Code Name Bananas GCSE Quiz (With Answers)

Q1 of 15

How does Walliams use the World War Two setting to explore themes of courage in ordinary people?

• WWII is an exciting backdrop, which is consistent with Dahl's characteristic directness as a storyteller
• The wartime context elevates the novel's themes
• The wartime setting is inappropriate for a children's book
• WWII is too serious for comedy

Q2 of 15

What does the threat to Gertrude — a government order to destroy dangerous animals — say about how institutions treat the vulnerable in times of crisis?

• Governments always make right decisions in wartime
• The order is reasonable
• The threat is a plot device, and
• The order represents how bureaucratic thinking

Q3 of 15

How does Eric and Gertrude's friendship challenge conventional ideas about who or what we can truly connect with?

• The friendship is unrealistic
• It shows that gorillas make good pets
• Their friendship argues that emotional intelligence and empathy can create genuine bonds across species
• Animals cannot truly connect with humans

Q4 of 15

What does the chaos of the Blitz allow Walliams to do narratively that peacetime London could not?

• Chaos makes things exciting, and
• Nothing particular
• The Blitz's chaos
• The Blitz is dramatic, and

Q5 of 15

How does Walliams portray the wartime community spirit and what does it suggest about human behaviour in extremis?

• Through encounters with ordinary Londoners who help rather than hinder Eric and Gertrude, Walliams shows that shared danger can dissolve ordinary social divisions and generate extraordinary collective kindness
• Community spirit is a myth
• The Blitz destroyed community
• The community is irrelevant to the plot

Q6 of 15

What does Gertrude represent as a character — beyond being an animal?

• Gertrude is a gorilla, and
• She represents the zoo, and
• She represents Africa, a reading that locates the novel's meaning in its historical and personal context rather than in its literary structure
• Gertrude represents the innocent, the vulnerable, the non-combatant caught in a war that has nothing to do with them

Q7 of 15

How does the novel make a case for civil disobedience — breaking unjust rules — through Eric's actions?

• Civil disobedience is for adults
• The novel supports following all rules
• By making Eric's rule-breaking (saving Gertrude against official orders) clearly morally right, Walliams suggests that just rules deserve obedience but unjust ones demand resistance
• Rules should always be followed

Q8 of 15

What does Eric's relationship with his uncle suggest about the role of adult allies in children's moral development?

• Adults are always wiser than children
• The uncle is irrelevant
• Adults should always lead
• His uncle's eventual support

Q9 of 15

How does Walliams use animals in this novel to comment on human violence and war?

• War commentary is too adult for this book
• Animals are irrelevant to war commentary
• Gertrude — innocent, non-violent, caught in human conflict — embodies the victims of war who had no part in creating it, making the war's cost visible in a form that bypasses the adult abstractions through which war is usually discussed
• Animals represent nature, which is consistent with Dahl's characteristic directness as a storyteller

Q10 of 15

What does the novel suggest about the ethics of keeping animals in zoos, through Gertrude's situation?

• While not condemning zoos directly, the novel makes the reader feel Gertrude's experience of captivity and danger so viscerally that it prompts genuine reflection on whether keeping wild animals in cities creates vulnerabilities that are ultimately cruel
• The zoo question is not raised
• Zoos are always harmful
• It fully supports zoos

Q11 of 15

How does the code name 'Bananas' function tonally in a novel dealing with serious WWII themes?

• Code names are always silly
• It is inappropriately comic
• The code name has no significance
• The playful code name introduces the gentle comedy that runs through the novel

Q12 of 15

In what ways does Code Name Bananas follow the tradition of the wartime adventure story, and how does it update the genre?

• It follows the tradition of wartime heroism and pluck, but updates it by placing an unlikely hero (a small boy) and an impossible companion (a gorilla) at the centre
• The genre is outdated
• There is no wartime adventure tradition
• It copies old war stories, and

Q13 of 15

How does Eric's love for Gertrude model a form of moral courage that transcends self-interest?

• Eric is irresponsible, and
• Eric risks real danger
• Eric acts out of self-interest
• His courage is accidental

Q14 of 15

What does the WWII setting allow Walliams to explore about what it means to be on 'the right side' of history?

• Historical moral questions are too complex for children
• The Allies were right, which is consistent with Dahl's characteristic directness as a storyteller
• By showing a boy disobeying Allied government orders to save an innocent life, Walliams complicates the simple moral geography of WWII
• The setting is irrelevant to moral questions

Q15 of 15

How does Gertrude's fate — surviving and eventually thriving — serve the emotional needs of young readers processing stories about war and loss?

• Children should experience tragic endings
• Gertrude's fate is irrelevant
• Tragic endings are more honest
• Her survival provides the resolution of hope that young readers need