View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What type of sportsman does Jack Victor prophesy Inez Christian will marry?

2. According to Inez, what is the major casualty of public life?

3. Which member of her family will Inez visit in the hospital within a couple hours of landing?

4. As an educator at Berkeley in 1975, what does Didion do every morning?

5. During their 1975 visit in Kuala Lumpur, who does Inez say she speaks to every night?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Janet Ziegler's condition in Chapter 10?

2. Why does Harry Victor defend Adlai's returning to school?

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

4. What is Didion doing in 1975?

5. How does Jack Lovett first meet Inez Christian?

6. How does Inez get Lovett's body to Hawaii?

7. What does Inez Victor want to discuss with Didion in 1975 instead of her affair with Jack Lovett?

8. What does Billy Dillon insist regarding Paul Christian at the end of the chapter?

9. Describe the nature of Jack Lovett's death.

10. Describe Carol Christian.

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

In Democracy, the media becomes an entity unto itself, forever reducing characters to their most basic form and denying the world a cultivated understanding of them. Write an essay about three prominent media portraits in the novel. How do they neglect something essential about the character or characters contained within? What image of the character or characters does each create in its words and visuals? What is the article or image's importance to the narrative?

Part 1) Janet Ziegler's television interview about Inez.

Part 2) Inez's AP interview regarding her memory.

Part 3) The video of Inez dancing on the roof of the St. Regis.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay examining the local political situation leading to the Paul Christian killings. Focus on the relationships between the following two people: Wendell Omura and Janet Ziegler, Dwight Christian and Dick Ziegler, and Wendell Omura and Dick Ziegler. What business transactions unite these people? What litigation and what personal affairs? How does the Paul Christian shooting effectively resolve these conflicts? Is it actually connected to the affairs?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,013 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample