The City and Its Uncertain Walls: Full-Book Quiz
Test your understanding of Haruki Murakami's The City and Its Uncertain Walls with this comprehensive 20-question quiz. The questions cover plot sequence, character motivations, thematic symbols, and synthesis of the novel's layered narrative. An answer key with explanations follows the quiz.
Plot and Sequence Questions (8 questions)
1. (Short answer) What must the narrator give up in order to enter the walled town?
2. (Multiple choice) In which season does the narrator first attempt to map the town's layout?
- A) Spring
- B) Summer
- C) Autumn
- D) Winter
3. (Multiple choice) What object does the Gatekeeper blow each evening to control the unicorn beasts?
- A) A wooden flute
- B) A horn made from a unicorn's horn
- C) A brass trumpet
- D) A seashell
4. (Short answer) What happens to the unicorn beasts during one week in spring each year?
5. (Multiple choice) To aid his escape from the walled town, the narrator steals which item from the Gatekeeper's cabin?
- A) A key
- B) A lantern
- C) The horn
- D) A map
6. (Short answer) Who nurses the narrator when he falls ill with a high fever after surveying the wall?
7. (Multiple choice) What does Yellow Submarine Boy deliver to the narrator in an envelope?
- A) A letter from the girl
- B) A detailed map of the walled town
- C) A photograph of himself
- D) A book by Shostakovich
8. (Short answer) How does the narrator finally exit the walled town in the climactic escape scene?
Character Motivation Questions (5 questions)
9. (Multiple choice) Why doesn't the librarian in the walled town remember the narrator from the outside world?
- A) She has a medical condition
- B) The Gatekeeper erased her memory
- C) She is the real self, not the shadow, and memory does not transfer
- D) She chooses to forget him
10. (Multiple choice) What is the narrator's stated reason for choosing to stay in the walled town at the ceremonial pool?
- A) He believes the town will grant him immortality
- B) He feels the outside world offers only loneliness and greater darkness
- C) He wants to become the Gatekeeper
- D) He is physically unable to swim through the pool
11. (Multiple choice) Why does Yellow Submarine Boy insist on entering the walled town permanently?
- A) He wants to find his lost family
- B) He believes he has no place in the real world and wishes to become the Dream Reader
- C) He is following the narrator's orders
- D) He seeks revenge against the Gatekeeper
12. (Short answer) What is the underlying reason the coffee shop woman wears a "bodysuit of armor" undergarment?
13. (Multiple choice) According to Mrs. Soeda, why did Mr. Koyasu choose the narrator as head librarian?
- A) He was the only applicant with library experience
- B) The narrator's wounded heart made him uniquely suited
- C) The narrator reminded him of his dead son
- D) Mrs. Soeda forced the decision
Theme and Symbol Questions (4 questions)
14. (Short answer) During the brothers' visit, the younger brother offers a psychological interpretation: what does the wall around the town symbolize?
15. (Multiple choice) Throughout the novel, the shadow primarily represents:
- A) A physical burden
- B) Identity and the real self (alter ego)
- C) Fear of the dark
- D) A character's age
16. (Short answer) What does the woodstove in the library's subterranean room come to symbolize for the narrator?
17. (Multiple choice) The Gatekeeper's saying, "When you have a plate on top of your head it's best not to look up at the sky," is a warning against:
- A) Physical clumsiness
- B) Excessive curiosity about forbidden things
- C) Daydreaming during work
- D) Disobeying the town's rules
Synthesis Questions (3 questions)
18. (Short answer) How does the novel blur the boundary between dreams and reality? Provide one specific example from the story.
19. (Short answer) What dual purpose does the horn serve in the narrative—both as a tool of control and as an instrument of escape?
20. (Multiple choice) Why does Murakami state in the afterword that he felt compelled to rewrite The City and Its Uncertain Walls after forty years?
