The Cop and the Anthem quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Where does Soapy live at the opening of the story?

   • A doorway outside a Broadway theater
   • A run-down boarding house on the Lower East Side
   • Correct answer: A park bench in Madison Square
   • A charity shelter near Sixth Avenue

   Soapy lives on a park bench in Madison Square. The opening line establishes this immediately: "On his bench in Madison Square Soapy moved uneasily."

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2. 2

   Question 2. What is Soapy's goal as winter approaches?

   • To claim a bed at a charity institution before the cold arrives
   • To afford a winter vacation in Palm Beach or on the Riviera
   • To secure steady employment as a driver in the roaring downtown district
   • Correct answer: To get arrested and sent to Blackwell's Island jail for three months

   Soapy wants to be arrested and sentenced to three months at Blackwell's Island, which he treats as his regular winter quarters, offering warmth and meals without the indignity of charity.

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3. 3

   Question 3. Why does Soapy reject charitable institutions in favor of jail?

   • Correct answer: Charity shelters require humiliating conditions like forced baths and personal interrogations, which offend his pride
   • Philanthropy demands hard labor in exchange for every meal, and Soapy refuses to work for anyone
   • He considers the Law harsher than Philanthropy and believes he deserves punishment for his past
   • Charitable institutions near Madison Square are always full by the time winter arrives

   Soapy values his dignity. Charitable institutions demand personal inquisitions and mandatory baths as the price of a meal. The law, he reasons, is more benign than philanthropy because it does not meddle in a gentleman's private affairs.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What does "Eleemosynary" mean in this story?

   • Showing extreme reluctance to spend money
   • Correct answer: Relating to or dependent on charity or alms
   • Relating to legal proceedings and court appearances
   • Having a grand or luxurious character and style

   Eleemosynary means relating to charity or alms-giving. O. Henry uses this elevated vocabulary humorously to describe the humble charity institutions Soapy so stubbornly refuses.

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5. 5

   Question 5. Why does Soapy's first scheme — eating at an expensive restaurant without paying — fail?

   • The restaurant owner recognizes Soapy from a previous incident and calls the police immediately
   • A policeman inside the restaurant overhears his plan and escorts him out quietly
   • He finishes his roasted duck and Chablis, but the manager refuses to call a policeman
   • Correct answer: The head waiter spots his frayed trousers and worn shoes and has him removed before he can sit down

   The head waiter's eye "fell upon his frayed trousers and decadent shoes," and Soapy is turned away at the door before he can even reach a table.

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6. 6

   Question 6. How many separate attempts does Soapy make to get arrested?

   • Correct answer: Six attempts
   • Seven attempts
   • Four attempts
   • Five attempts

   Soapy makes six attempts: restaurant dine-and-dash, smashing a window, eating at a cheap restaurant and refusing to pay, posing as a masher, yelling drunken gibberish outside a theater, and stealing a silk umbrella.

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7. 7

   Question 7. After smashing the shop window with a cobblestone, why isn't Soapy arrested?

   • The shop owner refuses to press charges because nothing was actually stolen
   • Correct answer: The policeman assumes Soapy is innocent because criminals flee the scene rather than linger
   • Soapy escapes down the block toward a streetcar, so the officer cannot identify the guilty man
   • The policeman decides the broken glass was an accident and laughs before strolling away

   The policeman reasons that men who smash windows do not stand still and chat with officers afterward. He spots someone running down the block and chases that person instead, leaving Soapy behind in disgust.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What happens when Soapy tries to pose as a "masher" harassing a young woman near a policeman?

   • The woman screams and the policeman arrests Soapy immediately for disturbing the peace
   • The policeman ignores both of them and walks away before Soapy can be caught
   • Correct answer: The woman eagerly takes up his advance and clings to his arm, so no crime is committed
   • The woman calls Soapy's bluff and walks directly to the policeman for help

   The woman answers, "Sure, Mike," she said joyfully, "if you'll blow me to a pail of suds." She is no respectable victim at all; with her playing the clinging ivy to his oak, Soapy walks past the policeman in gloom, doomed to liberty.

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9. 9

   Question 9. What does "Hegira" mean in this story?

   • A period of deep sleep or inactivity that certain animals enter during winter
   • Correct answer: A journey or flight undertaken to escape danger or to reach a place of safety
   • Control or leadership by one group over others, especially by a strong nation
   • A strategy or scheme carefully devised to achieve a personal ambition

   Hegira originally referred to the Prophet Muhammad's flight from Mecca and came to mean any journey of escape. O. Henry uses it ironically to elevate Soapy's annual scheme of getting arrested into something grand and purposeful.

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10. 10

    Question 10. What is ironic about Soapy's attempt to get arrested by stealing a man's silk umbrella?

    • The policeman arrests the umbrella owner instead, believing he is the one who stole it from Soapy
    • The policeman scolds the owner for carelessly leaving an expensive silk umbrella beside the door
    • The umbrella turns out to belong to a police officer, making arrest certain but embarrassing
    • Correct answer: The umbrella's owner backs down and admits he had likely stolen the umbrella himself from a restaurant

    The umbrella owner loses his nerve and tells Soapy he may have picked it up "this morning in a restaurant" by mistake — implying he had stolen it himself. He retreats, and the policeman ignores Soapy entirely.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What effect does hearing the church anthem have on Soapy?

    • It lulls him to sleep against the iron fence, where the policeman later finds him
    • It recalls a forgotten crime, filling him with guilt and a desperate urge to confess to the officer
    • Correct answer: It triggers memories of a better life and inspires a genuine resolve to reform himself
    • It fills him with resentment toward society and makes him more determined than ever to be arrested

    The anthem awakens Soapy's soul. He sees "with swift horror the pit into which he had tumbled" and resolves to find work, reclaim his ambitions, and become somebody in the world. This is the story's pivotal turning point.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What is the central situational irony of the story's ending?

