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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 was Frank Vasquez's profession?

2. Why is the motorcade in Miami canceled?

3. Where is Frank in 6 September?

4. What physical attribute do the first two Soviet interviewers discover about Lee Oswald?

5. Where does the Soviet government move Lee after his suicide attempt?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Mackey subvert the assassination ploy on July 15th?

2. How are Oswald's plans stymied in Mexico City?

3. Describe the conversation between Ruby and Tony Astorina on September 25th.

4. Why does Carmine Latta help with the assassination attempt?

5. Describe Lee's life in Minsk after returning from the U-2 Interrogation.

6. What role does writing play and Lee's life in Minsk?

7. What strange items has the CIA curator provided Branch with?

8. How does the move to Fort Worth affect Lee and Marina's marriage?

9. How does Lee Oswald decide to kill General Walker?

10. What new plan is Frank Vasquez hatching on September 6th?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about the nihilistic tone of Libra. To what extend do the events of the novel add up to a sum of nothing thematically? What impels Lee Oswald toward his final end? Does Win Everett achieve anything he intended? In the end, does President Kennedy die for any reason? Discuss if the world of Libra is one in which fate or some higher power guides characters' ends.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about the character of Dave Ferrie. What are the defining physical and psychological characteristics of this individual? What role does he play in the novel and in the plot to kill Kennedy? How does his relationship with Lee Oswald shift and develop over the course of the narrative? Discuss Ferrie's portrayal as a personification of perverted patriotism.

Essay Topic 3

Throughout the novel Lee Oswald seems uncomfortable with the notion of his own sexuality. In a three-part essay, explore how Oswald tries and fails to explore his sexual being and falls deeper into his own darkness as a result.

Part 1) Discuss Lee Oswald's romantic life in Atsugi. What is the nature of the woman to whom he loses his virginity? How does she initiate him into the realm of sexuality? What must he give up to her companions as a result?

Part 2) How does Lee Oswald meet Marina, and how does their romantic relationship develop? Discuss the process by which their relationship deteriorates, and how they relate to each other by the end of the novel.

Part 3) Discuss Lee's relationship with Dave Ferrie. How do they first meet, and is it readily apparent that Ferrie wants Oswald? How does this relationship develop? How does the sexual ambiguity of both men become apparent?

(see the answer keys)

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