View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Oswald leave at the American Embassy in Moscow?

2. What do Lee and marina name their daughter?

3. In Mexico City, what embassy does Lee go to after the Cuban embassy brushes him off?

4. Aside from Fidel Castro, what is General Edwin Walker a verbal opponent of?

5. What does Lee call his journal?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Lee Oswald try to expedite his meeting with Soviet agents after his suicide attempt?

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

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

4. What do Frank and Raymo commiserate about on July 2nd?

5. What money problems is Jack Ruby facing on August 12th?

6. What calls Oswald's testimony into question in Minsk?

7. How does Lee have a falling out with the FBI in New Orleans?

8. Why does Lee Oswald try to kill himself in Moscow?

9. How do Lee and Marina settle into Fort Worth?

10. On August 12th, what concerns does Win Everett express to Parmenter?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about Lee Oswald's private relationship with the concept of history. At what point in Oswald's personal development does he begin to consider himself a major player of history? How does he try to impress himself upon the scope of history? Discuss the process by which Oswald realizes he will not affect history in a positive way, and how this skews his view of the world.

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Libra's central topic is the Kennedy assassination, but he also incorporates connections to other military-political events of the time. Write an essay about three of these events. What is their Cold War significance? How, in Libra, do they connect to the story of Lee Oswald? Are these connections historically accurate or largely invented by the author?

Part 1) The U-2 Incident

Part 2) The Bay of Pigs

Part 3) The General Walker shooting

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 974 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample