What Men Live By quiz
By Leo Tolstoy
Test your knowledge of Tolstoy's beloved parable about a fallen angel who learns three divine truths while living as a shoemaker's apprentice.
24 questions · about 26 minutes
Questions and answers
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Question 1. Which literary genres best describe "What Men Live By"?
- Modernism, Satire & Farce
- Science Fiction, Horror & Satire
- Correct answer: Parable, Allegory & Fable
- Gothic, Romance & Tragedy
- Naturalism, Tragedy & Satire
Parable, Allegory & Fable is the best fit. The story uses a simple narrative with supernatural elements (a fallen angel) to convey a clear moral lesson about love, much like the parables of Jesus. Each character and event represents a deeper spiritual truth.
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Question 2. Why does Simon go to the village at the beginning of the story?
- Correct answer: To collect debts and buy sheepskins for a winter coat
- To sell boots he has made and purchase food for his family
- To attend a church service and pray for better fortune
- To find work as an apprentice to a wealthier shoemaker
Simon goes to collect five roubles owed by customers and buy sheepskins for a winter coat. He and his wife share one sheepskin coat between them, and it is torn to tatters. He has saved a three-rouble note and hopes to combine it with the debt money.
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Question 3. What does Simon do with the twenty kopeks he manages to collect?
- He gives it to a beggar he meets on the road home
- Correct answer: He spends it on vodka and starts homeward without sheepskins
- He puts it toward a partial payment on the sheepskins
- He buys a small loaf of bread to bring home to his family
Feeling downhearted after failing to collect his debts or buy skins on credit, Simon spends the twenty kopeks on vodka. This moment of human weakness is important because it sets up his walk home in a slightly tipsy state, during which he discovers Michael.
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Question 4. What does Simon first think the white shape behind the shrine might be?
- A ghost or spirit of someone who died on the road
- A bundle of cloth left by a passing traveler
- A pile of snow that has drifted against the wall
- Correct answer: A white stone or possibly an ox
Simon peers at the whitish shape and wonders: "There was no white stone here before. Can it be an ox?" This moment of uncertainty heightens the mystery. Only when he gets closer does he realize it is a naked man.
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Question 5. What makes Simon turn back to help the stranger after initially walking past?
- He remembers a Bible passage about helping strangers in need
- He hears the stranger calling out for help in a weak voice
- Correct answer: His conscience smote him and he felt ashamed of himself
- His wife Matryona appears on the road and tells him to help
After walking past out of fear, "suddenly his conscience smote him, and he stopped in the road." He says to himself: "What are you doing, Simon? The man may be dying of want, and you slip past afraid. Have you grown so rich as to be afraid of robbers? Ah, Simon, shame on you!"
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Question 6. How does Matryona initially react when Simon brings Michael home?
- She is frightened and hides behind the oven with the children
- Correct answer: She is furious, accusing Simon of drinking and bringing home a vagabond
- She is indifferent and keeps patching her husband's shirt without a word
- She is pleased to have company and immediately prepares a warm meal
Matryona is furious. She expected Simon to return with sheepskins, but instead he comes back coatless, smelling of spirits, with a naked stranger. She accuses him of drinking away their money and refuses to feed "naked drunkards," saying "I have no supper for you."
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Question 7. What triggers Michael's first smile?
- Michael successfully makes his first pair of boots in Simon's workshop
- Simon gives Michael his coat and boots at the roadside shrine
- The children climb onto Michael's lap and play with him
- Correct answer: Matryona overcomes her anger and shows compassion by feeding him
Michael smiles for the first time when Matryona's heart softens and she feeds the stranger. After Simon asks, "Matryona, have you no love of God?" she sets out food and looks at Michael with pity. This teaches Michael the first truth: love dwells in man.
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Question 8. What literary term describes a short story that teaches a moral or spiritual lesson through simple narrative?
- Correct answer: A parable — a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson
- A soliloquy — a speech in which a character reveals their inner thoughts to the audience
- An epigram — a brief, witty saying that makes a pointed observation about life
- An elegy — a poem or story written to mourn someone who has died
"What Men Live By" is a parable — a simple story designed to teach a moral truth. Like the parables of Jesus, it uses ordinary characters (a shoemaker, his wife) and a supernatural visitor to convey the lesson that love sustains human life.
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Question 9. Why does Michael make soft slippers instead of the high boots the nobleman ordered?
- He lacks the skill to make high boots from such expensive leather
- Correct answer: He sees the angel of death behind the nobleman and knows he will die that day
- He deliberately disobeys Simon to teach him a lesson about pride
- The servant came back and asked for slippers, since his master had died
Michael sees his "comrade — the angel of death" standing behind the nobleman. He knows the man will die before evening, making the sturdy boots useless. Instead, he makes funeral slippers. When the nobleman's servant returns to announce his master's death, the slippers are already prepared.
