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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 is Joe trying to figure out how to tell his father when they go camping?

2. What did the doctors use to put in a window of a guy who had his stomach blown away?

3. What does Joe weep about for the first time?

4. Why doesn't Joe worry about lack of appetite?

5. What does Joe finally do after thinking about a lottery?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Joe think about guys fighting for liberty?

2. Why doesn't Joe worry about loss of appetite?

3. Where does Joe see Jose while he's lying in bed, what does he ask him and what does Joe figure out?

4. What does Joe think about doctors and war?

5. When did Joe become aware of the war and what events in the war occurred at that time?

6. Describe the scene at the rail station when Joe is leaving for the army.

7. Why does Joe think he is dying and why does he know he is alive?

8. Who does Joe call out to in his nightmare and why?

9. As Joe's pain fades some what does he think about and how does he feel about being deaf?

10. How does Joe feel about the nurse bathing him?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

For a few brief moments at the end of the book before Joe is sedated, he is able to communicate his desire to have a purpose. Discuss the following:

1. What does Joe offer to do? Is this a wise thing to suggest?

2. What is the response to Joe's offer? Why?

3. Why is having a sense of purpose so important to Joe?

4. Do you think Joe will re-think what he offers given the response and try to communicate again? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Joe Bonham also has to join, and ends up lying in bed, thinking this is no place for him, no war for him, none of his business. What does he care about making the world safe for democracy?

1. Compare Joe's feelings about war and his assertion that it is none of his business with the ideas many Vietnam draftees expressed.

2. Do you think Joe's reaction to war is a common reaction for draftees? Why or why not?

3. The idea that rich, political persons declare war but the common, poor person fights them. Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

The first section of the book begins a theme that finds its culmination in the final chapters--the idea of dying for one's country and "freedom." Discuss one of the following:

1. During the last conflict in which there was a draft (Vietnam), many men choose to leave the United States rather than fight in a war in which they do not believe. Discuss how Joe views his being drafted and the reasons he accepts his legal obligation. How does he think about this same subject near the end of the book?

2. Is it ever moral to refuse to serve one's country? Take a stance and give detailed examples to support it.

3. Compare and contrast a war/conflict in which the United States was involved which seemed justifiable with one that does not seem as such.

(see the answer keys)

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