The Fervor Quiz: 20 Questions on Plot, Characters, and Themes
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
The Fervor Quiz: 20 Questions on Plot, Characters, and Themes
Plot and Sequence Questions (1–8)
1. What event opens the novel?
A) A firebombing at a newspaper office
B) A picnic that ends in a deadly explosion
C) A military raid on an internment camp
D) A scientific balloon launch
2. What is the name of the mysterious illness that sweeps through Camp Minidoka?
(Short answer)
3. What does Meiko discover inside the padlocked barn at Camp Minidoka?
A) A stash of weapons and ammunition
B) Crates marked “dangerous goods,” gas masks, and a charred sheet of washi paper
C) A hidden radio transmitter and coded messages
D) A group of sick internees being quarantined
4. After Meiko’s death, what happens to Aiko?
A) She is sent to an orphanage at Manzanar but escapes
B) She is adopted by a family in Bly
C) She is taken to Washington, D.C., by the FBI
D) She remains at Minidoka under guard
5. What is the origin of the tiny translucent spiders?
A) They are a natural species native to Oregon
B) They were carried by Japanese balloon bombs from Japan
C) They were bred in a secret military laboratory
D) They are hallucinations caused by the illness
6. What does Fran find near Kalispell, Montana, that the military tries to suppress?
A) A crashed enemy plane
B) A balloon with non-English writing and papery debris
C) A secret internment camp
D) A cache of biological weapons
7. How does Meiko escape from the cabin where she is imprisoned?
A) She tunnels out under the floor
B) She overpowers a guard and steals a car with Fran’s help
C) She is released after the FBI intervenes
D) She bribes a caretaker with her blood vials
8. At the end of the novel, what does Meiko agree to do?
A) Return to Japan with Aiko
B) Testify before the Senate and provide blood for an antidote
C) Stay in Bly and help Archie rebuild the church
D) Join the FBI’s task force against the Loyal Sons
Character Motivation Questions (9–13)
9. Why does Archie Mitchell join the Loyal Sons of the Republic?
A) He genuinely believes in their racist ideology
B) He is coerced by Dutch Talbert with threats
C) He seeks belonging and an outlet for his grief and guilt
D) He wants to avenge Elsie’s death by finding the bomber
10. Why does Meiko ultimately agree to travel to Washington, D.C., with the FBI?
A) She hopes to find Jamie, who she believes is still alive
B) She wants to escape the hostility of Bly
C) She feels obligated to share her father’s discoveries and help prevent future outbreaks
D) She is promised a large financial reward
11. What primarily drives Fran Gurstwold to investigate the balloon incidents?
A) A desire to expose government corruption
B) Her journalistic ambition and instinct for a story
C) Personal revenge against Richard Hanson
D) A need to prove her innocence in a crime
12. Why does Aiko take her grandfather Wasaburo Oishi’s journals from her father’s belongings?
(Short answer)
13. Why does Elsie Mitchell accuse Meiko of causing her miscarriage?
A) Meiko deliberately poisoned her tea
B) Elsie harbors racial prejudice and needs a scapegoat
C) Meiko had pushed her down the stairs
D) Elsie misremembers the events due to grief
Theme and Symbol Questions (14–17)
14. What do the tiny translucent spiders most directly symbolize in the novel?
A) The fragility of life
B) The spread of fear and hatred
C) The power of nature
D) The inevitability of death
15. The recurring image of a woman in a kimono—seen by Archie and others—serves as a symbol of what?
A) Japanese cultural pride
B) Guilt, supernatural warning, and the hidden costs of war
C) The innocence of the victims
D) The allure of the exotic
16. What is the thematic significance of Wasaburo Oishi’s jet stream research?
A) It represents scientific progress and human achievement
B) It shows how scientific discovery can be weaponized with unintended consequences
C) It highlights the importance of international cooperation
D) It serves as a metaphor for the characters’ emotional journeys
17. In the novel, what does the “fervor” ultimately represent?
(Short answer)
Synthesis Questions (18–20)
18. How does the novel connect the historical internment of Japanese Americans to contemporary anti-Asian violence?
(Short answer)
19. What role do Japanese folk spirits—such as the kitsune (fox) and jorogumo (spider demon)—play in the narrative?
(Short answer)
20. How does the author use the historical Fu-Go balloon bombs to craft a cautionary tale about fear and scapegoating?
(Short answer)
Answer Key
1. B — The novel opens with Archie Mitchell’s family picnic on Gearhart Mountain, which ends in a deadly explosion from a balloon bomb (Chapter 1).
