The Wave quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which literary genres best describe "The Wave"?

   • Satire & Social Comedy
   • Correct answer: Prose Sketch & Nature Writing
   • Gothic Horror & Supernatural Tale
   • Fable & Moral Allegory
   • Adventure & Survival Fiction

   Prose Sketch & Nature Writing is the best fit. The piece is about a thousand words long, has no characters, dialogue or plot beyond one wave striking one cliff, and spends every sentence describing the sea, the rock and the light. Critics call it a lyric sketch; it belongs with O'Flaherty's animal and landscape stories.

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2. 2

   Question 2. How does O'Flaherty describe the cliff in the opening paragraph?

   • A black basalt cliff split by a waterfall that drops straight into the cove
   • A sheer wall of red sandstone, polished smooth by centuries of spray
   • Correct answer: Grey limestone in giant slabs piled horizontally, with slits where sea-birds nested
   • A crumbling bank of brown gravel topped by a ruined stone fort

   The cliff is 'two hundred feet high' and slopes outward: 'ten feet of brown gravel' at the top, then "one hundred and seventy feet of grey limestone, giant slabs piled horizontally with large slits between the slabs where sea-birds nested." These measured details are typical of the story's surveyor-like narrator.

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3. 3

   Question 3. How high is the cliff?

   • Correct answer: Two hundred feet
   • One hundred feet
   • Three hundred feet
   • Fifty feet

   The story's first sentence is "The cliff was two hundred feet high." The outward slope runs ten feet of gravel and one hundred and seventy feet of limestone, with the last twenty feet sinking inward above the cavern.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What has formed the dark cavern at the base of the cliff?

   • An underground river that drains the island's bogs into the cove
   • An earthquake that split the limestone a few years before the story opens
   • Fishermen who quarried the stone for the walls of their village
   • Correct answer: The sea, which has eaten away the cliff's base over thousands of years

   "The sea had eaten up the part of the cliff that rested on that semicircle of flat rock, during thousands of years of battle." The cavern is the sea's slow work, and it is where the cliff finally falls: "the whole centre of the cliff collapsed into the cavern."

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5. 5

   Question 5. What lies at each corner of the semicircular cliff?

   • A tall sea-stack where gulls and cormorants roost
   • A wooden slipway where fishermen haul curraghs above the tide
   • A sandy beach where the waves run out and lose their force
   • Correct answer: A black jagged reef jutting out into the sea, hung with red seaweed

   "And at each corner a black jagged reef jutted from its base out into the sea. Between the reefs there was a little cove." As each wave recedes the reefs are bared "until they seemed to be long shafts of black steel sunk into the bowels of the ocean," their thick manes of red seaweed sucked stiff by the retreating water.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What does "Gluttonous" mean in this story?

   • Ancient and enormous, older than human memory
   • Correct answer: Greedy, eating or consuming far more than is needed
   • Slow and heavy, as if weighed down by a great exhaustion
   • Sly and patient, waiting for a chance to strike

   After the waves strike and rebound, "They rose and fell from the bosom of the ocean, like the heavy breathing of a gluttonous giant." A glutton eats greedily and endlessly, and the simile fits a sea that, we are told, has already 'eaten up' part of the cliff.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What happens when the tide reaches its highest point?

   • The two reefs are covered and the cove becomes smooth as glass
   • The wind drops and a thick fog rolls in to hide the cliff from view
   • Correct answer: The sea goes quiet, and the brine trickling down the cliff can be heard
   • A flock of sea-birds leaves the cliff and circles the cove

   "Then the tide reached its highest point and there was a pause. The waves hardly made any noise as they struck the cliff." The cliff's face is "drenched with brine, that streamed from its base, each tiny rivulet noisy in the sudden silence." This hush is the calm before the one great wave.

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8. 8

   Question 8. How does the great wave begin?

   • Correct answer: The sea springs backwards and rises in a concave wall from reef to reef
   • Two waves meet in the middle of the cove and merge into one towering crest
   • A gust of wind from the land lifts the swell into a single ridge of foam
   • The water in the cavern bursts outward and meets the incoming tide head-on

   "The sea rushed back. With the speed and motion of a bladder bursting it sprang backwards. Then it rose upwards in a concave wall, from reef to reef, across the cove," leaving the "slimy weeds of the ocean depths" visible through a thin sheet of water. The sea draws itself back to gather its whole weight into one blow.

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9. 9

   Question 9. To what does O'Flaherty compare the wave's curved head?

   • The hood of a striking cobra
   • The arched back of a cat
   • The bent bow of a hunter
   • Correct answer: The neck of an angry swan

   "Then the wave's head curved outwards, arched like the neck of an angry swan. That curved head was a fathom deep, of a transparent green, with a rim of milky white." The swan gives the wave both beauty and menace, as the earlier phrase "beautifully wild and immense" does.

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10. 10

    Question 10. How deep is the wave's curved head?

