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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 does Phuong want to see?

2. When things settle down at the House of the Five Hundred Girls, where do Pyle, Fowler and Phuong go?

3. What is Pyle's urgency to see Fowler?

4. How does Fowler see most of the men in the press corps?

5. What is Pyle trying to hide but everyone suspects anyway?

Short Essay Questions

1. What signifies a difference in dress between the South and the North of Vietnam?

2. What is it about Pyle that Fowler cannot put into his cable to his newspaper?

3. What did Fowler do to get Pyle out of the House of the Five Hundred Girls?

4. What happens when Pyle invites himself over for a drink?

5. Describe how the French manipulate the foreign press corps during the war.

6. The morning after Pyle's murder, what is Phuong's concern?

7. Why does it take Fowler three weeks to get back to Saigon?

8. How does Phuong take the news of Pyle's death?

9. What does Fowler take away from Pyle's apartment?

10. What is so annoying about the letter from Pyle that is waiting for Fowler when he finally gets home?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Granger typifies the concept of the ugly American. Write a paper explaining what that means and how Granger is a perfect example. To write this paper you must put yourself in the shoes of people from another culture. Americans abroad often adopt the attitude that because they enjoy so many freedoms at home, they should be treated deferentially abroad. Compare Granger's attitude toward not getting straight answers to Fowler's not even bothering to write a story he knows will not get past the censors.

Essay Topic 2

Fowler is stunned when Joe calls Pyle a war hero. Write a paper expressing your opinion about such a distortion of the truth. Does making it easier on the parents justify such misinformation? Pyle was not killed in a righteous battle. He was simply assassinated for getting involved in a matter that he did not understand. There was nothing noble about the way he died. Joe the Economic Attache is arguably a part of the intelligence machine operating in Vietnam. How would that explain his report on Pyle's death? What might the repercussions have been in America if the real truth were known?

Essay Topic 3

Young idealistic men often think of war as something glamorous. Using the descriptions in the book, write a paper about the horrors of war. To do this, use the description of the massacre at Phat Diem, the bomb explosion in Saigon, the ignoble assassination of Pyle, and Trouin's description of the use of napalm. Pyle comes to Vietnam, ignores the advice and observations of men who have been there for years, and idolizes York Harding. Show how this makes him idealistic and sure that he is invulnerable.

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