What does the humbug symbolize in Phantom Tollbooth?
What does the humbug symbolize in Phantom Tollbooth?
Humbug means deceptive talk or behavior. In The Phantom Tollbooth, the Humbug is a giant beetle-like bug who likes to invent stories. The Humbug ends up accidentally volunteering to go with Milo to rescue the princesses Rhyme and Reason.
Why is the name Humbug an appropriate name for the humbug?
The Humbug’s name is a pun on the word “Humbug”. Humbug literally means a fraud or impostor, implying an element of unjustified publicity and spectacle. He also says “Everyone likes a humbug”, which could be a reference to the lollies.
What does the spelling bee symbolize in The Phantom Tollbooth?
The Bee is one of the first characters to tell Milo about the importance of education. If you think about it, the Spelling Bee is one of the few characters who’s really explicit with Milo about the value of learning. …
What happens when the humbug and the Bee fight in the word market?
As the two creatures continued to fight, the Humbug tripped into one of the stalls. One by one, all the stalls got knocked over and the words lay scrambled all over the market square. In this way, the Spelling Bee and the Humbug caused great confusion in the market place.
What is the humbug?
A humbug is a person or object that behaves in a deceptive or dishonest way, often as a hoax or in jest. It is now also often used as an exclamation to describe something as hypocritical nonsense or gibberish.
What word does Milo ask the spelling bee to spell?
vegetable
What does spelling bee means?
A spelling bee is a competition in which contestants are asked to spell a broad selection of words, usually with a varying degree of difficulty. To compete, contestants must memorize the spellings of words as written in dictionaries, and recite them accordingly.
Where did Milo see the spelling bee?
Dictionopolis
What does King Azaz give Milo?
Helping the Cause Like the Mathemagician, King Azaz lets Milo go on a quest he knows is “impossible” (19.53), but he doesn’t send Milo away empty-handed. Instead, he gives Milo a treasured box of “all the words [he] know[s]” (8.64).
What is the biggest number the Mathemagician has?
3
What does King Azaz look like?
In the book, we first meet King Azaz at a royal banquet. Azaz is a large man with a long grey beard and a robe embroidered with the alphabet. Azaz requires his guests to give speeches, and then they eat their own words for dinner.
What does the package that Milo opens contain?
At the beginning of the play, what does the package that Milo opens contain: a phantom, a clock, a tollbooth, or a car? You just studied 10 terms! A review for Act 1 of the phantom tollbooth.
What does Milo consider to be the greatest waste of time of all?
He is bored senseless by practically everything in his life and is constantly trying to find something exciting or interesting. Milo especially dislikes his schoolwork because he cannot understand the use behind learning geography or math and thinks that learning is “the greatest waste of time of all.”
Why does the Mathemagician call his pencil a magic staff?
In the play, why does the Mathemagician call his pencil a “magic staff”? It shines like a flashlight. It gives him the power to be king. It can be used to solve problems.
How does Milo end up in the doldrums in Chapter 2?
When Milo tells the Lethargarians that he thinks he is lost, they tell him that thinking is not allowed in the Doldrums. The Lethargarians tell Milo that he landed in the Doldrums because he had stopped thinking. The Lethargarians think that the Watchdog is “a most unpleasant character”.
What fueled the car leaving the doldrums?
What fueled the car leaving the Doldrums? The car was fueled by Milo using his brain; thoughts.
Who is the king of Digitopolis?
King Azaz
What does Lethargarians mean?
Lethargarians are a race of irresponsible, lazy, and slimy little creatures that have the ability to divide and multiply themselves. They live deep in the Doldrums, a terrible swamp of laziness and dread.
Who are the Lethargians?
The Lethargians are a group of unresponsibly lazy, yet mischevious, dividing slime creatures featured in the book and film “The Phantom Tollbooth”, and they live in The Doldrums a dark swampy place filled with what appears to be mucus, to vistors, they pretend to have a law that includes rules for being there such as …
What do Lethargarians do all day?
They plan out their days to make sure they get nothing accomplished. There’s “‘almost no time for brooding, lagging, plodding, or procrastinating, and if we stopped to think or laugh, we’d never get nothing done,'” they inform Milo (2.65). Their whole purpose in life is “to get nothing done” (2.67).
Why does Azaz give Milo a box of letters?
What can the reader conclude about the box of letters that Azaz gave to Milo? They are meant to be a snack. They are meant to defeat the Mathemagician. They are meant to help Milo read.
What is the main business of Digitopolis?
The City of Digitopolis In Digitopolis, numbers are the most important thing in the world. The people of Digitopolis work in underground mines, which are deep holes in the ground where people dig for valuable things. When you think of mines, you probably think of precious stones such as diamonds and rubies.
Which character from The Phantom Tollbooth is the most realistic?
Lethargarian Milo
What does the gardener most likely mean when she says I surmise that a rabbit has eaten the lettuce?
What did the gardener most likely mean when she said, “I surmise that a rabbit has eaten the lettuce?” Base your answer on the meaning of surmise. The gardener planted the lettuce for a rabbit to eat. The gardener hoped that a rabbit would eat the lettuce. The gardener knew for certain a rabbit had eaten the lettuce.
How does Dischord end up helping Milo on his quest?
According to the story, Dischord ended up helping Milo on his quest by giving him a magic pencil which enabled him “do magical things”. His actions thus show that even though Milo was hesitant to help before, it shows how much he has changed positively.
What is being sold at the market in Dictionopolis?
The Word Market is a market located in Dictionopolis’ courtyard once a week, which sells words and letters that grow on trees. It sells all the words in all the world’s languages, which people buy to use in writing. It also sells individual letters, which people can either eat or put together to make up words.
What does eat your words mean in Dictionopolis?
In Dictionopolis, people are very careful about what they say at banquets because they have to “eat their words”. The author uses wordplay here to give readers an important lesson in choosing your words carefully before you speak.
What did the Dynne do once a day?
Clouds gathered and covered the moon. What did the DYNNE do once a day? They rained down from the clouds.
Why and where were Rhyme and Reason banished?
When the king died, he left instructions that the Kingdom of Wisdom was to be divided equally between his two sons, who would also have the responsibility of caring for Rhyme and Reason. In an act of rage, they banished Rhyme and Reason from the Kingdom and imprisoned them in the Castle in the Air.