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Question 10. What is the second truth Michael learns from the nobleman's death?
- That death comes equally to the rich and the poor
- That wealth cannot buy happiness or lasting satisfaction
- That pride comes before a fall, and the arrogant will be humbled
- Correct answer: That it is not given to man to know his own needs or future
The second truth is "What is not given to man" — knowledge of one's own needs. The nobleman orders boots to last a year, not knowing he will die before sunset. Humans cannot foresee their own futures, which is why self-centered planning is ultimately futile.
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Question 11. How many years does Michael live with Simon and Matryona?
- One year
- Three years
- Correct answer: Six years
- Twelve years
Michael lives with Simon and Matryona for six years before the arrival of the twin girls triggers his third and final revelation. During this time, his fame as a skilled shoemaker spreads throughout the district.
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Question 12. Who brings the twin girls to Simon's shop, and what is her relationship to them?
- Correct answer: A peasant woman named Mary, who adopted them after their parents died
- A wealthy noblewoman who hired Simon to make shoes for her servants' children
- Their aunt, who took them in after their mother abandoned them
- Their grandmother, who raised them after their parents moved to the city
A peasant woman named Mary brings the twins. She is not related to them — she adopted them after both parents died in the same week. Their father was killed by a falling tree, and their mother died three days after giving birth. Mary nursed them at her own breast alongside her own baby.
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Question 13. What third truth does Michael learn when he sees Mary with the orphaned twins?
- Correct answer: That people live not by care for themselves but by love from others
- That biological bonds are weaker than chosen family relationships
- That children are more resilient than adults give them credit for
- That children cannot live without a father or a mother to care for them
The third truth is "What men live by" — love. The dying mother believed children cannot live without parents, but a stranger's love kept them alive. Michael realizes that all people survive not through self-care or planning, but because love exists in others' hearts.
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Question 14. What literary term describes a story in which characters and events represent abstract ideas or moral principles?
- A personification — a figure of speech that gives human feelings or actions to animals, objects, or ideas
- A pastiche — a work that imitates the style of another author or genre
- A vignette — a brief, evocative description or episode that captures a single moment
- Correct answer: An allegory — a narrative where characters and events symbolize deeper moral or spiritual meanings
An allegory is a narrative in which characters and events represent abstract ideas. In "What Men Live By," Michael represents divine observation of humanity, Simon embodies everyday Christian charity, the nobleman illustrates the futility of material ambition, and Mary demonstrates that God's love works through ordinary people.
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Question 15. Which of these events actually happened in the story?
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Simon finds Michael naked and freezing behind a roadside shrine.
Happened
This is accurate. Simon discovers the stranger sitting naked, leaning motionless against the shrine at the bend of the road, after his failed trip to buy sheepskins.
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Michael tells Simon and Matryona that he is an angel on the first night.
Didn't happen
Michael does not reveal his identity until six years later, after learning the third truth. When asked who he is, he says only "God punished me" and gives his name as Michael.
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The nobleman dies in his carriage on the way home from Simon's shop.
Happened
The nobleman's servant returns to report that his master "rolled over like a sack" and was found dead and stiff in the carriage. He never made it home.
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Simon teaches Michael the shoemaking trade, and Michael learns quickly.
Happened
Simon shows Michael how to twist yarn, wax thread, sew bristle, and make boots. Michael masters each skill almost instantly: "Whatever Simon showed him he understood at once."
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Matryona immediately welcomes Michael and insists he stay.
Didn't happen
Matryona is furious when Simon brings Michael home. She calls him a "naked vagabond," refuses to feed him, and accuses Simon of drinking. She only relents when Simon asks, "Have you no love of God?"
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One of the twin girls is lame because Michael accidentally dropped her.
Didn't happen
The girl's leg was crushed when her dying mother's body rolled over onto her in bed. When Michael took the mother's soul, the body fell and twisted the baby's leg.
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Mary nursed the orphaned twins at her own breast alongside her own baby.
Happened
Mary says she nursed all three babies at her own breast: "I was young and strong, and had good food, and God gave me so much milk that at times it even overflowed."
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At the end of the story, Michael ascends to heaven in a column of light.
Happened
After revealing the three truths, Michael's body shines with light, wings appear on his shoulders, the roof opens, a column of fire rises from earth to heaven, and he ascends.
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Question 16. Which statement best captures the central message of "What Men Live By"?
- Hard work and skill, like Michael's bootmaking, can lift a poor family out of want
- Correct answer: People survive not through self-care but through the love they give and receive
- God punishes those who disobey and rewards those who follow religious rules
- Family bonds are the only reliable source of support in times of hardship
The story's central message, stated directly by Michael, is: "All men live not by care for themselves but by love." Each of the three truths demonstrates that material planning fails while selfless love endures. Even strangers' love can sustain life when family is absent.
