Tell Me Everything: Complete 20-Question Quiz

Quiz: Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout

This quiz spans the entire novel. Answer all 20 questions, then check the answer key at the bottom for explanations.

Important: Some questions are multiple-choice; others require a short answer.

Questions 1–8: Plot and Sequence

1. In Chapter 1, Olive Kitteridge shares a family secret with Lucy Barton. What does Olive reveal?
A) That she once had an affair
B) That after her mother’s death she found a newspaper clipping showing her mother’s lost love had named his daughters Olive and Isa
C) That her mother ran away with a fisherman
D) That her father committed suicide

2. Where is Gloria Beach’s body eventually found?
A) In a quarry near Saco
B) In the Androscoggin River
C) In the woods behind Walmart
D) In her own basement

3. What is the immediate cause of Diana Beach’s suicide?
A) She was arrested for murder
B) She had been sexually abused and wrote a confessional note before killing herself
C) Her husband left her for her best friend
D) She lost her job as a guidance counselor

4. What news does William share at the surprise party in Chapter 38?
A) He is moving to California
B) He and Lucy are engaged to be married
C) He has been diagnosed with a terminal illness
D) He is writing a book about parasites

5. Why does Jim Burgess originally cancel Bob’s visit to New York in December?
A) He is traveling for work
B) His wife Helen is dying, but he avoids telling Bob
C) He is angry with Bob
D) He wants to spend the holidays alone

6. What does Bob Burgess find in Matt Beach’s computer after retrieving it from the police?
A) Evidence of a secret bank account
B) Only a few entries: complaints about his mother, a childhood memory, and a line about wanting to hold a woman
C) A detailed plan to kill Gloria
D) Photos of nude models

7. How does the murder investigation officially resolve?
A) Matt Beach confesses in court
B) Carol Hall drops the charges for lack of evidence
C) Diana Beach’s suicide note confesses to the murder
D) Bob finds the murder weapon in the quarry

8. At the end of the novel, what does Lucy tell Olive during her final visit?
A) That she is moving to California
B) The story of her love for Bob Burgess, a love never acted upon
C) That she plans to write a memoir
D) That her daughter Chrissy has recovered fully

Questions 9–13: Character Motivation

9. Why does Lucy Barton weep after hearing Olive’s story about Sara and Stephen Turner?
A) She is overwhelmed by jealousy
B) She interprets it as a tragedy of lifelong ghosts in marriages
C) She feels sorry for Olive’s mother
D) She is reminded of her own parents

10. Why does Bob Burgess become a secret smoker again during the pandemic?
A) He finds it relaxing
B) He uses it to cope with terror and anxiety, as he admits to Lucy
C) Margaret encourages him
D) He wants to rebel against Puritan ancestry

11. What motivates Diana Beach to confess to the murder of her mother?
A) She wants to protect her brother Matt from prosecution
B) She is driven by guilt over the abuse she suffered and the crime she committed
C) She hopes to inherit the life insurance money
D) She is coerced by the prosecutor

12. Why does Olive Kitteridge consider suicide when Isabelle Goodrow plans to move to California?
A) She is physically ill
B) She feels abandoned by her closest friend and recalls her father’s suicide
C) She feels guilty about her past
D) She is angry at Lucy

13. Why does Jim Burgess apologize to Bob and eventually confess that he killed their father?
A) He wants to be forgiven before he dies
B) He feels guilty after his son Larry calls the act evil and sends him away
C) He is drunk
D) Bob forces a confession

Questions 14–17: Theme and Symbol

14. In the novel, what does the concept of the “sin-eater” symbolize?
A) Religious conversion
B) A person who absorbs the emotional burdens and secrets of others
C) A person who commits crimes for others
D) An ancient ritual of atonement

15. The phrase “shifting sand” (used by Lucy) primarily represents:
A) The instability of the Maine coastline
B) The uncertainty and fundamental unknowability of other people
C) The fragility of the legal system
D) The changing seasons in Crosby

16. What does Lucy’s plant Little Annie symbolize?
A) Her hope for a new relationship
B) The resilience and persistence of life even after loss
C) Her connection to her daughters
D) The fragility of aging

17. What does Olive mean when she describes “unrecorded lives”?
A) Lives of people who never wrote memoirs
B) The ordinary, often unnoticed lives of people who live and die without fame or historical record
C) Lives of criminals
D) Lives of characters in books she has read

