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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 the girl in the van think must be the worst part of going to war?

2. Why does Cacciato like Sidney Martin?

3. What does Third Squad give to Stink Harris as a joke in Chapter 39?

4. With what word does Paul Berlin describe Billy Boy Watkins' death in Chapter 32?

5. In Chapter, Doc Peret tells Captain Rhallon that the nonexistent treaty legitimizing Third Squad's international travel was ratified in what city?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Third Squad intensify its search for Cacciato in Chapter 44?

2. What does Paul Berlin rationalize is the essential purpose of the Vietnam War at the end of Chapter 40?

3. How does Third Squad escape execution in Chapter 36?

4. Describe Captain Rhallon.

5. Why does the Squad occasionally march down trails likely to be booby trapped?

6. Describe the girl from California in Chapter 40.

7. How does Paul Berlin plan plan to cope with his fears in Chapter 31?

8. How does Paul Berlin characterize the true war stories he has in Chapter 42?

9. How does Third Squad determine happens to Buff's big gun?

10. In Chapter 31, what haunting event happens to Paul Berlin on his first day in the mountains?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Going After Cacciato, as a novel, is the dueling of two narratives. One, the story of Cacciato's flight to Paris, is beautiful, meaningful, and false. The other, the story of Sidney Martin's murder, is nihilistic, sad, and sadly factual. It is a war story that cannot be told. Write an essay about the dynamic of between these two stories. Why does one necessitate the creation of the other? Why is the latter entirely unsatisfactory as a story? Does it have any substantive lesson to teach?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay detailing how Third Squad is a microcosm for the functional military as a whole, focusing on three allegorical characters and how the rest of the Squad relates to them:

Part 1) Lieutenant Sidney Martin represents the unquestioned mission-focused structure of the military. How is his conception of Vietnam dangerous to his men and incompatible with reality? How does Third Squad respond to him?

Part 2) How Oscar Johnson a response to Sidney Martin? Does he represent unofficial standard operating procedure? In what ways is he the most powerful figure in Third Squad as a result?

Part 3) If Martin and Johnson represent the most unyielding of war, how does Doc Peret represent the flexible compassion that combat engenders? What actions does he take that illustrate this?

Essay Topic 3

Paul Berlin is clearly a surrogate for Tim O'Brien in Going After Cacciato, developing the narrative as it is happening. Write an essay analyzing the storyteller role of Paul Berlin in the novel. How is Berlin's greatest weakness his tendency to self-mythologize? Is the central narrative of the novel, in fact, a massive self-delusion? In the end, is the creation of this delusion something beautiful, alarming, or both?

(see the answer keys)

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