    • Ten feet
    • Twenty feet
    • Correct answer: A fathom
    • A yard

    "That curved head was a fathom deep, of a transparent green, with a rim of milky white." A fathom is six feet. Behind the head, "great lumps of water buttressed it, thousands of tons of water in each lump."

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11. 11

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

    • Correct answer: Curved inward, like the inside of a bowl
    • Curved outward, like the surface of a ball
    • Perfectly flat and level, like a sheet of glass
    • Jagged and broken, like the edge of a cliff

    The sea "rose upwards in a concave wall, from reef to reef, across the cove." A concave surface curves inward, so the wave's face bends in toward the cove like a hollow, which is why the weeds on the sea floor can be seen through the thin water at its foot. Its opposite, convex, curves outward.

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12. 12

    Question 12. As the wave advances, how does the cliff appear beside it?

    • Hidden, because the shower of foam from the crest blots it out
    • Correct answer: Small, in front of a moving wall of blue, green and white water
    • Blacker than ever, as the wave's shadow falls across its face
    • Taller, because the trough in front of the wave drops so low

    "The giant cliff looked small in front of that moving wall of blue and green and white water." The 'giant' cliff, two hundred feet high, is dwarfed by the wave; the sentence reverses the scale the opening paragraph established.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What happens at the instant the wave hits the cliff?

    • The wave splits in two around the cliff and pours into the cavern from either side
    • Correct answer: Both wave and cliff disappear in white water, and the foam mist blots out the sky
    • The cliff shudders once and a few stones rattle down into the cove
    • The wave rebounds whole and rolls back out to sea between the reefs

    "In a moment the wave and the cliff had disappeared in a tumbling mass of white water that yawned and hissed and roared. The whole semicircle of the cliff vanished in the white water and the foam mist that rose above it blotting out the sky." Only when the broken wave falls back does the cliff reappear, changed.

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14. 14

    Question 14. What has opened in the cliff's face when the wave falls away?

    • A narrow hairline crack running from summit to base
    • A fresh spring of water gushing from the yellow gravel
    • A horizontal shelf where a whole slab has slid into the sea
    • Correct answer: A great black mouth, a vertical ten-foot wedge above the cavern

    "But a great black mouth had opened in its face, at the centre, above the cavern. The cliff's face stood ajar, as if it yawned, tired of battle. The mouth was vertical in the cliff, like a ten-foot wedge stuck upwards from the edge of the cavern." The cliff 'tried to close the mouth,' but the sides fall inward and it grows wider.

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15. 15

    Question 15. What does "Ajar" mean in this story?

    • Correct answer: Slightly open
    • Tightly shut
    • Split in half
    • Hanging loose

    "The cliff's face stood ajar, as if it yawned, tired of battle." A door that is ajar is partly open, and the cliff's new 'mouth' stands open the same way. The word keeps up the personification: the cliff has a face, a mouth and a yawn.

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16. 16

    Question 16. How does the centre of the cliff come down?

    • It sinks straight down into the sea, as if the ground had opened beneath it
    • It slides sideways along the reef and settles slowly into the deep water
    • Correct answer: It breaks loose at the top and sways forward like a tree being felled
    • It explodes outward in a hail of stones flung far across the cove

    "The whole centre of the cliff broke loose at the top and swayed forward like a tree being felled. There was a noise like rising thunder." Then, "with a soft splash the whole centre of the cliff collapsed into the cavern," and the sides cave in after it.

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17. 17

    Question 17. What is rising from the fallen cliff in the final paragraph?

    • Correct answer: Smoke
    • Steam
    • Spray
    • Sea-birds

    "Smoke was rising from the fallen cliff." Just before, "A wall of grey dust arose shutting out everything" and then "the cloud rose and went inland." The dust and smoke of broken rock are the only trace of the cliff's two hundred feet.

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18. 18

    Question 18. How does the story end?

    • A second, larger wave strikes the ruins and sweeps them out to sea
    • The sea-birds return to nest in the rubble of the cliff
    • Correct answer: The wave has vanished and another is already gathering in the cove
    • The tide turns and the cove goes calm as the sun sets

    "And the wave had disappeared. Already another one was gathering in the cove." Nothing is resolved and nothing is mourned. The land now "sloped down to the edge of the cove," and the sea goes on doing what it did before.

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19. 19

    Question 19. Which literary device is at work in "The cliff's face stood ajar, as if it yawned, tired of battle"?

    • Foreshadowing (a hint of something that will happen later on)
    • Correct answer: Personification (giving human features to a non-human thing)
    • Onomatopoeia (a word that imitates the sound it describes)
    • Hyperbole (deliberate exaggeration for emphasis or effect)

    The cliff is given a face, a mouth, a yawn and tiredness: it is treated as a wounded fighter. Personification runs through the whole sketch, from the sea's 'heavy breathing' to the wave that "seemed to bend its head as it hurtled forward to ram the cliff." It is the device that lets a story with no characters feel like a battle.

