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

Short Answer Questions

1. In what city did Frank Tawagata assist Harry Victor in his 1972 campaign?

2. Where do Inez and Lovett go after they leave Dwight's house in Chapter 12?

3. What patriotic song is played on a loop on radios after the Bing Crosby signal?

4. What does Billy Dillon do on the flight to Honolulu to calm himself?

5. What Bing Crosby song will play on the radio to announce Saigon's evacuation?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

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

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?

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