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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. How does Harry Victor describe Inez Victor's unhappiness in Chapter 9?

2. How long is the island that Lovett describes in Chapter 1?

3. What is Frances Landau wearing during the Victor trip to Jakarta?

4. Where is Wendell Omura pronounced dead?

5. In Chapter 10, what nickname does Inez protest she has never been called?

Short Essay Questions

1. What issues does Didion have gleaning information from Inez Victor?

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

3. Why is the lie that Jack Lovett is in the military hard to swallow?

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

5. Describe the Paul Christian crime scene.

6. What seems ridiculous to Billy Dillon about his conversation with Dick Ziegler?

7. What precautions does Inez Victor take to preserve her privacy?

8. What is happening to Jack Lovett at the end of Chapter 1?

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

10. Why does Inez Victor lash out at Janet's doctors in Chapter 12?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the novel, Inez Victor offers two viewpoints regarding America's place in the world community. These viewpoints derive from our country's collective reaction to the war in Vietnam and are represented by the characters of Harry Victor and Jack Lovett. Write an essay about these opposing viewpoints in three parts:

Part 1) What is Harry Victor's attitude toward the Vietnam War? How does he think America should impact the world community? What should we foster and what should we avoid? To what extent is his viewpoint a moral viewpoint?

Part 2) How does Jack Lovett feel about the relationships among nations? How does his career reflect this attitude? Does he appear to have unifying

worldview? Are his actions purely pragmatic?

Part 3) In what way does the relationship between Lovett and Victor represent the friction between pragmatism and idealism? Does Inez Victor represent the American people, as such?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

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?

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