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

2. How does Jack Lovett's first wife describe his career to friends?

3. What color does Jack Lovett recall the sky being during the Pacific nuclear tests?

4. In what paper does Didion first read about the Paul Christian murders?

5. Dwight Christian keeps a large collection of what for special occasions?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Why does Billy Dillon not allow Inez to work with refugees?

4. In what way does Inez become comfortable in her own life over the course of the novel?

5. What cable is sent to Inez Victor on October 2, 1975?

6. How does Didion keep from prematurely assessing her work?

7. What rule of nonfiction does Didion demonstrate in this chapter, and how does she do so?

8. What is the purpose of Paul Christian's room at the YMCA?

9. Why is Inez Victor confined to a room when she arrives in Hong Kong?

10. How does the narrator of Democracy reveal herself in Chapter 2?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Jack Lovett's reasoning is most often tied to a given military-political objective he has been given. Didion states that his greatest gift is the ability to view situations with a dispassionate eye. The only case in which this is not true, in which he skirts his duty, is regarding Inez Victor. In an essay, examine Lovett's relationship with Inez. How does his affection manifest itself prior to the Christian shootings? What role do these shootings serve in allowing him to make his move? What good deeds does he render to her, and how does his career allow him to do so?

Essay Topic 2

Joan Didion 's style of writing is perhaps most often described as cold, objective, and bloodless. It reflects her background as a journalist. Write an essay in three parts, examining how her narrative style affects the way she presents the shattering events of Democracy. How does she deny her characters a clear emotional life? How does this affect the way these violent and passionate events occur? How does it affect the reader's reaction to them?

Part 1) Jessie Victor's drug addiction.

Part 2) Paul Christian's shootings.

Part 3) Inez Victor's affair and her decision to leave her family.

Essay Topic 3

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?

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