2. The fervor — Meiko and others come to call the mysterious illness “the fervor,” a disease that spreads fear and violence (Chapter 29).
3. B — Meiko sneaks into the barn and finds crates marked “dangerous goods,” gas masks, medical supplies, and a charred sheet of washi paper with Japanese characters (Chapter 2).
4. A — After Meiko’s death, Aiko is told she will be sent to an orphanage at Manzanar, but she escapes during a train stop and follows a fox into the wilderness (Chapters 12, 20).
5. B — The spiders are carried by Japanese balloon bombs (Fu-Go) that travel across the Pacific via the jet stream, as revealed in the journals and the plot (Chapters 28, 35).
6. B — Fran learns from the Hill brothers that they found a balloon with non-English writing, but the military and FBI suppress the information (Chapter 13).
7. B — Meiko knocks out Dr. Barrett, takes vials of her blood, frees Fran, and they steal a car to drive to Bly (Chapter 21).
8. B — Meiko agrees to travel to Washington to provide blood for an antidote and testify before the Senate, citing her father’s failure to share his discoveries (Chapter 29).
9. C — Archie joins the Loyal Sons out of grief over Elsie’s death, guilt over his past betrayals, and a desperate need for belonging and purpose (Chapters 14, 23).
10. C — Meiko agrees to go to Washington because she feels a moral obligation to share her father’s research and help prevent future outbreaks, even though she doubts America will ever fully accept her (Chapter 29).
11. B — Fran is driven by her reporter’s instinct and ambition to uncover the truth, even after Richard fires her and the military tries to suppress the story (Chapters 7, 11, 13).
12. Aiko takes the journals to preserve her grandfather’s knowledge and perhaps to understand the strange events around her; she later uses them to help create the antidote (Chapters 15, 26).
13. B — Elsie’s accusation stems from her long-held racial prejudice and need to blame Meiko for the miscarriage, despite no evidence of wrongdoing (Chapter 16).
14. B — The spiders symbolize the contagious spread of fear and hatred, which the novel calls “the fervor” (Chapter 29).
15. B — The kimonoed woman appears as a supernatural omen, often linked to guilt, the jorogumo legend, and the hidden costs of war (Chapters 1, 5, 8).
16. B — Oishi’s jet stream research, while scientifically valuable, is later used to carry balloon bombs and spider eggs to the U.S., showing how discovery can be weaponized (Chapters 28, 35).
17. The fervor represents fear itself—a contagious, destructive force that fuels racism, violence, and scapegoating, and that the novel suggests will never fully die (Chapter 29).
18. The afterword explicitly links the internment to a wave of anti-Asian violence in America, citing historical attacks from the 1871 Los Angeles massacre to the rise in hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic, and argues that the same fear-driven scapegoating repeats if not confronted (Afterword).
19. Folk spirits like the kitsune guide Aiko and appear as protectors, while the jorogumo (spider demon) is tied to the supernatural origin of the spiders and the illness; they blend Japanese folklore with the horror elements, emphasizing cultural heritage and the clash between tradition and modernity (Chapters 5, 8, 20, 23).
20. The novel uses the real Fu-Go balloon bombs as a historical anchor but deviates from actual events to tell a cautionary tale about how fear and propaganda can lead to mass hysteria and injustice, as stated in the afterword; it warns that without learning from history, such fervor will return (Afterword, Chapter 29).