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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 9.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Sontag compares the desire for images of people in pain to which other recurrent type of image?
(a) Images of love.
(b) Images of happiness.
(c) Images of nude bodies.
(d) Images of natural disasters.

2. Discussing the "co-spectatorship" and "indecency" of the image of the Vietcong suspect's execution, Sontag asserts which of the following?
(a) The presence of journalists was an invasion of the executed man's privacy.
(b) The photographer arranged the execution in advance.
(c) The shooting would not have occurred in the absence of journalists to record it.
(d) General Loan was unaware of the cameras at the time of the execution.

3. Sontag discusses another common belief regarding media coverage of an event, and suggested that it may seem to contradict the first common belief she addresses. What is this second idea?
(a) Limited exposure diminishes the impact the images have on an audience.
(b) Repeated images in the media exhaust our ability to prevent new atrocities.
(c) The media sensationalizes stories of atrocity.
(d) Overexposure to images in the media makes people callous.

4. Sontag argues that Goya's "The Disasters of War" was a turning point in the depiction of suffering. What does she cite as her reason?
(a) The subtlety of the portrayal of war.
(b) The starkness of Goya's craft.
(c) The detailed descriptions accompanying the work.
(d) The captions, challenging the viewer to look.

5. Neither compassion nor moral indignation would be enough to do which of the following?
(a) End violence.
(b) Stop suffering.
(c) Inspire change.
(d) Motivate action.

Short Answer Questions

1. Although Sontag is pessimistic about the broad effects of atrocity photographs, she did mention one positive outcome. What was it?

2. Sontag argues that we are most disappointed to discover that which type of photographs have been staged?

3. Which famous surrealist thinker does Sontag quote as saying "Beauty will be convulsive, or it will not be?"

4. Sontag discusses reactions to the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Which of the following is NOT a reaction Sontag recalls hearing?

5. Sontag argues that many people thought that which of the following makes war seem "real"?

(see the answer key)

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