Quiz Blackouts Justin Torres

Blackouts Quiz: 20 Questions to Test Your Understanding

This quiz covers Justin Torres' novel Blackouts from beginning to end. Questions are grouped by type: plot/sequence, character motivation, theme/symbol, and synthesis. After attempting all questions, check the answer key for detailed explanations.

Plot and Sequence Questions (8)

  1. What promise does Juan extract from the narrator at the beginning of the novel?
    A. To take over his room and finish a project about Jan Gay
    B. To burn the Sex Variants books
    C. To never leave the Palace
    D. To find his father in Comala

  2. What event causes the flood in the narrator's apartment in Chapter 1?
    A. A burst pipe
    B. A forgotten pot left soaking in the sink
    C. A storm
    D. A broken washing machine

  3. In Chapter 2, what is the title of the 1941 study based on interviews with queer subjects?
    A. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male
    B. Sex Variants: A Study of Homosexual Patterns
    C. The Kinsey Report
    D. The Well of Loneliness

  4. What happens to the narrator's gold cross? (Short answer)

  5. In Chapter 4, what story does Nene tell Juan as a "film"?
    A. The story of Jan Gay's childhood
    B. The story of Sal and Norwood
    C. The story of Liam and the farmer
    D. The story of Yetta's confession

  6. In Chapter 5, what experimental film does Juan narrate?
    A. A film about Thomas Painter
    B. A film about Jan Gay
    C. A film about the Palace
    D. A film about the DSM

  7. In Chapter 6, what does the narrator create from a psychological test?
    A. A collage of perverse answers
    B. A drawing of Juan's face
    C. A list of all the Sex Variants participants
    D. A map of the Palace

  8. In the Postface, what is the answer to Juan's riddle about entering a room with a dead man?
    A. A book (libro)
    B. A mirror
    C. A ghost
    D. A kiss

Character Motivation Questions (5)

  1. Why does Juan want the narrator to promise to tell the story after his death?
    A. To recover a lost queer history and alloy fact with imagination
    B. To expose the doctors who harmed him
    C. To prove the narrator's loyalty
    D. To prevent the books from being destroyed

  2. Why does the narrator adopt the gold cross as a constant object?
    A. It was a gift from his mother
    B. It reminds him of his father's undercover life and his own survival
    C. It is a family heirloom
    D. He found it in Juan's room

  3. What motivates Jan Gay to conduct the interviews for the Sex Variants study? (Short answer)

  4. Why does Juan tell the story of Zhenya's book Who's Afraid??
    A. To explain the origin of the hyena laugh as a queer cry of recognition
    B. To entertain the narrator
    C. To discuss children's literature
    D. To criticize animal metaphors

  5. Why does the narrator refuse to resolve whether Juan was a real person?
    A. He wants to maintain ambiguity and honor Juan's memory through fiction
    B. He cannot remember
    C. He is afraid of the truth
    D. He is legally forbidden

Theme and Symbol Questions (4)

  1. What do the blacked-out pages in the Sex Variants volumes symbolize?
    A. Erasure of queer history and the act of looking despite obscurity
    B. The author's censorship
    C. Juan's blindness
    D. The narrator's ignorance

  2. What does the "Palace" symbolize in the novel?
    A. A place of refuge and decay for those undone by trouble
    B. A literal royal palace
    C. A psychiatric hospital
    D. A nightclub

  3. What does the backward glance (like Lot's wife) represent?
    A. The necessity of looking back at erased histories even at great cost
    B. Regret
    C. Nostalgia
    D. Homophobia

  4. What does Juan's motto "Bidden or forbidden, yesterday is here" suggest? (Short answer)

Synthesis Questions (3)

  1. How does the novel blur the line between fiction and reality? (Short answer)

  2. In what ways does the structure of Blackouts mirror its themes?
    A. The fragmented, non-linear narrative mirrors the erasure and difficulty of recovering queer history
    B. It is a straightforward biography
    C. It follows a strict chronological order
    D. It uses only dialogue

  3. What is the significance of the "cage of voices" in Chapter 6? (Short answer)

Answer Key

Question Correct Answer Explanation
Q1 A Juan extracts a promise that the narrator will take over his room and finish a project about Jan Gay, setting up the central quest.
Q2 B The narrator forgot a heavy pot soaking in the sink, causing water to overflow and collapse the ceiling below.
Q3 B The 1941 study is Sex Variants: A Study of Homosexual Patterns, which Juan later discovers in blacked-out volumes.
Q4 It becomes his constant object after a mugging, linked to his father's undercover gangster persona and his own survival after a suicide attempt. The cross is a talisman of survival and a connection to his father's hidden life.
Q5 B Nene tells the story of Sal (Gowanus) and Norwood, a collaborative "film" exploring queer survival and identity.
Q6 B Juan narrates an experimental film about Jan Gay's life, from her childhood to her work on the Sex Variants study.
Q7 A The narrator finds a psychological test and creates a collage of perverse answers, reflecting his own rebellion.
Q8 A The riddle's answer is libro (a book), underscoring the novel's theme of extracting secrets from the dead through storytelling.
Q9 A Juan wants the story told to recover lost queer history, alloying fact with imagination to resist erasure.
Q10 B The cross reminds him of his father's undercover life and his own survival after a suicide attempt and a mugging.
Q11 She wanted to document the lives of queer women and contribute to scientific understanding, later co-founding a nudist colony. Jan Gay's interviews formed the basis of the Sex Variants study, driven by a desire for visibility.
Q12 A The hyena laugh in Zhenya's book becomes a queer cry of recognition, signaling solidarity and survival.
Q13 A The narrator deliberately leaves the question open, as stated in the Postface: "Not all ambiguities need be resolved."
Q14 A The blacked-out pages represent historical erasure, but also invite the reader to look for contours beneath the redaction.
Q15 A The Palace attracts "those undone by trouble" and serves as a decaying refuge for Juan and the narrator.
Q16 A Lot's wife looked back despite the cost, symbolizing the necessity of facing erased histories.
Q17 The past is always present, whether invited or not, and cannot be escaped. Juan adapts Jung's motto to emphasize that yesterday is inescapable.
Q18 It incorporates real historical figures like Jan Gay and Robert Dickinson but fictionalizes them, and the narrator refuses to confirm if Juan was real, using metafictional elements like the Postface. The novel openly acknowledges its blend of fact and fiction.
Q19 A The fragmented, non-linear narrative mirrors the erasure and difficulty of recovering queer history, as argued in the "Blinkered Endnotes."
Q20 It represents the haunting presence of past acquaintances and the weight of collective queer memory that surrounds Juan on his deathbed. Voices from the past visit Juan, making his deathbed a "cage of voices."

Score guide:

  • 18–20 correct: Excellent grasp of the novel
  • 14–17 correct: Good understanding
  • 10–13 correct: Average familiarity
  • Below 10: Consider reviewing the book summary or chapter guide