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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 what war did Lord Moran fight?

2. In the story at the beginning of Chapter 3, what percentage of soldiers questioned said they were certain they had killed even one enemy in combat?

3. What term does Grossman use in Chapter 6 to indicate the method one uses to kill in hand-to-hand-combat?

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

5. According to Chapter 4, warfare is the process of giving individuals the means for what?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What assertion regarding military psychiatrists does Grossman make at the end of Chapter 8?

3. What factors contribute to group absolution?

4. What options are open to soldiers in combat?

5. In Chapter 4, what philosophical and literary justifications for killing does Grossman cite?

6. What is punishment justification?

7. What are the primary components of Exhaustion as outlined in Chapter 3?

8. What is surprising about the study cited in Chapter 1 regarding what compels soldiers to shoot?

9. What is a crew-served weapon?

10. As described in Chapter 2, why are snipers given the cold shoulder in the military?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Perhaps the centerpiece of Grossman's research, the killing process, through which the author explains how a person chooses to kill and then processes the killing - or inability to kill - after, is the subject of most of the second half of the book. Write a three-part essay about this process:

Part 1) Begin the essay by discussing the steps in the killing process. Where does it begin and, ideally, how does a killer resolve the act and its emotional repercussions? Must a killer go through all of the steps in the process?

Part 2) Using the fallout of the Vietnam War as a model, discuss what happens when the latter steps of the process are stunted? What factors are key in allowing a killer to rationalize and accept that he has killed? How were these denied to Vietnam vets?

Part 3) At one point in ON KILLING, Dave Grossman applies the killing process to an entire culture, namely America after two wars of the twentieth century. Discuss the way America collectively processed killing after Hiroshima and the first Gulf War. How did this process affect American leadership?

Essay Topic 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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