The Cat Who Went to Heaven quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which literary categories best describe The Cat Who Went to Heaven?

   • Realism, Everyday Life & Plain Detail
   • Gothic Horror, Ghost Story & Dark Mystery
   • Correct answer: Legend, Moral Tale & Children's Classic
   • Science Fiction, Future Worlds & Machines
   • Adventure, Quest & Daring Journey

   Legend, Moral Tale & Children's Classic is the best fit. Coatsworth wove the story from Buddhist legends, and the artist remembers many old tales about the animals. It teaches about mercy and sacrifice. It won the Newbery Medal in 1931, the American Library Association's award for the most distinguished American book for children.

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2. 2

   Question 2. What does the housekeeper bring home from market instead of food?

   • A cheap vase to fill the empty alcove in his little room
   • Correct answer: A little white cat with yellow and black spots
   • A new paintbrush and a cake of black ink
   • A small bell to hang up in the peach tree

   The housekeeper spent their few pennies on a cat. "You have brought us home nothing to eat!" the artist says, and she answers, "True, master". She bought the cat "from a fisherman in the market". At first the artist is so angry that he calls the cat a goblin. But when the old woman cries, he gives in.

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3. 3

   Question 3. Who suggests the name Good Fortune for the cat?

   • The poor artist
   • The fisherman who sold her
   • The head priest of the temple
   • Correct answer: The old housekeeper

   The housekeeper asks, "May I humbly suggest," ... "that we call this cat Good Fortune?" The artist only answers, "Anything will do". The story never says why she chose the name. It may come from the artist's remark that three-colored cats are lucky: "They are very lucky, I understand."

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4. 4

   Question 4. What does Good Fortune do after she catches a sparrow?

   • Correct answer: She lifts her paws and lets it fly away unhurt
   • She carries it into the kitchen for the housekeeper
   • She eats it quickly because she is so hungry
   • She drops it at the artist's feet as a present

   Good Fortune slowly lifts "first one white paw and then another from the sparrow", and the bird flies away unhurt. "What mercy!" cries the artist. He thinks, "she is more virtuous than a priest." At that very moment, the housekeeper comes to say the head priest is here.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What does "Obstinate" mean in this story?

   • Quick to give in to what other people want
   • Shy and afraid to speak up in front of others
   • Correct answer: Stubborn and not willing to change your mind
   • Very tired and worn out after a long, hard day

   Obstinate means stubborn. When the housekeeper comes home with the cat, "Her wrinkled face looked humble and obstinate." She is polite, but she will not give in. At the end, the priest uses the same idea when he says "The cat must suffer from her obstinacy and you from yours."

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6. 6

   Question 6. How did the temple choose this artist to paint the death of the Buddha?

   • He won a painting contest held at the temple
   • The housekeeper begged the priest to pick him
   • The priest saw his paintings of warriors for sale
   • Correct answer: Only the slip of paper with his name was left

   The priest says they put "slips of paper, each marked with a name, before the central image in the great hall, and in the morning all the slips had blown away but yours." He adds, "So we knew Buddha's will in the matter." The artist wonders whether Buddha "would listen to the prayers of a little spotted cat", but the story never says whether she did.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What does the priest say will happen if the painting is a success?

   • He will become a priest and live at the temple
   • Correct answer: His fortune will be made, since the town follows the temple
   • He will be sent to the emperor's palace to paint pictures there
   • He will never need to paint another picture again

   The priest says, "If the work is successful as we hope, your fortune is made, for what the temple approves becomes the fashion in the town." He also brings a first payment in "a heavy purse". So the painting is the poor artist's great chance.

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8. 8

   Question 8. Why does the artist believe that a cat cannot be in his painting?

   • Correct answer: An old legend says the cat refused to honor the Buddha
   • Cats were too small to see among the other animals
   • The priest ordered him to leave out every single cat
   • The housekeeper feared the cat would spoil the silk

   The artist remembers: "Ah, the cat refused homage to Buddha," and so "only the cat has the doors of Paradise closed in her face." He has never seen a cat in any painting of the Buddha's death. Later he tells Good Fortune, "Alone among the animals, the cat refused to accept the teachings of Buddha." The story never says why the cat refused.

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9. 9

   Question 9. Why does the artist decide to draw the snail before all the other animals?

   • Correct answer: The Buddha loved humble things, and snails shaded his head
   • Snails are the easiest of all animals for a beginner to draw well
   • The priest asked him to put the smallest animals first
   • Good Fortune liked snails better than any other creature

   The artist remembers "how the Buddha loved humble things". Once, when the sun beat down on the Buddha, the snails "assembled in a damp crown upon his head" and guarded him until sunset. The artist thinks, "The snail was the first creature to sacrifice himself for the Buddha."

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10. 10

    Question 10. In the artist's story, how does the great elephant help the starving travelers?

    • He carries them across the desert on his back
    • He leads them to a kind king who feeds them
    • He shakes ripe fruit down from his fruit trees to feed them
    • Correct answer: He throws himself off a cliff so they will have food

    The travelers are "fugitives driven out by a king", too weak to cross the mountains. The elephant tells them they will find "the body of an elephant who has recently fallen" below a cliff. Then he turns back, and before they reach the cliff he throws himself into the abyss, so they can eat and live. He gives his own body for them.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does "Homage" mean in this story?

    • Scorn or rude disrespect shown to someone
    • Correct answer: A show of honor and respect for someone
    • A sum of money paid for finished work
    • A home or place where someone belongs

    Homage means honor and respect that you show someone. The artist remembers the legend: "the cat refused homage to Buddha". In the story, that is why no cat is ever painted among the animals who came to say farewell to the Buddha.

