Life, and Death, and Giants: 20-Question Quiz

Dive into Ron Rindo's 2025 novel Life, and Death, and Giants with this 20-question quiz. It spans the full story, from Rachel Fisher's traumatic delivery in Lakota, Wisconsin, to Gabriel Fisher's global fame and the quiet endings of those who loved him. Questions cover plot sequence, character motivation, theme and symbol, plus three synthesis challenges. When you finish, check the answer key to see how you did.

If you need a refresher first, read the book overview, browse the questions and answers, or see the ending explained.

Plot and Sequence Questions

1. Who performs the emergency delivery of Rachel Fisher's baby in the prologue?

A. Billy Walton
B. Dr. Thomas Kennedy
C. Bishop Eli Lapp
D. Charlie Mayfield

2. What happens to Rachel immediately after Gabriel is born?

A. She recovers and returns home
B. She dies
C. She names the father
D. She moves to Chicago

3. Put Gabriel's early baseball path in order.

A. Minor league, T-ball, major league, forced forfeit
B. T-ball home runs, minor league dominance, broken-hand line drive, major league invitation
C. Major league invitation, T-ball, minor league, forfeit
D. Forced forfeit, major league, T-ball, minor league

4. What ends Gabriel's college football career?

A. A wrestling injury
B. A knee injury that leads to amputation
C. A concussion
D. A coaching dispute

5. Which sequence correctly follows Gabriel after his football injury?

A. Amputation, wrestling in Europe, diagnosis of an inoperable tumor, return to Lakota
B. Wrestling in Europe, amputation, return to Lakota, diagnosis
C. Return to Lakota, amputation, wrestling, diagnosis
D. Diagnosis, amputation, wrestling, return to Lakota

6. How does Hannah discover that Absalom is Gabriel's father?

A. Meg tells her in confidence
B. Gabriel reveals it during a walk
C. She reads Absalom's confessional letter after his death
D. Josiah confesses at the funeral

7. What happens at the moment Gabriel dies?

A. An earthquake shakes the farm
B. Fireflies form a pillar of light and animals gather
C. A stadium crowd chants his name
D. Thomas reads a Dickinson poem aloud

8. Which sequence matches Thomas Kennedy's final chapter?

A. He sells his house, scatters his mother's ashes, then moves to Montana
B. He scatters his mother's ashes, sells his house to Bella, and drives west to Montana
C. He moves to Montana, then returns to Lakota for good
D. He buys a clinic in Lakota and stays with Hannah

Character Motivation Questions

9. Why did Dr. Thomas Kennedy originally leave Milwaukee and settle in Lakota?

A. To coach the high school football team
B. To escape the investigations following his wife's suicide
C. To care for his mother
D. To open a wrestling management company

10. Why does Hannah agree to let Gabriel play high school football?

A. Josiah orders her to accept it
B. Gabriel promises her he will remain kind
C. The church votes to allow it
D. Dr. Kennedy requires it as part of his care plan

11. Why does Coach Trey Beathard refuse the D1 coaching offers after the state championship?

A. He has a contract with Waushara High School
B. He is committed to his sober life, his partner, and his new home
C. Gabriel refuses to play for him at a larger school
D. His father advises him to stay

12. Why does Hannah arrange for an English friend to take Gabriel in after his leg amputation?

A. Because Gabriel has been excommunicated
B. Because she sees that Gabriel is miserable and cannot fit back into Amish life, and loving him means letting him go
C. Because Thomas Kennedy demands custody
D. Because Josiah wants Gabriel to join the sawmill

13. Why does Coach Beathard search online for Isabella Alvarez?

A. To offer her a football scholarship
B. Because dying Gabriel regrets their breakup and will not call her himself
C. To ask her to coach the team
D. To investigate a rumor

Theme and Symbol Questions

14. In the Dickinson epigraph, what do life, death, and giants become?

A. Proof of divine order
B. Minor apparatus in an indifferent universe
C. Tests of faith
D. Rewards for good deeds

15. In Hannah's story, the river separating the Amish and English communities mainly symbolizes what?

A. The need for baptism
B. A boundary that is crossed through secret meetings and relationships
C. The source of Wisconsin's economy
D. The route Gabriel takes to football games

16. What does the hidden copy of Emily Dickinson's poems represent for Hannah?

A. A secret inner life and a place for spiritual questioning
B. A practical farm manual
C. An English school assignment
D. A list of family names

17. What do fireflies come to symbolize in Hannah's final chapters?

A. Technology and artificial light
B. The souls of the dead and the continuity of love
C. Football fame
D. The dangers of electricity

Synthesis Questions

18. How does Gabriel's physical size shape the novel's treatment of fame?

Write a short answer.

