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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. Around the time of the Vietnamese New Year, what is happening on the streets of New York?

2. What does Richie think that his time in the hospital has done to him?

3. Which of the following is NOT seen by the American soldiers returning to the recently pacified village?

4. Which of the following soldiers does NOT have a letter from Gearhart to his wife in their possession?

5. Who is the highest ranking soldier among Richie's squad?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do the American soldiers prepare the bodies of their fallen soldiers so that the enemy cannot mutilate them?

2. What happens when the Vietnamese allies want the American troops to help them capture a crucial hill?

3. What happens during the Lieutenant Gearhart's first reconnaissance mission in Vietnam?

4. What happens when the allies bring in a Vietnamese mother and her two small children found wandering around the rice paddies?

5. Where do Richie and Peewee spend the night when they are separated from their squad, and how do they find their way there?

6. What power struggle arises between Johnson and Stewart in the battlefield of the reclaimed hill?

7. What race relation issues come to light during the time of Vietnamese Tet?

8. What do the American soldiers see when they return to the village in Vietnam that they had recently tried to pacify?

9. What conversation does Richie get into with Johnson about the war protesters?

10. How does Richie explain the shooting of the Vietcong soldier to his brother, Kenny?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the beginning of the novel, Rings makes a bizarre offer to RIchie and Peewee in order to cement their brotherhood.

Part 1) Describe the offer that RIngs presented and his reasoning behind it.

Part 2) Explain the ritual that Peewee and Richie partook in to cement their own brotherhood.

Part 3) Explain the way that Peewee and RIchie's ritual stuck with them throughout their time in war, and what it meant to them.

Essay Topic 2

Richie struggles, through much of the novel, to differentiate the difference between the "good guys" and the "bad guys" in war. Explain Richie's though process and how its changed over his time in Vietnam. Then briefly explain how the novel presents the idea of what is "good" and "bad" about war.

Essay Topic 3

Throughout the novel, many myths of what happens to a good, or strong, soldier are presented. Chose two military myths that were presented in the novel, and explain the ways that the reality of war in Richie's experience dispelled those myths.

(see the answer keys)

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