If Cats Disappeared from the World Quiz: 20 Questions
Quiz
Plot and Sequence (Multiple Choice)
1. What terminal diagnosis does the narrator receive at the start of the novel?
A) Stage 3 lung cancer
B) Stage 4 brain tumor
C) Acute leukemia
D) End-stage heart disease
2. Which item does Aloha first attempt to erase before settling on the mobile phone?
A) Clocks
B) Cats
C) Chocolate
D) Movies
3. On Tuesday, after phones vanish, the narrator meets his ex-girlfriend. During their outing, what item does she ask him to guess?
A) Her favorite film
B) Her favorite place
C) The name of her new cat
D) The colour she’d painted her apartment
4. On Wednesday, what film do the narrator and Tsutaya select at the video shop?
A) La Strada
B) E.T.
C) Limelight
D) Citizen Kane
5. What happens when the case for the chosen film is opened?
A) The disc is cracked
B) The case is empty
C) A different film is inside
D) The narrator is unable to open it
6. On Thursday, Aloha grants Cabbage the ability to speak. What triggers Cabbage’s formal, old-fashioned way of talking?
A) Aloha programmed the speech style
B) Cabbage absorbed it from Mom’s period dramas
C) It is a manifestation of the narrator’s imagination
D) Cabbage had always spoken that way internally
7. After the narrator refuses to erase cats on Friday, what does he discover about his father’s past hobby?
A) His father once repaired musical boxes
B) His father collected stamps and sent postcards with a cat resembling Lettuce
C) His father was a film projectionist
D) His father wrote unsent letters to his wife
8. When the narrator finishes his letter to his father on Sunday, why does he decide not to mail it?
A) The letter is too tear-stained to send
B) He realises a written goodbye is insufficient and chooses to deliver it in person
C) Aloha removes the power to send mail
D) Cabbage hides the envelope
Character Motivation (Multiple Choice)
9. Why does the ex-girlfriend rewatch sad movies?
A) She hopes the next time the ending will be happy
B) She wants to memorise every scene
C) She finds comfort in knowing how things end
D) She wants to spot continuity errors
10. Why does the father try to repair Mom’s wristwatch instead of staying at her deathbed?
A) He couldn’t bear to see her dying
B) He believed the watch held sentimental value for her and wanted to grant her wish
C) He misjudged the time and arrived late unintentionally
D) He was ashamed of his relationship with the narrator
11. Aloha appears as the narrator’s doppelgänger. What does this form represent?
A) The narrator’s idealised vision of a successful man
B) The cheerful, impulsive person the narrator never became
C) A random disguise the devil chose
D) The narrator’s childhood imaginary friend
12. Why does the narrator ultimately refuse to erase cats on Friday?
A) He is afraid of losing Cabbage
B) He realises that some things are too precious to sacrifice for his own survival
C) Aloha threatens to erase dogs next
D) His ex-girlfriend pressures him to keep cats
13. At the end of the novel, the narrator puts on his postman uniform. What does this action signify?
A) He wants to deliver the letter officially
B) He is embracing his inherited identity and readying himself to reconnect with his father
C) He is hallucinating because of his tumour
D) It is the only clean outfit he owns
Themes and Symbols (Short Answer)
14. What do the disappearing items—phone, movies, clocks—symbolise in the narrator’s personal journey?
15. In the story, what does the cat represent beyond just a pet?
16. How does the mother’s “magic trick” (smile and close your eyes) serve as a thematic device?
17. What is the symbolic significance of the blank movie screen the narrator watches on Wednesday?
Synthesis (Short Answer)
18. Compare the narrator’s relationship with his father before and after his mother’s death. How does this evolution motivate the final bike ride?
19. How does the sequence of the narrator’s choices—from erasing phones to refusing to erase cats—illustrate his changing understanding of life and connection?
20. The novel unfolds over seven days, echoing the biblical creation story. Explain how this structure reinforces the book’s central message about value and sacrifice.
Answer Key
1. B) Stage 4 brain tumor
The opening chapter states the postman learns he has a Stage 4 brain tumour and may die within a week.
2. C) Chocolate
Aloha first tries to erase chocolate from the world, but it fails; the mobile phone is the first successful disappearance.
3. B) Her favorite place
The ex-girlfriend gives him homework to guess her favorite place, which turns out to be the movie theatre.
4. C) Limelight
At Tsutaya’s shop they pick Chaplin’s Limelight, but the case proves to be empty.
5. B) The case is empty
When they open Limelight’s case, there is no disc inside.
6. B) Cabbage absorbed it from Mom’s period dramas
Cabbage’s upper-class speech was absorbed from the period dramas Mom used to watch.
7. B) His father collected stamps and sent postcards with a cat resembling Lettuce
The narrator discovers a childhood box of stamps and postcards featuring a cat that looked like Lettuce, which clarifies his own choice to become a postman.
8. B) He realises a written goodbye is insufficient and chooses to deliver it in person
Standing at the mailbox, he decides a letter alone cannot mend the relationship; he puts the letter in his postman bag and cycles to his father’s house.
9. A) She hopes the next time the ending will be happy
She tells the narrator she rewatches sad films because she hopes for a happier ending.
10. B) He believed the watch held sentimental value for her and wanted to grant her wish
Mom’s dying wish was for the watch to be fixed; her husband tried to honour that request, although he arrived too late.
11. B) The cheerful, impulsive person the narrator never became
Aloha explains he is the side of the narrator that was never expressed—the person he could have been if he had made different choices.
12. B) He realises that some things are too precious to sacrifice for his own survival
He refuses to erase cats because they are irreplaceable and represent love and connection; he would rather die than take something so cherished from the world.
13. B) He is embracing his inherited identity and readying himself to reconnect with his father
Donning the postman uniform—his father’s former occupation—symbolises acceptance of his resemblance to his father and his determination to deliver both the letter and his presence.
14. Suggested answer: The phone, movies, and clocks symbolise modern disconnection, the loss of shared stories/memory, and humanity’s obsession with measuring time; their erasure forces the narrator to confront what truly gives life meaning—relationships and emotional truths.
15. Suggested answer: The cat embodies unconditional companionship, the enduring memory of the narrator’s mother, and the simple warmth of life; it is a living reminder of what is worth preserving even at the cost of his own existence.
16. Suggested answer: The magic trick—smiling and closing one’s eyes when sad—functions as a tool for emotional self-regulation and illustrates the novel’s theme that perspective and small rituals can transform inner despair into warmth.
17. Suggested answer: The blank screen represents the narrator’s life—a long-exposure photograph of mundane moments that nonetheless holds beauty and meaning once he chooses to project his own memories and feelings onto it.
18. Suggested answer: Before his mother’s death, the narrator and his father were distanced by unspoken resentments; afterward, the rift hardened into four years of silence. Mom’s posthumous request (“Please make up with your father”) and the recollection of his father’s hidden tears and outstretched hand push the narrator to break the cycle. The final bike ride is his act of direct reconnection, replacing the unsent letter with personal presence.
19. Suggested answer: Initially he agrees to erase objects that represent abstract or replaceable aspects of life (phones, movies, clocks), but when asked to erase cats—living beings tied to love and memory—he refuses. This trajectory shows his shift from viewing existence as something to prolong through any bargain to recognising that life’s worth is measured by what one is unwilling to sacrifice.
20. Suggested answer: The seven-day countdown inverts the creative arc of Genesis: instead of bringing things into existence, the narrator strips them away. By the seventh day he chooses not to rest but to actively seek reconciliation, suggesting that true creation lies not in preserving oneself but in forging meaningful connections, even as time runs out.