19. What do Thomas Kennedy and Trey Beathard share as surrogate father figures to Gabriel?

Write a short answer.

20. What does Thomas's final move to Montana at age seventy-one reinforce about the novel's view of second chances?

Write a short answer.

Answer Key

B. Dr. Thomas Kennedy. The prologue says Thomas delivered Gabriel using livestock surgical techniques after Rachel refused medical help.
B. She dies. The prologue and Hannah's later account both say Rachel died shortly after the birth.
B. T-ball home runs, minor league dominance, broken-hand line drive, major league invitation. Gabriel hits .820 in T-ball, dominates minor league at age six, becomes too dangerous by seven, and then joins a major league team.
B. A knee injury that leads to amputation. During a Badgers game against Ohio State, Gabriel's right knee hyperextends; the resulting vascular injury requires an above-the-knee amputation.
A. Amputation, wrestling in Europe, diagnosis of an inoperable tumor, return to Lakota. After the injury and prosthetic training, Gabriel wrestles in Europe as Anakim, then an inoperable brain tumor sends him home.
C. She reads Absalom's confessional letter after his death. Absalom's letter confesses his abuse and says Gabriel is his son.
B. Fireflies form a pillar of light and animals gather. The death scene describes birds, animals, and tens of thousands of fireflies forming a blinding pillar of light that ascends with Gabriel's soul.
B. He scatters his mother's ashes, sells his house to Bella, and drives west to Montana. After his mother dies, Thomas scatters her ashes on Lake Michigan, sells his house to Bella, and drives to a cabin on the Missouri River.
B. To escape the investigations following his wife's suicide. Thomas left Milwaukee after his wife's suicide and the investigations that followed, finding refuge in Lakota's anonymity.
B. Gabriel promises her he will remain kind. Hannah accepts his participation after he makes that promise, though the games widen the family rift.
B. He is committed to his sober life, his partner, and his new home. Trey turns down the offers because his rebuilt life in the community matters more than ambition.
B. Because she sees that Gabriel is miserable and cannot fit back into Amish life, and loving him means letting him go. Hannah concludes that the deepest act of love is to let him live among the English.
B. Because dying Gabriel regrets their breakup and will not call her himself. Gabe confesses the regret during a vigil, and Trey tracks Bella down; she replies that afternoon.
B. Minor apparatus in an indifferent universe. The epigraph reduces life, death, and giants to "Minor—Apparatus—" and a "Beetle at the Candle," suggesting an impersonal, mechanical cosmos.
B. A boundary that is crossed through secret meetings and relationships. The river marks separation, yet Hannah and Rachel meet there secretly, and later Hannah crosses that boundary in other ways.
A. A secret inner life and a place for spiritual questioning. Hannah reads the hidden Dickinson poems in secret, and they become a source of spiritual stirring and later comfort.
B. The souls of the dead and the continuity of love. At Gabriel's death, fireflies carry his soul upward; in Hannah's final chapter, she, Bella, and Raphael catch fireflies in a ritual of gentle light and continuity.
Sample answer: Gabriel's size makes him a spectacle and a commodity: scouts recruit him, promoters market him, crowds mock Amish dress, and online fans degrade him. His gifts bring fame, but that fame is tied to exploitation and loss, echoing the epigraph's sense that renown is accidental.
Sample answer: Both step in when Gabriel needs guidance: Thomas is a loyal surrogate grandfather from infancy through his final illness, and Trey becomes a mentor, coach, and overnight vigil-keeper. Both also model redemption, Thomas rebuilding his life after grief and Trey after addiction.
Sample answer: Thomas's Montana move reinforces that renewal is possible at any age. After years of loss and longing, he feels his life is just beginning at seventy-one, echoing the novel's emphasis on second chances and the good we leave behind.