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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 the General's worst fear about the island?

2. Who is Major Dalleson's assistant?

3. What subject did Roth study in college?

4. How big is the island?

5. What seems to be happening to Cumming's control in Part 2, Chapter 11?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Hearn think that a relationship with Croft will be difficult?

2. Why does Red reject Hearn's offer to be promoted to corporal?

3. Do you think that Hearn suspects any deception from Croft? Why or why not?

4. Why do the men continue to march up the mountain despite their attempts and threats to quit?

5. What does Mailer accomplish in the first chapter in terms of mood and characters?

6. Why is Dalleson and not Cummings recognized for the successful end of the campaign?

7. Why had Red gone to the medical tent and what was the result of the visit?

8. What seems to be Ridges main concern or frustration when the stretcher with Wilson on it is washed away?

9. As the men are on the transport boats, they begin to hear gunfire. In your own words, how does the narrator describe this event?

10. Polack and Minetta discuss wearing dirty clothes. What are each man's thoughts on this?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Mailer uses a common literary tool of a flashback in a very unusual way. This purpose of this method is to provide the reader with additional information about the characters.

1) What is the time machine?

2) How does Mailer use this story telling method for character development?

3) Do any of the character learn anything from remembering their past and comparing it to the present?

Essay Topic 2

This book takes place on a fictional island.

1) Were the events in the book indicative of actual historical events? Explain your answer.

2) Are there any recorded battles that took place on a similar island? .

Essay Topic 3

The men were inundated with fighting, illness, death, and injury while on the island. These events seem to cause each man to think about his own life and his own chances of leaving the island alive.

1) What are some of the superstitions held by the men on the island?

2) Do these superstitions serve as a type of foreshadowing?

3) Explain your answer by providing examples.

(see the answer keys)

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