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12. 12

    Question 12. In the housekeeper's story about the dog Shippeitaro, what form did the goblins have?

    • Correct answer: Cats
    • Rats
    • Foxes
    • Snakes

    "Cats," answered the housekeeper, almost in a whisper, hoping Good Fortune would not hear. But Good Fortune did hear. She walked out of the room, and when the dog was drawn, she "did not come back all day to look at it."

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13. 13

    Question 13. Before each animal, the artist dips a brush in spring water, touches it with ink, and draws. How does this pattern change for the cat?

    • He uses red ink for the cat instead of black
    • The housekeeper dips the brush for him this time
    • He draws the cat first, before any other animal
    • Correct answer: There is no spring water, and he takes his best brush

    A line repeated again and again is called a refrain. For each animal, the artist dips a brush in spring water, "touched it with ink" and draws. For the cat, the words change: "He took up his best brush and touched it with ink, and last of all the animals—drew a cat." The change tells us this drawing is different and very important.

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14. 14

    Question 14. What do the eight songs of the housekeeper add to the story?

    • They are prayers the priests sing in the temple
    • They are poems the artist writes on the silk
    • Correct answer: They let us hear the housekeeper's own feelings
    • They tell animal stories the artist forgot

    Each song is the housekeeper's own voice. In the first she says "I'm poor and I'm old" but is proud to serve her master. In the second she hopes "I'll see him famous e'er I die" (e'er means before). In the fifth she sings to the cat: "Dear pussy, you are white as milk,". Coatsworth often set short poems inside her stories.

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15. 15

    Question 15. Why does the artist finally paint a cat into the picture?

    • He thinks the priest will never notice one small cat
    • Correct answer: He cannot be so hard-hearted, even if it means he starves
    • He thinks a cat will make the painting worth more money
    • The housekeeper begs him to, and he must do as she asks

    The artist hears Good Fortune mewing and refusing to eat. He says, "I cannot be so hard-hearted," and "If the priests wish to refuse the picture as inaccurate, let them do so. I can starve." Later he says, "Perhaps I have ruined us, but I can at least make her happy." He chooses kindness over his own safety.

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16. 16

    Question 16. What do the artist and the priests see in the temple at the end of the story?

    • Correct answer: The Buddha's arm now blesses a tiny cat kneeling under his hand
    • The painting has been burned to ashes in the temple courtyard
    • Good Fortune herself is sitting in front of the painting
    • A dog has been painted over the cat during the night

    Where the cat had been painted, there is "only white silk that seemed never to have felt the touch of ink". The Buddha, painted "reclining with hands folded upon his breast", "had stretched out an arm in blessing". Under his hand kneels "the figure of a tiny cat". No one sees the change happen, and the painting is not burned. It hangs in the temple "with incense and candles burning before it".

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17. 17

    Question 17. Which theme does the ending of the story show most clearly?

    • Hard work always earns fame and great riches
    • Old legends must be obeyed whatever they cost
    • A pet will bring bad luck to a poor household
    • Correct answer: Mercy and love can reach even the left-out

    The priest says the cat "did not receive his blessing and cannot enter heaven". But at the end, a tiny painted cat kneels under the Buddha's blessing. The housekeeper's last song says "The mercy of the Buddha" ... "Has no end." One way to read the story is that true mercy and love leave no one out, not even the creature everyone else has shut out.

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18. 18

    Question 18. Which of these events actually happened in the story?

    • When the cat first arrives, the angry artist calls her a goblin.

      Happened

      The hungry artist cries that the housekeeper has brought home "a goblin, a goblin to share the little we have". Later he says he is ashamed that he called such a cat a goblin.

    • The artist names the cat Good Fortune because three-colored cats are lucky.

      Didn't happen

      The housekeeper suggests the name, not the artist. He only answers, "Anything will do". The story never gives a reason for the name.

    • In the artist's story, the wounded war horse asks the king to pardon his prisoners and then falls dead.

      Happened

      After the seventh king is captured, the horse says, "Great king," ... "pardon your prisoners!" Then he falls dead at his master's feet.

    • The Banyan deer refuses to help the doe because the deer can make no exceptions.

      Didn't happen

      That is what the leader of the other herd says: "We can make no exceptions". The Banyan deer says, "I will take your place." Pleased by the deer's generosity, the king spares them both.

    • After the deer is drawn, Good Fortune seems to ask whether there is room for her too.

      Happened

      Good Fortune looks long at the deer. "Is there no room for me among the other animals, master?" she seemed to ask. With each new drawing she seems sadder.

    • In the artist's story, the ape leaves the man alone in the forest after the man strikes him.

      Didn't happen

      Even after the man strikes him with a stone, the ape leads him out of the forest, "showing compassion even to his betrayer."

    • The priest says he will take the painting and burn it.

      Happened

      The priest says, "Each person must suffer the consequences of his own acts," and that he will take the painting "and to-morrow officially burn it."

    • The artist is sorry he painted the cat and begs the priest to forgive him.

      Didn't happen

      He thinks he is ruined, "But he did not regret what he had done." It does not seem too hard to suffer for Good Fortune's great moment of happiness.

    • The housekeeper weeps all day, thinking she has ruined her master by bringing the cat home.

      Happened

      "All day the housekeeper wept in the kitchen, for in bringing the little cat home she had, after all, ruined her master."

    • The priests burn the painting in the temple courtyard.

      Didn't happen

      The painting is never burned. At dawn the priests run to the artist crying "It is a miracle!" The picture hangs in the temple "with incense and candles burning before it".

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