

C. Say you love me.
To the very end, Kangaroo demands a confession of love from Somers, who is unable to give it.

39. What mythical, crowned bird did Somers use to symbolize the new flag of their marriage?

A. Pegasus
B. Phoenix
C. Swan
D. Unicorn

B. Phoenix.
The Phoenix, a bird reborn from its own ashes, symbolizes the hope for a new, transformed marriage between Somers and Harriet.
40. What was the final destination that Somers felt compelled to sail towards in his marriage?

A. To a safe harbor
B. Into uncharted seas
C. Back to England
D. To Tahiti

B. Into uncharted seas.
Somers realizes that his relationship with Harriet must also be a journey into the unknown, without a safe, final destination.

41. What animal did Richard compare himself to, isolated among men?

A. Kangaroo
B. Emmu
C. Snake
D. Dingo

B. Emmu.
Like the flightless emu, Somers feels he is a strange, isolated creature that doesn’t fit in with the rest of humanity.

42. What was the name of the new squad members in the Digger Movement?

A. Maggies
B. Emu Guards
C. Roos
D. Socialists

A. Maggies.
The “Maggies” were a more thuggish, violent faction within the Diggers movement.

43. What did Jack ultimately want for Australia, away from world-boost?

A. A large empire
B. A cosy, lively little Australia
C. A communist state
D. A monarchy

B. A cosy, lively little Australia.
Unlike Kangaroo’s grand vision, Jack’s dream for Australia is more modest, domestic, and isolationist.

44. Who was the red-faced, dark, thin man who resembled Abraham Lincoln?

A. Jack Callcott
B. William James Trewhella
C. Willie Struthers
D. Ben Cooley

C. Willie Struthers.
Willie Struthers is the leader of the socialist/labour movement, the main political opponent of Kangaroo’s Diggers.
45. What did Somers claim the masses of people were like, due to their industrial nature?

A. Machine people
B. Gentle sheep
C. Lost lambs
D. Quiet philosophers

A. Machine people.
Somers believes industrial work has turned people into cogs in a machine, killing their individuality and spirit.

46. What did Somers refuse to accept, causing conflict with Kangaroo?

A. Kangaroo’s political strategy
B. Kangaroo’s love
C. Kangaroo’s job
D. Kangaroo’s house

B. Kangaroo’s love.
This is the central conflict. Somers rejects Kangaroo’s all-consuming, benevolent love in favor of his own dark, individual soul.

47. After the war memories resurfaced, what did Somers feel he was broken off from?

A. His family
B. His career
C. His fellow-men and England
D. His old house

C. His fellow-men and England.
The chapter “The Nightmare” details Somers’s traumatic experiences during the war in England, which left him feeling utterly alienated.

48. What did the denial of the spontaneous soul create, according to Somers?

A. A great fortune
B. The reflex of its own revenge
C. A new religion
D. Peace

B. The reflex of its own revenge.
Somers believes that suppressing humanity’s deep, spontaneous instincts will inevitably lead to a violent backlash.

49. What did Somers feel he was drowning in, wanting to crawl out?

A. The merge of harmlessness/sympathetic humanity
B. The deep sea
C. The Australian bush
D. The crowd

A. The merge of harmlessness/sympathetic humanity.
Somers resists the easy, friendly “mateship” of Australia, feeling it threatens his isolated, individual self.
50. What type of item broke and fluttered away, symbolizing broken attachments, as the ship left Sydney?

A. Cables
B. Orange silk kerchiefs
C. Streamers
D. Ropes

C. Streamers.
The breaking paper streamers symbolize the final severing of Somers’s temporary and fragile connections to Australia.

Brief Overview

Kangaroo is a novel by D. H. Lawrence, set in Australia during the 1920s. It follows an English writer named Richard Lovat Somers and his German wife, Harriett. They move to Sydney, hoping to find a new, simpler life after the trauma of World War I.

Soon, Somers meets a man named Ben Cooley, who is nicknamed “Kangaroo.” Kangaroo is the powerful leader of a secret, right-wing political group made up of ex-soldiers. He is a charismatic but strange figure who wants Somers to join his movement and use his writing skills for their cause.

At the same time, Somers is also approached by a rival left-wing group, led by the socialist Willie Struthers. Both groups try to pull Somers into their political conflicts, demanding his loyalty. Somers, however, is a strong individualist and struggles to commit to any group’s ideology.

The novel includes long chapters where Somers thinks about his life, his marriage, and his philosophy. He also includes a terrible flashback chapter, “The Nightmare,” which details his wartime persecution in England. The story’s climax is a violent political riot in Sydney, which Somers witnesses.

Somers feels caught between these two extreme forces and ultimately refuses to choose a side. Disappointed by the political violence and the pressure to conform, he and Harriett decide to leave Australia. They sail away, still searching for a place where they can truly belong.

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