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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. Where was Inez Victor born?

2. How does the narrator characterize Inez's daily political life in this chapter?

3. Who arrives in Honolulu with Inez Victor?

4. Who visits the office where both Inez and Didion work in Chapter 4?

5. What does the Victor contingent believe Jack Lovett does for a living?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Janet Christian's interview in Chapter 10.

2. How does Inez react to her family in this chapter?

3. What is Didion doing in 1975?

4. What is Paul Christian's attitude regarding the shooting?

5. How does the US government figure out thaat Jack Lovett is dead?

6. What is Jack Lovett's stated reason for being in Honolulu in 1975?

7. How does Jessie Victor Make her way to Vietnam?

8. What are Jessie Victor's new plans for her career?

9. How do Janet Ziegler and Frances Landau relate to each other in Jakarta?

10. What absurd process is happening involving American officials in Vietnam?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Colonialism is a major theme of Didion's novel. It is an enduring symbol of America and takes on numerous forms in the modern world. Write an essay on latter-day American colonialism, in three parts:

Part 1) Examine the history of the Christian family in Hawaii. How are they at once outsiders to island culture and also masters of every part of modern Hawaiian life? How do people like Dwight and Carol Christian feel about the islands?

Part 2) How is Janet Ziegler a representation of oblivious colonial attitudes inherent in upper-class American life? Examine the interchange she has with Frances Landau and her press interview regarding Inez as evidence.

Part 3) How does the work of Jack Lovett represent a sort of de facto colonialism inherent in the Truman Doctrine? What alternative does America offer to Communism, and how is Lovett's work in Vietnam and Cambodia endemic of that?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about the Christian family. Using three members, discuss how they are outsiders to their traditional surroundings. How do they view the world of modern Hawaiian society? What are their business endeavors? To what extent are they always held remote from the rest of Hawaiian society? How does the local population view the Christian family?

Essay Topic 3

Didion seems to indicate throughout the novel that political life is just as vicious as - and possibly more so - military life. Write an essay on this assertion, in two parts:

Part 1) Inez Victor is presented as a victim of public life. To what extent is she destroyed by her relationship with Harry Victor? What passions is she forced to give up? What role is she forced to inhabit because of Harry's political aspirations?

Part 2) Billy Dillon is presented as a foot-soldier of political life; his motivations seem entirely removed from normal human compassion. How is he constantly undermining normal human interaction? To what extent is verbal and emotional violence the main tool of his trade?

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