The Wild Palms MCQs

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Author: Nasir Iqbal | Assistant Professor of English Literature


Updated on: November 16, 2025
Estimated Reading Time: 17 min

The Wild Palms MCQs

1. What item did the doctor wear because his father disapproved of modern clothing?

A. Smoking pipe
B. Night shirt
C. Old boots
D. Plain coat

B. Night shirt.
The doctor wore a nightshirt because his father believed pajamas were only appropriate for “dudes and women”.

2. Who selected the wife the doctor married shortly after he graduated medical school?

A. His mother
B. His father
C. He chose her
D. State University

B. His father.
The doctor married the woman his father had already chosen for him soon after returning home.

3. What visible clothing detail did Charlotte wear that the real estate agent noted?

A. Faded jeans pants
B. Worn sweater
C. Bright colors
D. Canvas shoes

A. Faded jeans pants.
The agent mentioned she wore “man’s pants,” faded jeans that were too small in certain places.

4. What physical sign did the doctor initially suspect Charlotte was suffering from as she sat immobile?

A. Heart trouble
B. Feigned pain
C. Seeping blood
D. Terror and fear

C. Seeping blood.
The doctor observed her abstraction, speculating she might be listening to an “irreparable seeping of blood”.
5. What crucial secret did the real estate agent suspect about the couple’s relationship status?

A. Wanted cheap rent
B. Not married
C. Were too young
D. Hidden funds

B. Not married.
The agent, Cofer, stated that he didn’t think they were married to each other, claiming he could “smell a husband”.

6. What was the tall convict’s sentence for attempted train robbery?

A. Seven years
B. Fifteen years
C. Twenty-seven years
D. One hundred years

B. Fifteen years.
The tall convict received a sentence of fifteen years for his attempt at robbing a passenger train.

7. Who did the tall convict ultimately blame for the failure of his crime?

A. Lawyers
B. The warden
C. Pulp writers
D. The guards

C. Pulp writers.
He directed his outrage at the writers of the pulp novels, believing they had provided criminally false instructions.

8. Why did the short convict accept a sentence of one hundred and ninety-nine years?

A. Manslaughter
B. Avoid the woman
C. Stolen car
D. Financial fraud

B. Avoid the woman.
He chose the long state sentence rather than passing the anteroom where the enraged woman was held.

9. Where was the levee break that flooded the prison farm located?

A. Vicksburg
B. Mound’s Landing
C. Cairo basin
D. Corinth

B. Mound’s Landing.
The deputy warden announced that the levee had broken at Mound’s Landing an hour before midnight.
10. What items did the convicts see being loaded into the cotton compress for safety?

A. Stolen money
B. Heterogeneous furniture
C. Livestock
D. Prison records

B. Heterogeneous furniture.
A chain of Negroes carried pieces of beds, stoves, trunks, and tables into the cotton compress.

11. What noise characterized the sound of the migrating freed Negroes on the road?

A. Loud singing
B. Panting murmur
C. Furious drumming
D. Quiet chanting

B. Panting murmur.
The movement of the groups of freed Negroes was characterized by a low, rhythmic, panting murmur.

12. What was the tall convict’s first reaction upon seeing the massive Mississippi River?

A. Fear and dread
B. Quiet amazement
C. Immediate panic
D. Angry screaming

B. Quiet amazement.
He stood in “quiet and amazed surmise,” having never seen the River before despite living near the levee.

13. What were the tall convict and the plump convict sent to rescue?

A. Two Negroes
B. A man and a woman
C. Mules and horses
D. Their boat

B. A man and a woman.
They were tasked with picking up a woman stranded in a cypress snag and a man on a cotton house.

14. What insult did the refugee on the cotton house yell about taking up rescue space?

A. Stolen money
B. A nigger guitar
C. Whiskey bottles
D. Federal troops

B. A nigger guitar.
The man screamed about the space being wasted on a “bastard nigger guitar” instead of him.
15. How did Harry Wilbourne’s father fund his medical education?

A. Trust fund
B. Inherited money
C. Janitor work
D. War pension

C. Janitor work.
The elder Wilbourne worked as a janitor and waited on tables to pay for his training.

16. What was the dollar amount of the birthday telegram Harry received from his sister?

A. One dollar
B. Twenty-five cents
C. Two dollars
D. Ten dollars

B. Twenty-five cents.
The telegram was one of the stereotyped birthday greetings offered by the company for twenty-five cents.

17. What item of clothing did Harry wear to the party, which was his first time wearing it?

A. A new coat
B. A Basque cap
C. Borrowed costume
D. Clean scrubs

C. Borrowed costume.
He wore a borrowed costume, which he confirmed was the first suit he had ever worn.

18. What physical work had hardened Charlotte’s hands?

A. Working with clay
B. Factory labor
C. House cleaning
D. Office writing

A. Working with clay.
She claimed she worked with clay and brass, and the skin on her palms was “smoothly hardened and toughened”.

