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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. Is Fowler listening closely to Pyle's ideas about war?

2. How does Pyle tell Fowler he got to Phat Diem?

3. What is the difference between Fowler and Pyle?

4. What does the Attache put in the wire to Pyle's parents?

5. How does Fowler get to the city of Phat Diem?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Fowler's reaction to the priest who offers to take his confession?

2. In a flashback, describe how Pyle meets Fowler and Phuong.

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

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

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

6. What new complication is Fowler struggling with besides the possibility of losing to Pyle?

7. What is the purpose for having Fowler and Phuong go to the Surete to see Vigot?

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

9. What is the superstition in Vietnam about lovers who smoke opium?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The beginning of what we call the Vietnam war was an effort on the part of Vietnamese Communists to overthrow French colonialism. Write a paper on your opinion about the Americans becoming involved after the French pulled out. The implication of Pyle's trying to set up a Third Force hints at a premeditated plan on the part of America to be ready to step in when the French pull out. Do you think that is what happened?

Essay Topic 2

Write an opinion paper on censorship of the press during a time of war. Do ordinary citizens need to know what is going on in the war? Do they have a right to know? The French were releasing only good news and censoring any reference to a defeat. What effect might it have had on the American public had they known what was really going on inside French Indochina? Is it possible that Americans would have told their leaders not to get them involved if they had known the full story? Discuss how censorship is a way of controlling the minds of people.

Essay Topic 3

Considering everything you know about Phuong, write a paper with your opinion about whether or not she actually loves Fowler. In order to write this paper you will need to understand the dynamics of survival in a country that is impoverished by war. The idea of this paper is to address survival without the moral judgments of the western world.

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