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

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

3. In what state is Lieutenant Corson at the end of Third Squad's first night with Jolly Chand?

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

5. In Chapter 9, what does Stink Harris refuse to do for Doc Peret?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Paul Berlin hope regarding Cacciato?

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

3. What are Sidney Martin's values regarding war as described in Chapter 25?

4. What news does Doc Peret deliver to Lieutenant Corson at the beginning of the novel?

5. Why does Paul Berlin feel guilty for Frenchie Tucker and Bernie Lynn's deaths?

6. How does Third Squad end up on a cart with three Vietnamese women in Chapter 6?

7. Describe Paul Berlin's call home in Chapter 24.

8. What decision does Paul Berlin make at the observation tower in Chapter 8?

9. How do two men from Third Squad die in Chapter 9?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay charting the progression of Oscar Johnson. How does he begin as a sympathetic figure - a man who cares for the safety of Third Squad - and slowly become a major antagonist to Paul Berlin? What does Oscar care for primarily? How are his grievances against the cavalier Sidney Martin similar to his grievances against the incompetent and deluded Paul Berlin?

Essay Topic 2

Choose one member of the Cacciato search party and write an essay analyzing his attitude toward the mission. At any point in the mission, does he grow convinced that Third Squad is deserting? What was his attitude toward Cacciato before Cacciato disappeared into the jungle? How does the mission to Paris change this character's attitude toward the world, the war, and his fellow soldiers?

Essay Topic 3

There are two Paul Berlins in Going After Cacciato: the weak-willed bad soldier of the real chapters, and the one that presses onward and gets the girl in the Cacciato story. Write an essay comparing these two. How does the protagonist of the novel reinvent himself in half the chapters? How does this reinvention help him deal with his desperate shortcomings in the other half of the novel? TO what extent is the second Paul Berlin a defense for the first?

(see the answer keys)

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