19. What did Harry realize he had to borrow to successfully check into a hotel with Charlotte?

A. Money
B. Advice on procedure
C. Proper coat
D. Suitcase

B. Advice on procedure.
Harry realized he knew nothing about the proper procedure for illicit rendezvous and had to ask Flint.
20. What was Rittenmeyer’s initial reaction when Charlotte told him she was meeting Harry for lunch?

A. Quiet rage
B. Immediate divorce
C. No comment
D. Shocked disbelief

C. No comment.
After Charlotte told him, she never mentioned Rittenmeyer again, implying he accepted the information silently.

21. What did Rittenmeyer give Harry on the train, in addition to the ticket money?

A. A fierce curse
B. A new suitcase
C. A final ultimatum
D. His bank stock

C. A final ultimatum.
Rittenmeyer gave Harry a dire ultimatum: check in monthly or he would notify the detective.

22. What phrase did Harry realize was the worst way he had repudiated love?

A. Lying to her
B. Being a husband
C. Working too hard
D. Stealing money

B. Being a husband.
Harry realized the problem was that he had become completely domesticated, thinking “I had turned into a husband”.

23. What did Harry confess he would have to make last by walking instead of riding?

A. His time
B. His money
C. His patience
D. His freedom

B. His money.
After losing the money, he walked to the post office because he needed to conserve his remaining dollar for “taxi-fare”.

24. Where did the two of them live during their initial period in Chicago?

A. A studio apartment
B. A fancy hotel
C. Bohemian flat
D. McCord’s house

A. A studio apartment.
Charlotte found them an apartment, a studio, where she planned to work on her sculptures.
25. What animal did Harry and Charlotte acquire during their drunken trip to Evanston?

A. A white swan
B. A live deer
C. An iron dog
D. A stray cat

C. An iron dog.
They drove to Evanston and stole a cast-iron Saint Bernard statue from a suburban lawn.

26. Why did Harry deliberately refuse to try hard enough to find a job in Chicago?

A. Laziness
B. Believed in love
C. Too educated
D. Was too old

B. Believed in love.
Harry confessed that he looked upon love with “the same boundless faith that it will clothe and feed me”.

27. What physical impairment did Harry discover about himself while trying to sketch at the lake?

A. Tone deaf
B. Color blind
C. Nearsighted
D. Làme hand

B. Color blind.
Charlotte had him divide colors and found that he was color blind, something he had not known.

28. How did Harry calculate his lost count of the days at the lake cabin?

A. Counting cans
B. Charlotte’s periods
C. Watching tides
D. Tree rings

B. Charlotte’s periods.
He realized he could use the dates and intervals between Charlotte’s menstrual periods to establish the correct date.

29. What caused Harry to realize the great discrepancy in his time calculation at the cabin?

A. Lost the calendar
B. October was six weeks
C. Snow started
D. McCord arrived

B. October was six weeks.
He realized he had assigned six weeks to the month of October in his calendar calculation.
30. What profession did Harry consider taking up in the warm South to support the baby?

A. Doctor
B. Abortionist
C. Drug dealer
D. Beggar

B. Abortionist.
In a moment of sardonic contemplation in the snow, he thought, “I will set up as a professional abortionist”.

31. Who did Harry tell the mine manager, Buckner, that he was responsible to?

A. The law
B. Callaghan
C. The miners
D. His wife

B. Callaghan.
Harry reminded Buckner that he was responsible only to the man paying his salary (Callaghan), not the manager.

32. Why did the Italian miners (wops) leave the Utah mine?

A. They smelled gold
B. They ran out of food
C. The payroll stopped
D. The work was hard

C. The payroll stopped.
Buckner said the wops discovered the money had “blown” and left after throwing down their tools.

33. What did Harry finally accept from Buckner in payment for the abortion, instead of cash?

A. A signed note
B. A bank deposit
C. An assignment on back pay
D. A wool blanket

C. An assignment on back pay.
Harry refused the cash but accepted a hundred-dollar assignment on Buckner’s back pay, which both knew was worthless.

34. What did Charlotte notice about the mine manager, Buckner, that proved she was pregnant?

A. He was stealing
B. He was afraid
C. He was married
D. She was “jammed”

D. She was “jammed”.
Mrs. Buckner asked Charlotte if she was “jammed,” meaning pregnant, a month along.
35. What physical object did Charlotte keep in bed with them to keep warm at night in Utah?

A. The Bad Smell
B. Woolen underwear
C. Hot rocks
D. Her coat

B. Woolen underwear.
To stay warm after undressing, she kept her woollen underwear in the bed with them like a massy wad.

36. Where was the pregnant woman during the tall convict’s harrowing encounter with the wave?

A. In the water
B. Huddled in the bow
C. Screaming loudly
D. Trying to paddle

B. Huddled in the bow.
When the colossal wave crested, the woman half lay in the bow, clutching the gunwales of the skiff.

