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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. Who comes to the table to talk to Fowler while Pyle and Phuong are dancing?

2. What does Fowler do to see who will win Phuong?

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

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

5. What information does Fowler offer Pyle?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Fowler offers Pyle a drink of whiskey, how does the conversation go?

2. Why does Fowler want to answer Vigot's questions quickly and get out of his office?

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

4. What news does Bill Granger offer about the war in the North when the Economic Attache asks?

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

6. When Fowler moves out with a patrol getting out of the area of Phat Diem, who comes in the middle of the night? Why had he come?

7. What does Fowler see when he goes to Phat Diem?

8. What language does Pyle use that Fowler sees as boyish and naive?

9. What is the strange scene when Phuong comes in while Pyle is still there?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a paper expressing what you believe Vigot actually knew about Pyle's death and Fowler's involvement in it. Analyze the questions Vigot keeps on asking Fowler and how Fowler has to give his answers carefully so as not to implicate himself. Vigot's persistence indicates that he knows what Fowler did, does not even wish to prosecute Fowler, but simply wants to satisfy his curiosity. Does it seem, though, that Vigot expects Fowler to protect himself?

Essay Topic 2

Write your speculation as to what happened to Phuong and Fowler after the French pulled out of Vietnam. This is a creative writing piece. We know that the French left and the Americans entered the war officially. Fowler was probably more important to his paper than ever. People continued to live in Saigon as the war raged on. When the evacuation came, write your story about what becomes of Fowler and Phuong. Did they get out together? Did Fowler have to leave her there? Did they find a way to slip over into Thailand? Let your imagination run free as you write your extra ending.

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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