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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 of the following is not an activity that Sarkin Aung Wan and Paul Berlin do to pass the time in Delhi?

2. What does Paul Berlin end up saying to his parents over the MARS system?

3. What appliance did Doc Peret disassemble as a child?

4. How does Cacciato escape while Paul Berlin is passed out?

5. Where does Paul Berlin decide he will take a flat when he moves to Paris after the war?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Sarkin Aung Wan react to Paul Berlin's description of their mission?

2. Why does Third Squad need to leave Delhi in Chapter 26?

3. Describe some ways that the men of the Paul Berlin's platoon organize themselves.

4. In what state is Pederson on the day he dies?

5. What difficulty arises when Lieutenant Corson tries to leave Li Van Hgoc's tunnel in Chapter 15?

6. How does the Squad figure out that they are on the same train that Cacciato took?

7. How does Paul Berlin lose Cacciato in Mandalay?

8. Why do living circumstances become awkward for Third Squad in Delhi?

9. How does Sidney Martin aggravate Third Squad in Chapter 25?

10. What is the result of Chapter 3's vote?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The character of Cacciato in the novel exists on two different planes: the Cacciato that exists, and the the Cacciato that exists in Paul Berlin's mind.

Write an essay about Cacciato as he appears in three different points in the novel. It this appearance real or invented? What is Cacciato doing, and how does this further the story? Does Cacciato seem to have any major objective?

Part 1) Cacciato in Delhi

Part 2) Cacciato outside the prison cell in Tehran

Part 3) Cacciato in the World's Greatest Lake Country

Essay Topic 2

Three times over the course of the Cacciato pursuit, Third Squad escapes certain death with little or no explanation as to how their salvation came about. Write an essay about these instances and what they say about the nature of the Cacciato war story:

Part 1) What does the Squad discover in the VC tunnels on the Vietnam-Laos border? How does this experience inform Paul Berlin's understanding of the enemy, and how - in the end - does Third Squad escape the tunnels? Where do they emerge?

Part 2) How does Third Squad nearly die in Tehran? What eventually saves them, and to what extent do these rescuing agents seem to appear out of Paul Berlin's mind?

Part 3) Which member of Third Squad disappears when the ocean-liner to Greece is suddenly searched? How do the remaining men manage to escape what seems like an inescapable situation?

Essay Topic 3

Going After Cacciato is a mixture of fantasy and harsh reality, and the way in which Tim O'Brien interweaves these is as daring as any of the battles in the story.

Write an essay, in which you focus on three moments when fact and fantasy intersect. How does O'Brien make clear to the reader that he is shifting between these two planes? Where do these connections happen, and what characters do they involve?

(see the answer keys)

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