37. What wild animal did the tall convict encounter that he realized was better than Grumby?

A. A snake
B. A deer
C. A hawk
D. An alligator

C. A hawk.
He found a hawk standing on a dead rabbit and kicked it, comparing it favorably to Grumby.

38. Where did the tall convict find refuge and help from a Cajan man?

A. A shanty boat
B. A store on stilts
C. A house on stilts
D. The main levee

C. A house on stilts.
After the wave, he found a house of cypress boards and an iron roof, raised on ten-foot stilts.

39. What was the Cajun’s primary method for hunting alligators?

A. Rifle and knife
B. Knotted rope and mace
C. Dynamite
D. Pirogue and traps

B. Knotted rope and mace.
The convict used a knotted rope and a lightwood club resembling a “Thuringian mace” for his combats.
40. What was the Cajun doing in pantomime when he announced the final disaster?

A. Crying
B. Dancing
C. Ejecting
D. Surrendering

C. Ejecting.
The Cajun performed a “violent pantomime of violent evacuation, ejection,” signaling they must leave the house.

41. What physical object did the tall convict treasure most, that he had secured behind the rafter?

A. Alligator hides
B. His money
C. Clean prison clothes
D. The Cajun’s gun

C. Clean prison clothes.
He had washed, wrapped, and hidden his soot-stained prison jumper and overalls behind a rafter.

42. Why did the Cajan and his companions believe the cosmic force was vindictive and unimaginative?

A. Used dynamite
B. Repeated itself
C. Only used water
D. Foiled the plan

B. Repeated itself.
He believed the cosmic force was barren of imagination for repeating the same disaster three times.

43. What did the man in the launch use to subdue the tall convict during his frantic fury?

A. A pistol
B. A club
C. Handcuffs
D. A net

C. Handcuffs.
The men swarmed over him and applied the “thin, dry, vicious snapping of handcuffs” to secure him.

44. What did the convict insist on holding onto even while shackled in the launch?

A. His clean clothes
B. The skiff’s painter
C. The baby
D. The alligator hides

B. The skiff’s painter.
The convict demanded to be given the end of the tow rope, or painter, attached to his skiff.
45. Where did the tall convict land and find his first new job after leaving New Orleans?

A. A sawmill
B. A cotton farm
C. A cane farm
D. A fishing boat

C. A cane farm.
He first tied up to a bank, where he was hired to run a shovel plow on a cane/sorghum farm.

46. What recreational activity did the tall convict engage in to earn money before returning to Parchman?

A. Poker
B. Dice game
C. Horse race
D. Selling pelts

B. Dice game.
He gambled with dice in a night circle, winning enough money to pay for his motor boat ride.

47. What did Harry realize he had lost while waiting for Charlotte’s period to pass in San Antonio?

A. His job
B. His house
C. His courage
D. His money

C. His courage.
Harry realized he was waiting for her to enter the fourth month so he could excuse his inability to act.

48. What legal charge did the District Attorney try to upgrade the charge to against Wilbourne?

A. Murder
B. Adultery
C. Rape
D. Manslaughter

A. Murder.
The District Attorney, Gower, rose to inform the judge that he believed they could prove murder.

49. What did Rittenmeyer ask the judge to do regarding Wilbourne’s sentence?

A. To make a plea
B. Release him
C. Demand execution
D. Increase the sentence

A. To make a plea.
Rittenmeyer rose, stating he wished to make a plea for the man who willfully and deliberately operated on his wife.
50. What was the tall convict’s final answer to the plump convict about female companionship?

A. Women, shit
B. Necessary for life
C. A costly endeavor
D. Will find some

A. Women, shit.
The tall convict dismissed the idea of female companionship by saying, “Women, shit,” referencing his broken heart.

Brief Overview

The Wild Palms is a novel by William Faulkner, published in 1939. The work tells two separate, contrasting stories in alternating chapters, both focusing on the conflict between human desire and societal constraints.

The first story, “The Wild Palms,” follows Harry Wilbourne, a young doctor. He leaves his hospital duties to run away with Charlotte Rittenmeyer, a married woman. They struggle with poverty in Chicago, where Harry writes bad stories and Charlotte makes art figures to earn money. Charlotte becomes pregnant. Harry, who once refused to risk an abortion on another woman, is forced by Charlotte to perform the procedure on her.

Charlotte tragically dies from the operation on the Mississippi coast. Harry is subsequently charged with murder. Charlotte’s husband visits Harry in jail and offers him poison to commit suícide. Harry refuses this, choosing to live. He is sentenced to fifty years in prison, deciding that he will take “grief rather than nothing.”

The second story, “The Old Man,” is about a tall convict serving time. He is forced to leave prison during the great 1927 Mississippi flood. He is given a small skiff to rescue people. He rescues a heavily pregnant woman from a tree. The river is wild, and he struggles against the current.

The woman gives birth on a tiny piece of dry land. The convict later hunts alligators to earn money to travel. He repeatedly tries to surrender to the authorities, but they either reject him or shoot at him. He finally turns himself in to a deputy. He is given ten extra years in prison for trying to escape, despite his efforts to return.

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