Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s story “The Spider’s Thread” was inspired by a parable about one of these items from a novel. For 10 points each:
[10m] Name these food items that Grushenka analogizes to her one “good deed.” In a parable that Grushenka tells to Alyosha, a woman’s guardian angel cites a kind act involving one of these items to argue for her entry into heaven, but her refusal to take others with her damns her to hell.
ANSWER: onions
[10e] Grushenka relates the parable of the onion to Alyosha in this novel, in which Ivan tells him the parable of the Grand Inquisitor.
ANSWER: The Brothers Karamazov [or The Karamazov Brothers; or Brat'ya Karamazovy] (by Fyodor Dostoevsky)
[10h] While listening to a passage about this event, Alyosha has a dream of Father Zosima in heaven because he “gave an onion.” In a chapter titled for this event, Father Paissy (“PY-see”) reads a passage about it over Zosima’s coffin.
ANSWER: Wedding at Cana [or Marriage at Cana; accept Cana of Galilee; accept Jesus turning water into wine or equivalents; prompt on Jesus’s first miracle]
<Morrison, Long Fiction>