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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Joe's thought about the question?

2. What does Joe believe he must do now?

3. Joe loses track of everything but what?

4. What does the day nurse do that brings Joe pleasure?

5. What does Joe think the hospital wants to do?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Bonnie Flannigan and what does she tell Joe?

2. What obstacle does Joe see in their granting his request and what is his solution?

3. Describe the process of the new nurse attempting to communicate with Joe.

4. What did Lucky survive in America and how did she survive it?

5. Describe how Joe thinks of the Christmas story his mother used to read.

6. What do you think it means when Joe thinks that two billion people have been pushing the lid of his coffin down and covering him with dirt and stone.

7. What happens to Joe in his third year in the hospital?

8. What does the nurse think Joe wants at first when Joe starts tapping?

9. What does Joe say every Allied nation expects?

10. What is Bonham's initial thought when asked what he wants and why do you think this is so?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Joe Bonham wonders why people are so inconsiderate, and feels more like he is coming out of ether rather than hung over, and is tired of hearing that his father is dead and going home. Father can die only once, so the phone must be part of a dream.

1. Joe is lying in a VA hospital with horrific injuries. He feels like he is coming out of ether. He is. The world at the moment seems unreal to him. Explain the flashbacks and images that Joe has in his head at the beginning of the book.

2. Almost all of this book is written as flashbacks to Joe's life before he was injured. How did this narrative technique enhance the book? Given Joe's injuries, discuss any other options the author may have had to tell the story.

3. How did the fact that this book is almost entirely flashbacks affect the pace? What about the plot? How did it enhance or obscure the themes?

Essay Topic 2

War is one of the most common occurrences in the history of humankind. Discuss one of the following:

1. Analyze how Joe feels about WWI. Are his feelings typical of others in the book? Are his beliefs about the war justifiable? Explain with examples.

2. Does your belief about WWI change as you read this book? What about your beliefs about war in general? Explain with examples from the text and your own experience.

3. Many resources throughout the ages have been used in the pursuit of war-related activities. Does the war in this book justify the loss of life and resources? Why or why not? Does any war justify the same?

Essay Topic 3

When one is unconscious, there is no such thing as time, and when fading in and out, people feel time bunch up--like women in labor for three days saying it seems like ten hours. Considering he may have been like this for two years, Bonham feels a panicky dread. He needs to "trap" time and get back into the world. Discuss one of the following:

1. How does Joe Bonham think of time and eventually "trap" time?

2. What are the ways humans measure time and why does Bonham have such difficulty figuring out a system to measure time? Why do you think he wants to know about the passage of time?

3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the construct of time? Use examples both from the text and your own experience.

(see the answer keys)

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