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Question 17. What literary term describes a situation where the audience understands something about a character that the other characters do not?
- Pathetic fallacy — when weather or nature reflects a character's emotional state
- Foreshadowing — when early events hint at what will happen later in the story
- Correct answer: Dramatic irony — when the audience knows something the characters do not, creating tension or humor
- Situational irony — when what actually happens is the opposite of what the characters or readers expect
Dramatic irony pervades the story. The reader increasingly suspects Michael is supernatural — he appears naked from nowhere, learns skills instantly, smiles at strange moments, and sees things no one else can. Simon and Matryona live with an angel for six years without knowing it.
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Question 18. From which biblical source does Tolstoy draw the story's epigraphs?
- The Book of Psalms, focusing on praise and lament before God
- The Gospel of Matthew, focusing on the Sermon on the Mount
- The Book of Genesis, focusing on creation and the fall of man
- Correct answer: The First Epistle of John, focusing on the theme that God is love
All of the story's epigraphs come from the First Epistle of John, which contains the declaration "God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God." These passages establish the story's thesis before the narrative begins.
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Question 19. Why does Tolstoy organize the story around the number three (three smiles, three truths, three encounters)?
- Three is a structurally convenient number that prevents the story from becoming too long
- Correct answer: The triadic structure mirrors folk tales and biblical parables, reinforcing the story's moral framework
- The three truths match three of the epigraphs from John, which Tolstoy quotes in order before the story begins
- Three represents the Holy Trinity, and Tolstoy wanted to make the Christian symbolism explicit
The rule of three is fundamental to folk tales, fairy tales, and biblical parables. By organizing the story around three smiles, three truths, and three encounters, Tolstoy taps into a narrative tradition his audience would instantly recognize, making the moral lessons feel timeless and archetypal.
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Question 20. What literary term describes a quotation placed at the beginning of a literary work to suggest its theme?
- An exposition — the part of a story that introduces characters, setting, and background
- An epilogue — a section at the end of a work that wraps up the story
- Correct answer: An epigraph — a quotation at the beginning of a work that hints at its theme
- An epithet — a descriptive phrase used in place of a person's name
An epigraph is a quotation placed at the beginning of a literary work to suggest its theme. Tolstoy uses multiple epigraphs from the First Epistle of John, all centered on the idea that "God is love," to frame the entire narrative before the reader encounters the first character.
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Question 21. Why was the angel Michael punished and sent to earth?
- Correct answer: He disobeyed God by sparing a dying mother's soul when she begged for her children
- He envied human beings and asked God to let him experience mortal life
- He accidentally revealed a divine secret to a human being
- He refused to sing in the heavenly choir and questioned God's authority
God sent Michael to take a dying mother's soul, but she pleaded: "Children cannot live without father or mother." Michael hearkened to her and returned to heaven without the soul. God then sent him back to take it, but also commanded him to live on earth until he learned three truths about human nature.
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Question 22. What happens physically to Michael at the very end of the story?
- He simply vanishes, leaving behind the clothes Simon gave him
- Correct answer: Wings appear on his shoulders, the roof opens, and he ascends in a column of fire
- He bows to Simon and Matryona, asks their forgiveness, and walks out the door
- He falls asleep and his body transforms into pure light
After singing praise to God, "the roof opened, and a column of fire rose from earth to heaven. Simon and his wife and children fell to the ground. Wings appeared upon the angel's shoulders, and he rose into the heavens."
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Question 23. What does Michael perceive coming from Matryona when she first refuses to help the stranger?
- Nothing unusual — he simply waits patiently for her to change her mind
- A bright light, showing that God and love were already hidden deep in her heart
- Correct answer: The spirit of death, suggesting her lack of compassion is spiritually fatal
- A dark cloud of ignorance that blocks her from seeing the truth
Michael says: "The spirit of death came from her mouth; I could not breathe for the stench of death that spread around her. She wished to drive me out into the cold, and I knew that if she did so she would die." Tolstoy equates refusing compassion with spiritual death.
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Question 24. How does Tolstoy describe the wealthy nobleman who orders boots?
- Tall and elegant, with refined manners and an aristocratic bearing
- Old and frail, wrapped in furs, barely able to walk without assistance
- Thin and pale, dressed in simple clothes, speaking softly and humbly
- Correct answer: Red-faced and burly, with a neck like a bull's, as if cast in iron
The nobleman is described as "red-faced, burly, with a neck like a bull's, and looking altogether as if he were cast in iron." Matryona even says "Death itself can't touch such a rock as that" — an ironic comment since he dies within hours.
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