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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 do Nick and his nurse do before he returns to the front lines?

2. What does Nick do when he learns that his mother wants to see him?

3. What does Nick's father hire some local Indians to do?

4. Which book of Hemingway's will devote more time to his war hospital recovery?

5. According to the narrator, what is the worst scene among the evacuees?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Nick deal with his injury and fear of death in the Memoir of Chapter 6?

2. How does the story's setting also serve as a metaphor?

3. Explain the irony of the Memoir in Chapter 11.

4. How else does Hemingway allude to another meaning of the word "blow?"

5. What is the significance of the character, Nick Adams, introduced in this chapter?

6. Explain the significance of Marjorie saying, "There's our old ruin, Nick."

7. Explain how the young matador shows disrespect to the older matadors.

8. How does Hemingway end the story on a more hopeful note than how it began?

9. How does Hemingway use dialogue to show the crumbling state of the young couple's marriage?

10. Even though Nick initiated the break up with Marjorie, he is still overcome with emotion. How does Hemingway indicate this to the reader?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Hemingway gives Nick the ability to see beyond immediate pain and discomfort by putting him in situations that give him hope. Cite some examples where Nick's mood and spirits lift when his hopeful nature takes over.

Essay Topic 2

War is a recurring theme in the Memoirs and in some of the Stories in the book. How are killing and war perceived by the young men when it seems like sport at first? How do the perceptions change when they are seriously wounded, as Nick is? How do they manage the aftermath of war and the personal toll it takes on them?

Essay Topic 3

There is a saying that "There are no atheists in foxholes." Explain the significance of this saying in light of the Memoir in Chapter 7 where the young soldier prays fervently while under siege.

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