    • Correct answer: Soapy is finally arrested at the exact moment he has resolved to reform his life and no longer wants to go to jail
    • The magistrate releases Soapy after hearing his sincere promise to seek employment with the fur importer
    • Soapy is arrested and sentenced to a longer term than the three months he originally wanted
    • Soapy is finally arrested for smashing the shop window, a crime the policeman ignored early in the story

    This is O. Henry's signature twist: Soapy spends the whole story trying to get arrested and failing. The moment he genuinely resolves to reform, standing peacefully outside a church, a policeman arrests him for loitering. He gets exactly what he wanted when he no longer wants it.

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13. 13

    Question 13. Which statement best captures the main theme of the story?

    • The justice system treats rich and poor equally, so honest citizens never have anything to fear from the police
    • Hard work and determination will always rescue a person from poverty and eventually lead to a better life
    • Correct answer: Fate operates with cruel randomness, rewarding schemes with failure and punishing genuine reform with arrest
    • Society's charitable institutions are more effective than the justice system for helping the poor

    O. Henry's central theme is the unpredictability and absurdity of fate. Every calculated plan fails; the one moment of sincere intention leads to punishment. The story suggests life's outcomes rarely align with human intentions, especially for those with the least power.

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14. 14

    Question 14. O. Henry describes Jack Frost leaving his "card" and the North Wind as "footman of the mansion of All Outdoors." What literary device is this?

    • Allusion — a brief reference to a famous person or event from history, the Bible, or literature
    • Hyperbole — an extreme exaggeration used for comic or dramatic effect
    • Simile — a direct comparison between two unlike things using "like" or "as"
    • Correct answer: Personification — giving human qualities and roles to non-human forces of nature

    O. Henry personifies winter's arrival by giving Jack Frost social habits — leaving calling cards — and casting the North Wind as a footman. This gives the natural world human manners, creating a witty, mock-formal tone.

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15. 15

    Question 15. O. Henry uses elaborate, elevated words like "hibernatorial," "hegira," and "eleemosynary" to describe Soapy's humble plans. What effect does this grand vocabulary create?

    • It presents Soapy as a well-educated man who is only temporarily down on his luck
    • Correct answer: It creates comic contrast between the lofty language and the lowly, desperate reality of Soapy's situation
    • It signals that Soapy's schemes are sophisticated, carefully planned, and likely to succeed
    • It establishes the narrator as an unreliable voice who mocks the poor and does not understand their poverty

    This is mock-heroic diction. O. Henry deliberately inflates the language describing Soapy's modest goal — getting arrested for a warm bed — creating humor through the mismatch between the elaborate vocabulary and the grim, street-level reality.

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16. 16

    Question 16. Which of these events actually happened in the story?

    • Soapy prefers charity shelters to jail because they are warmer and safer.

      Didn't happen

      The opposite is true. Soapy prefers jail because it preserves his dignity, while shelters demand humiliating conditions like mandatory baths and personal interrogations.

    • Soapy is ejected from a fancy restaurant before he can even sit down.

      Happened

      The head waiter spots his frayed trousers and worn shoes and has him turned away at the door.

    • A policeman arrests Soapy for smashing the shop window.

      Didn't happen

      The policeman assumes a guilty man would not linger at the scene and instead chases an innocent bystander running to catch a streetcar.

    • Soapy successfully eats a full meal at a cheap restaurant before revealing he cannot pay.

      Happened

      At the second restaurant he consumes beefsteak, flapjacks, doughnuts, and pie before announcing he has no money — whereupon the waiters throw him out rather than call the police.

    • The young woman Soapy approaches near the policeman is frightened by his advances.

      Didn't happen

      She is delighted and latches onto his arm, saying "Sure, Mike!" — she is not a respectable victim and the scheme collapses.

    • The policeman outside the theater arrests Soapy for disorderly conduct.

      Didn't happen

      The officer assumes Soapy is a Yale student celebrating a football victory and ignores him entirely.

    • The umbrella owner claims he picked the umbrella up at a restaurant, suggesting he had stolen it.

      Happened

      Faced with Soapy's insistence, the owner backs down and admits he may have taken it from a restaurant by mistake, then retreats without pressing charges.

    • Soapy is standing outside a church when he decides to reform his life.

      Happened

      An old church's organ music reaches Soapy on a quiet street corner, triggering his moment of spiritual awakening and his resolve to change.

    • The magistrate sentences Soapy to six months on the Island.

      Didn't happen

      The magistrate sentences Soapy to three months on the Island — exactly the term Soapy had originally wanted, now delivered at the worst possible moment.

    • Soapy is arrested while loitering peacefully outside the church.

      Happened

      A policeman asks what he is doing, Soapy answers "Nothin'" and is told "Then come along" — arrested at the moment of his genuine reform.

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17. 17

    Question 17. What does the church anthem symbolize in the story?

    • Correct answer: The redemptive power of beauty and memory, representing Soapy's better past and his potential for reform
    • The authority of society and the police, which use soothing music to control and pacify the poor
    • The passage of time and Soapy's growing desperation as the bitter winter descends on Madison Square
    • The hypocrisy of organized religion, which preaches charity but ignores the homeless man outside its iron fence

    The anthem is the story's central symbol of spiritual redemption. It connects Soapy to a life he once knew — one filled with dignity and aspiration — and triggers his genuine desire to change. Its double meaning in the title (church hymn and police authority) unites the story's two opposing forces.

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