- A) The original novella was never published in book form and felt incomplete
- B) He needed money and a new bestseller
- C) A publisher forced him to finish it
- D) Fans demanded a sequel
Answer Key
1. The narrator leaves his shadow with the Gatekeeper. (Chapter 9 outline: "he left his shadow with the Gatekeeper to enter the walled town.")
2. C) Autumn. The outline for Chapter 3 describes autumn as the season of the unicorn beasts' routine, and Chapter 12 evidence notes "that autumn the weather continued to be overcast" when the narrator maps the wall.
3. B) A horn made from a unicorn's horn. (Chapter 3: "the Gatekeeper blows a horn made from a unicorn horn.")
4. The beasts become violent, fighting for mates, and the bloodshed leads to new life. (Chapter 3: "the beasts become violent, fighting for mates and shedding blood that leads to new life.")
5. C) The horn. (Chapter 25 evidence: the narrator steals the horn from the Gatekeeper's cabin and later hangs it on a tree.)
6. An old man (former soldier) who lives nearby. (Chapter 13 evidence: "one old man who lived nearby ... stayed with me and took care of me.")
7. B) A detailed map of the walled town. (Chapter 48 outline: "The boy then sends an envelope containing a detailed map of the walled town.")
8. He closes his eyes, trusts his shadow's advice that the wall is an illusion, and runs through a jelly-like barrier. (Chapter 25 evidence: "close your eyes and go through it. If you don't believe what it says, and aren't afraid, the wall doesn't exist.")
9. C) She is the real self, not the shadow, and memory does not transfer. (Chapter 1: "she warns that in the town her real self will not remember him.")
10. B) He feels the outside world offers only loneliness and greater darkness. (Chapter 27 outline: "the narrator tells his shadow he has decided to stay in the walled town because the outside world offers only loneliness and greater darkness.")
11. B) He believes he has no place in the real world and wishes to become the Dream Reader. (Chapter 50: the boy declares he must go to that town to read old dreams forever, accepting he may never return; Chapter 51: the narrator concludes the boy has no place in this world.)
12. She is unable to respond to sexual acts due to a history of trauma, possibly from her marriage or earlier. (Chapter 59 outlines the woman's confession about never being able to have sex, and Chapter 62 evidence refers to her "protective bodysuit" and her statement about heart and body being separate.)
13. B) The narrator's wounded heart made him uniquely suited. (Chapter 45: Mr. Koyasu chose the narrator as librarian because of his wounded heart.)
14. Consciousness, with most of it hidden. (Chapter 60 outline: "the younger brother offers a psychological reading: the wall symbolizes consciousness, with most of it hidden.")
15. B) Identity and the real self (alter ego). (Throughout: the shadow is described as an alter ego, and the girl says shadows contain the dark heart; the narrator's separation from his shadow represents loss of self.)
16. A connection between worlds, memory, and comfort. (The woodstove in the walled town's library reappears in the real-world library; it evokes memories and acts as a threshold; Chapter 36: the woodstove is a key point of connection.)
17. B) Excessive curiosity about forbidden things. (Chapter 13 evidence: the Gatekeeper gives this warning after the narrator asks about the town's shape; the chapter discusses curiosity as absent in the town.)
18. Example: The narrator's fever dream where the wall shape-shifts, or the old dreams that feel real, or the narrator's regression to seventeen in the river scene (Chapter 63). (Any supported example from the outline is acceptable; e.g., Chapter 13: "I dreamed of the wall, too. ... the wall was alive and moving.")
19. The horn controls the unicorn beasts (daily processions) and also buys time for the narrator's escape when his shadow blows it to distract the Gatekeeper. (Chapter 25 evidence: the shadow blows the horn to delay the Gatekeeper; daily horn use in Chapter 3.)
20. A) The original novella was never published in book form and felt incomplete. (Afterword evidence: "I never allowed it to be reprinted in book form" and "This work had felt like a small fish bone caught in my throat.")
Take this quiz again or explore more about the novel: Overview of the book, Questions and Answers, and Ending Explained.