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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. Who is Kathy?

2. How do John and Kathy deal with the fact that their dreams are impossible for the moment?

3. What does Arthur Lux say about Kathy?

4. What does Kathy suspect John of when he joins the military?

5. What did Kathy have at age 34?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Why did John lose the election?

4. Why did John join the military?

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

6. What was John's experience of Vietnam like, and what did Weatherby have to do with his experience?

7. Describe the importance of the abortion Kathy had.

8. What indication does the book give us about what really happened?

9. How does the narrator describe Kathy's feelings in the hypothesis in Chapter 9?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does this book create its effect on the reader? Describe in detail how Tim O'Brien uses a combination of suspense and details to draw the reader in.

Essay Topic 2

Is Lake of the Woods a uniquely American book? What makes it American, or in what way is it something else? Is it international or supra-national?

Essay Topic 3

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

(see the answer keys)

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