Questions 18–20: Synthesis

18. Compare how Bob Burgess and Lucy Barton each serve as “sin-eaters” for other characters. Which statement best captures this?
A) Both absorb the sins of strangers but ignore their families
B) Bob unconsciously takes on the sins of his brother and clients; Lucy consciously absorbs stories of others’ pain and offers empathy
C) Only Bob is a sin-eater; Lucy is a storyteller
D) They both refuse to listen to others’ problems

19. The novel weaves together a murder plot and a slow-burning friendship. How does the Beach case affect Bob and Lucy’s relationship?
A) It distracts them from their personal issues
B) It becomes a point of conflict and honesty, testing their trust and deepening their connection
C) It causes them to drift apart
D) It has no effect at all

20. Toward the end, Olive Kitteridge reflects that “Love is love.” How does this idea tie together the stories of Bob, Lucy, Olive, and Isabelle?
A) It suggests that romantic love is the only true love
B) It unifies the various forms of love—friendship, family, and unfulfilled romantic love—as equally valid and significant
C) It contradicts the earlier metaphor of the ghost in marriage
D) It only applies to Olive and Isabelle

Answer Key

1. B – Olive found a newspaper clipping showing Stephen Turner named his daughters Olive and Isa, the same names as Olive and her sister. This reveals a ghost in her mother’s marriage and is the first story Lucy hears. (Evidence: Chapter 1 digest)

2. A – Gloria Beach’s body is found in a quarry near Saco. Her journals later reveal her abusive past. (Evidence: Chapter 12 digest)

3. B – Diana Beach’s suicide note confesses to the murder of her mother. The note reveals she was sexually abused by their father and her mother resented her. (Evidence: Chapter 30 digest)

4. B – At the surprise party, William announces that Lucy has agreed to marry him. Bob maintains his composure. (Evidence: Chapter 38 digest)

5. B – Jim cancels Bob’s visit because his wife Helen is terminally ill, but he avoids telling Bob because making it real would be too painful. (Evidence: Chapter 9 digest)

6. B – Bob retrieves Matt’s computer and finds only a few entries: repeated complaints about his mother, a childhood memory, and a line about wanting to hold a woman. (Evidence: Chapter 22 digest)

7. C – Diana Beach commits suicide and leaves a note confessing to the murder of Gloria Beach. (Evidence: Chapter 30 digest)

8. B – Lucy tells Olive the story of her love for Bob Burgess, a love that was never acted upon, and explains that love takes many forms. (Evidence: Chapter 39 evidence)

9. B – Lucy weeps because she interprets the story of Sara and Stephen Turner as a tragedy of lifelong ghosts in marriages. She says, “That’s sad, Bob.” (Evidence: Chapter 2 digest)

10. B – Bob admits to Lucy that he drinks and smokes because of terror. (Evidence: Chapter 2 digest)

11. B – Diana is driven by guilt over the abuse she suffered and her act of murder. The note reveals her trauma. (Evidence: Chapter 30 digest)

12. B – Olive feels abandoned when Isabelle plans to move to California. She recalls her father’s suicide and considers suicide herself. (Evidence: Chapter 20 digest)

13. B – After Larry calls Jim’s act “evil” and sends him away, Jim, in despair, confesses to Bob that he killed their father. (Evidence: Chapter 33 digest)

14. B – The sin-eater symbolizes a person who absorbs others’ emotional burdens and secrets. Lucy explicitly calls Bob a sin-eater. (Evidence: Chapter 9 evidence)

15. B – Lucy says “We are all standing on shifting sand” to express that no one truly knows another. (Evidence: Chapter 24 evidence)

16. B – Lucy’s plant Little Annie lost all its leaves but then sprouted a new green leaf, symbolizing resilience and the life force. (Evidence: Chapter 39 evidence)

17. B – Olive and Lucy discuss “unrecorded lives” to refer to ordinary people whose stories go unnoticed. (Evidence: Chapter 40 discussion questions)

18. B – Bob unconsciously absorbs the sins of his brother Jim and his clients; Lucy consciously listens to and empathizes with others’ pain. Both act as sin-eaters in different ways. (Evidence: Chapter 9 and thematic overview)

19. B – The Beach case becomes a subject of honesty and shared concern. It deepens their trust, though it also surfaces tensions (e.g., Bob’s observation of Lucy’s behavior). (Evidence: Chapter 24 and overall arc)

20. B – “Love is love” unifies the different forms of love in the novel: Bob and Lucy’s unfulfilled love, Olive and Isabelle’s friendship, and Lucy’s love for her family. All are valid and of the same cloth. (Evidence: Chapter 39)