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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. How many days has Joe been sick in his life?

2. What does Joe think he has to do first in order to kill himself?

3. Why doesn't Joe get tired?

4. What does Joe think you die for in war?

5. What does Joe think would be wonderful when he was thinking about the nurse and the rat?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is the pilot who comes to Joe's hometown, what does he do and what does the superintendent of schools say about airplanes?

2. Describe the scene at Joe's parents house when he arrives home after his father died.

3. Why does Joe think being the way he is is worse than being in the womb?

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

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

6. What does Joe think guys should do when called up for the military?

7. What idea does Pinky Carson come up with for Jose and how does that work out?

8. What doesn't Joe understand about being alive?

9. What book did Joe read that gave him a nightmare and what was that nightmare?

10. What are the two problems Jose talks to the guys at the bakery about?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Electric pain shakes him hard and throws him back into bed, exhausted. He feels sweat all over beneath bandages that wrap him top to bottom. Knowing he is hurt badly, he feels his heart pounding but cannot hear his pulse. This means he is "stone deaf".

1. Do you think the normal reaction in Joe's situation would be to want to die? Why or why not?

2. Discuss the ways in which you believe Joe's pain might be affecting his mind and emotions.

3. Joe has found out by logical deduction that he is deaf. How do you think that knowledge has affected him? Use examples from the book to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Joe thinks about how the doctor's have saved his life, but he rather than feeling appreciative, he is resentful and feels more like a science experiment. Discuss one of the following:

1. Elaborate on and analyze Joe's attitudes towards the doctors both at the field hospital and in his long term care facility.

2. Discuss the pros and cons of saving life at any cost, whether on the battlefield or otherwise.

3. One might think that doctors work harder to save young people because they are young and have not had a full lifespan, yet, in our culture, doctors often go to heroic efforts to save quite elderly persons, spending much resources for little return. Are their efforts "heroic"? Discuss fully.

Essay Topic 3

Joe Bonham wonders why people are so inconsiderate, and feels more like he is coming out of ether rather than hung over, and is tired of hearing that his father is dead and going home. Father can die only once, so the phone must be part of a dream.

1. Joe is lying in a VA hospital with horrific injuries. He feels like he is coming out of ether. He is. The world at the moment seems unreal to him. Explain the flashbacks and images that Joe has in his head at the beginning of the book.

2. Almost all of this book is written as flashbacks to Joe's life before he was injured. How did this narrative technique enhance the book? Given Joe's injuries, discuss any other options the author may have had to tell the story.

3. How did the fact that this book is almost entirely flashbacks affect the pace? What about the plot? How did it enhance or obscure the themes?

(see the answer keys)

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