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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. In Chapter 2, what tactic does Grossman describe as key to training soldiers to fire in combat?

2. According to Grossman in Chapter 3, what is the immediate reaction to killing from a soldier?

3. In what war did Lord Moran fight?

4. Which of the following is not an option for a soldier in combat that Grossman lists in Chapter 1?

5. In the mythology cited at the end of Chapter 7, who is born of the marriage of Aries and Aphrodite?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the Vietnam story of Chapter 4.

2. In Chapter 7, what comparison does Grossman draw between firing a gun and masturbation?

3. At the beginning of the book, what personal prejudices does Grossman admit to?

4. What societal and moral tenets cause guilt in an individual who has killed in a war?

5. What options are open to soldiers in combat?

6. Describe the Lost Battalion's experience behind lines.

7. As discussed in Chapter 3, what is the emotional advantage of hand grenades?

8. What does Grossman reveal to be the most shocking element of crimes in the beginning of Chapter 5?

9. What is punishment justification?

10. How does Grossman use his distance-guilt corollary to explain the oppression of the poor in Chapter 1?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the first half of the book, Grossman discusses the gap in psychiatric casualties between combatants and noncombatants. Write an essay about this gap. What did the military predict regarding psychiatric casualties among the civilian population affected by bombing in World War II? Why does Grossman expect that these estimates proved to be wrong? Why did psychiatric casualties prove higher among civilians in concentration camps? What does all of this say about proximity and killing as factors in psychiatric casualties?

Essay Topic 2

Much of the book is dedicated to the vast majority of soldiers that are naturally resistant to killing, but Grossman indicates that a small number of soldiers feel no remorse after killing. Write an essay about these natural warriors. What do they all have in common? How are their lives generally similar, and how do they interact with less aggressive combatants around them? What separates a natural warrior from a psychopath?

Essay Topic 3

In the first sections of ON KILLING, Dave Grossman discusses how a myriad of causes are often cited for causing psychiatric casualties in combat. He goes through them an refutes all by the trauma of killing. Write a three part essay in which you discuss the argument for and against several of these potential causes. What effect does each cause have on a soldier in combat? How has this manifested itself in the field? What argument does Grossman use to refute the assertion that it is the primary cause of psychiatric casualties?

Part 1) Exhaustion.

Part 2) Fear.

Part 3) Hate.

(see the answer keys)

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