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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 did Kathy have at age 34?

2. What does the narrator say motivated John to join the military?

3. What happened to soldier Weatherby?

4. What cost John the victory in the election?

5. Why does John say he might have slept through the outboard motor starting on the boat?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did John lose the election?

2. What do we know about the night of the boiling plants?

3. Describe the importance of the abortion Kathy had.

4. What do we hear about Weatherby that adds to what we heard about earlier?

5. What does Kathy tell John in a letter to him in Vietnam?

6. What additional information do we get about the night of the boiling plants?

7. What sources does the narrator use, to piece together the story?

8. What does John think about Kathy's absence?

9. What does John tell Kathy in his letters from Vietnam?

10. What is Claude Rasmussen's opinion about what happened?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Where is the climax of this book? Are there different climaxes? What questions does each climax resolve? What questions does each climax leave unanswered?

Essay Topic 2

What is Tim O'Brien doing with the form of the novel by refusing to answer the question of Kathy's disappearance? How is 'In the Lake of the Woods' different from the 'typical' novel? What is the benefit of that difference? What are the drawbacks?

Essay Topic 3

How does the narrator create a sense of certainty in a book that is ceaselessly probing into facts to get at the unwritten and unknowable truth. Is certainty relative--does it depend on your personal interpretation? Are facts knowable? Is truth simply practical? What epistemology--science of knowledge--informs 'In the Lake of the Woods'?

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