Lost in the Funhouse

Short Questions
1. What does the narrator say about Independence Day in America?
Answer: In the opening the narrator says that Independence Day is the most important
secular holiday of the United States of America. (P.g.69)
2. What does the match book cover Ambrose's father has advertised?
Answer: The matchbook covers merely advertised U.S. War Bonds and Stamps. (P.g.71)
3. What does the narrator say should be the middle of a story about being lost in a
funhouse?
Answer: The narrator says the middle of a story about being lost in a funhouse would
narrate all relevant events from the time Ambrose goes in to the time he loses his way;
middles have the double and contradictory function of delaying the climax while at the
same time preparing the reader for it and fetching him to it’ (P.g.74)
4. What does Ambrose imagine his father saying to him about the people on the boardwalk?
Answer: Ambrose imagines his father saying to him about people on the boardwalk
apparently include reflections about spouses hating each other and parents not loving
their children. (P.g.87)
5. What does the gypsy fortune teller machine look like?
Answer: the gypsy fortune teller machine looks like that the silver coating was worn off
the brown metal handles, the glass windows around the dummy were cracked and taped,
her kerchiefs and silks long-faded. (P.g,81)
6. What does Ambrose see through the shoulders of Magda’s sun dress when she leans
forward to look for the Towers?
Answer: Ambrose sees through the shoulders of Magda’s sun dress when she leans
forward to look for the Towers that two sets of straps were discernible through the
shoulders of her sun dress; the inside right one, a brassiere strap, was fastened or
shortened with a small safety pin. The right armpit of her dress, presumably the left as
well, was damp with perspiration. (P.g.72)
7. What did the Hurricane of 1933 had done to the boardwalk?
Answer: The Hurricane of 1933 had cut an inlet from the ocean to Assawoman Bay’s
boardwalk. (P.g.82)
8. What does Ambrose do after Magda and Peter leave the funhouse?
Answer: After Magda and Peter leave the funhouse Ambrose fantasizes about dying in
the funhouse or meeting someone who becomes spiritually attached to him by the time,
they find an exit. (P.g.90)
9. Why does Ambrose think people do not know what to make of him?
Answer: Ambrose thinks people do not know what to make of him is athletically and
socially inept, not astonishingly bright. (P.g.84)
10. What does the narrator say is the reason a writer should stick with using the Freitag's
triangle?
 Answer: the narrator says the reason a writer should stick with using the Freitag's triangle
is because it can better can better effect that effect. (P.g.91)

Source: Lost in the Funhouse by John Barth, From Lost in the Funhouse: Fiction for
Print, Tape, Live Voice. (LF) New York: Bantam. Books, 1980.