Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-book review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. What must Edward do to be happy?

A) Travel

B) Tell outlandish tales

C) Call friends

D) Make believe

2. Why does William feel resentment toward his father?

A) He tells ridiculous stories.

B) He was never there for him when he was a child.

C) His father was unfaithful to his mother.

D) He cannot relate to his father’s experiences

3. How does Edward believe he will achieve immortality?

A) His existence will carry over into a second life.

B) His journeys will live on in the memories of those he met.

C) His will live on because William is his son.

D) His stories being remembered will help him to live on.

4. What is the significance of the title, Big Fish?

A) It describes the fish Edward caught in Ashland.

B) It illustrates Edwards’s use of Tall Tales to tell stories.

C) It draws parallels to the over-exaggeration people often use when describing the fish they catch.

D) It relates to Edward’s desire to be a big fish in a big pond.

5. How does William’s perception of his father change over the course of the novel?

A) William is more sympathetic and understanding toward the end of the novel.

B) William becomes increasingly resentful toward his father.

C) William grows to like his father’s stories more.

D) William begins to understand his father’s storytelling as a powerful tool for exercising social influence.

6. What ability did William inherit from his father?

A) The habit of wild exaggeration

B) The desire to travel

C) The ability to tell stories

D) Emotional distancing

7. Big Fish is a novel about Edward’s death, but in the end, he lives on as a fish. What is this an example of?

A) Hyperbole

B) Irony

C) Simile

D) Onomatopoeia

8. How does William imagine his relationship with his father changing?

A) They undergo a kind of role reversal.

B) They become closer on his deathbed.

C) He tells stories to his father as he is dying.

D) He cries as his father dies.

9. Why does Edward say, after William asks him about God, that he would rather William have a bunch of jokes than a bunch of doubts?

A) Edward feels that knowledge of God is unattainable, so he tells jokes instead.

B) Edward jokes too much to think seriously about the existence of God.

C) Edward has doubts about the existence of God and makes jokes rather than talking about it.

D) Edward doesn’t want his son to doubt just because he does.

10. Why does William compare his father to a demigod?

A) Edward accomplishes great feats.

B) Because Edward is larger-than-life

C) He always thought Edward might live forever.

D) Because of Edward’s exploits

11. Based on the story of the man who chastised his neighbor for delivering the news that his cat had died, what can the reader infer about the neighbor’s father when he says his father is on the roof?

A) His father is sick.

B) His father was hit by a car.

C) He was teaching the man a lesson.

D) His father has probably died.

12. Based on William’s imaginings of his father’s deathbed, what can readers assume William feels for his father?

A) Awe and resentment

B) Hope and sadness

C) Frustration and hatred

D) Acceptance and joy

13. What effect does the birth of William seem to have on his father?

A) It causes him to desire to travel.

B) It diminishes his magical abilities.

C) It makes him nervous.

D) It creates a need for him to be home with his family.

14. Which of the following is an example of foreshadowing in the novel?

A) Jenny Hill’s eyes begin to glow.

B) Edward dreams of a crowd of people outside his house.

C) Edward’s skin becomes scaly.

D) Edward tames the giant.

15. Why do William and Edward make jokes while Edward is on his deathbed?

A) To make light of difficult conversations

B) To entertain one another

C) To make the other laugh

D) To tell good stories

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. Does Edward live his life in a selfish or unselfish way? Why?

2. How does Edward’s attitude toward his father change over the course of the novel?