The Shipping News
Character Quiz

 

Match the description to the character:

1. "A great damp loaf of a body. At six he weighed eighty pounds. At sixteen he was buried under a casement of flesh. Head shaped like a crenshaw, no neck, reddish hair ruched back. Features as bunched as kissed fingertips. Eyes the color of plastic. The monstrous chin, a freakish shelf jutting from the lower face." (Ch. 1, p.2)
 
2. "His face: wood engraved with fanned lines. Blue eyes in tilted eye cases, heavy lids. His cheek pillows pushed up by a thin, slanting smile, a fine channel like a scar from nose to upper lip. Bushy eyebrows, a roach of hair the color of an antique watch" (Ch. 7, p.57).

3. "A man with a meaty face the size and shape of a sixteen-pound ham squeezed in front of Quoyle" (Ch. 32, p.255).

4. "An emaciated black-haired man, a foot taller than the local men who ran to large jaws, no necks, sandy hair and barrel chests" (Ch. 32, p.256).

5. "The aunt's unruly hair; his father's lipless mouth; their common family eyes sunk under brows as coarse as horsehair; his brother's stance. And for Quoyle, a view of his own monstrous chin, here a somewhat smaller bony shelf choked with white bristle" (Ch. 33, p.264).

6. "Face like a stubbled bun, slick mouth" (Ch. 1, p.6).

7. "Grey eyes close together, curly hair the color of oak. The fluorescent light made her as pale as candle wax. Her eyelids gleamed with some dusky unguent" (Ch.2, p.12).

8. "Near the window a man listened to a radio. His buttery hair swept behind ears. Eyes pinched close, a mustache, a packet of imported dates on his desk. (Ch. 7, p. 48)

9. "A small man with a red forehead, somewhere, Quoyle thought, between forty-five and ninety-five. A stubbled chin, slack neck. Jaggled hair frowsting down. Fingers ochre from chain-smoking." (Ch. 7, p.63).

10. "The graceful, straight-backed woman" (Ch. 13, p.114).

11. "A flush-faced man with white hair... he wore madras trousers with a patent leather belt and matching white shoes." (Ch. 13, p.116).

12. "A small man with a paper face, ears the size of half-dollars, eyes like willow leaves. He spoke from lips no more than a crack between the nose and chin" (Ch. 29, p.236>

13. Black, small, a restless traveler across the slope of life, an all-night talker... was sure of his own good fortune. He could blow perfect smoke rings." (Ch.1, p.4-5)

14. "A woman in a food-splotched bathrobe, hair the color of sewage foam, sat on the sofa. Her hands clashed in bracelets, rings. Feet stretched out, blunt purple ankles." (Ch. 13, p.119).

Benny Fudge, Nolan, Alvin Yark, Jack Buggit, Quoyle, Adonis Collard, Wavey Prowse, SilverMelville, Billy Pretty, Al Catalogue, Petal Bear, Bayonet Melville, Nutbeem, Partridge

Short Essay Question: On the back of this paper, characterize Annie Proulx’ approach to character description.