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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. To what dystopian novel does Grossman compare military conditioning in Chapter 2?

2. According to Grossman in Chapter 3, what does the army use in rifle training?

3. According to Grossman in Chapter 2, what do POW executions do to an enemy?

4. In what country did the case-study of Chapter 4 take place?

5. In Chapter 5, to what group did the German defector interviewed switch?

Short Essay Questions

1. As described in Chapter 2, how do children progress through increasingly violent entertainment?

2. What factors traditionally assist in rationalization and acceptance after combat?

3. In Chapter 5, how does Grossman illustrate the danger of refusing to take part in an atrocity?

4. How does Grossman apply the killing process to the national mood in Chapter 2?

5. What examples from Chapter 6 illustrate a problematic relationship with women in the military?

6. What warning about video games does Grossman make at the end of Chapter 3?

7. According to Grossman, why do young people idolize entertainment figures more than police and politicians?

8. What is the Weinberger Doctrine?

9. What separates a natural warrior from a psychopath?

10. What changes have occurred in recent years to mitigate the psychiatric casualties of Vietnam?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

At one point in ON KILLING, Grossman discusses the three external concerns that affect a combatant's choice to kill. Write an essay analyzing these three concerns. W hat is the essence of each factor? What gives it its power over the potential killer? How effective is it in catalyzing the killing and in mitigating the guilt that follows? Cite an example of this type of factor that is used in the book.

Part 1) Voice of Authority

Part 2) Group Absolution

Part 3) Attractiveness of the Target

Essay Topic 2

At one point in ON KILLING, Grossman describes the roots of fear and group bonding that can lead to an atrocity like the My Lai massacre. Write a three-part essay on the factors that lead to an atrocity in war, using My Lai as a framing device:

Part 1) How does fear of an unseen enemy make atrocities more likely in war? Discuss the way in which this creates emotional distance between noncombatants and soldiers. How does a catalyzing event, like an attack on the unit, further increase the likelihood of this sort of atrocity?

Part 2) What form of empowerment is felt in an atrocity? Discuss how the active and powerful decision to kill those whom one suspects of complicity in suffering can empower a soldier. What sort of possible catharsis can occur as a result?

Part 3) Discuss the group cohesion that can occur as a result of an atrocity? How does killing unarmed noncombatants bond a group of soldiers together? Conversely, discuss how the decision not to take part in an atrocity becomes dangerous as a result of this cohesion.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay about the urge not to kill over the course of history. What evidence does Grossman provide that soldiers going back to the American Civil War have chosen not to kill even in the face of death by enemy fire? What tactics did these soldiers use to avoid killing? At what point in the history of the American military did the non-firing problem become readily apparent? How did the military react to this?

(see the answer keys)

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