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20. 20

    Question 20. What does the story most strongly suggest about nature and time?

    • That storms are rare disasters and the rocky coast is at peace almost all of the time
    • That human beings can learn to predict and control the sea
    • That the land always recovers what the sea takes from it
    • Correct answer: That the sea's patience outlasts the oldest rock, and the struggle never ends

    The cliff has endured "thousands of years of battle" and still loses, and the story's last words are "Already another one was gathering in the cove." O'Flaherty shows nature as patient, powerful and indifferent: there is no victory, only the next wave.

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21. 21

    Question 21. What does "Dishevelled" mean in this story?

    • Calm and smooth after a disturbance
    • Correct answer: Untidy and disordered, as if tossed about
    • Soaked through and dripping wet with cold water
    • Pale and drained of all its colour

    After striking the cliff the waves "sank again, dishevelled masses of green and white, hurrying backward." Dishevelled normally describes untidy hair or clothes; applied to the sea, it continues the story's habit of treating water as a living body with a mane.

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22. 22

    Question 22. How is the story narrated?

    • By a child on the summit who runs home as the cliff begins to fall
    • By a fisherman watching from a curragh out beyond the reefs
    • Correct answer: By a detached observer who measures everything and never comments
    • By the cliff itself, remembering its long war with the sea

    There is no 'I' and no witness. The narrator reports sizes ('two hundred feet,' 'a fathom deep,' 'a ten-foot wedge') like a surveyor and never says what the scene means or how it feels. This flat, reportorial voice is what makes the wild similes and the sudden ending so effective.

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23. 23

    Question 23. The reefs are "long shafts of black steel," the foam is "like the debris strewn around a just-constructed pyramid," and the cliff falls "like a tree being felled." What do these comparisons have in common?

    • They compare the scene to animals, making the coast feel alive
    • They all come from the Bible and give the scene a religious tone
    • They are drawn from Irish legends and the stories of ancient heroes
    • Correct answer: They compare the sea and cliff to things built or worked by people

    Steel shafts, a pyramid, a felled tree: O'Flaherty keeps likening natural forces to human construction and labour. Alongside the animal images (the gluttonous giant, the angry swan, the 'fangs' of the breaking crest), these similes make the elemental fight readable in human terms without putting a single person in the story.

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24. 24

    Question 24. Which of these events actually happened in the story?

    • The story begins with exact measurements of the cliff: two hundred feet high, with ten feet of gravel and one hundred and seventy feet of limestone.

      Happened

      "The cliff was two hundred feet high. It sloped outwards from its grassy summit, along ten feet of brown gravel, down one hundred and seventy feet of grey limestone."

    • A fisherman's curragh is caught in the cove as the great wave forms.

      Didn't happen

      There is no boat and no person anywhere in the story. The only living things mentioned are the sea-birds that nested in the cliff's slits and the seaweed on the reefs.

    • At the back of the cavern there is a large streak of yellow gravel.

      Happened

      "The cavern had a black-slate roof and at the rear there was a large streak of yellow gravel."

    • When the tide reaches its highest point, the waves roar louder than ever.

      Didn't happen

      The opposite: "Then the tide reached its highest point and there was a pause. The waves hardly made any noise as they struck the cliff."

    • A belt of dark blue and then a wider green belt peppered with white spots run across the face of the wave.

      Happened

      "Then a belt of dark blue ran from end to end across its face, sinking inwards in a perfect curve. Then came a wider belt, a green belt peppered with white spots."

    • The cliff manages to close the black mouth the wave has opened in it.

      Didn't happen

      "Then the cliff tried to close the mouth. It pressed it on it from either side. But it did not close. The sides fell inwards and the mouth grew wider."

    • The collapsing cliff makes a noise like rising thunder.

      Happened

      "There was a noise like rising thunder. Black dust rose from the tottering cliff through the falling foam of the wave."

    • The cloud of grey dust from the fallen cliff drifts out to sea.

      Didn't happen

      It goes the other way: "A wall of grey dust arose shutting out everything... Then the cloud rose and went inland."

    • At the end the land slopes down to the edge of the cove where the cliff once stood.

      Happened

      "The cliff had disappeared. The land sloped down to the edge of the cove. Huge rocks stood awkwardly on the very brink of the flat rock."

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25. 25

    Question 25. In which collection did "The Wave" first appear?

    • Correct answer: Spring Sowing (1924), O'Flaherty's first book of short stories
    • The Mountain Tavern and Other Stories (1929), his third collection
    • The Tent (1926), the collection that followed his first novels
    • Two Lovely Beasts and Other Stories (1948), published after the war

    'The Wave' was published in Spring Sowing (London: Jonathan Cape, 1924; New York: Knopf, 1926), the first collection of stories by the young Aran Islander, alongside 'The Sniper,' 'His First Flight' and 'The Landing.' It is one of the few pieces in the book, and in O'Flaherty's whole output, with no living creature in it.

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